Save The Date Cards – What Are They Actually For?

Save the date cards are the more recent rendition of the endless phone calls your mother would have made to the likes of Aunt Dot to allow ample warning that their usual bowls or bingo meet on the particular Saturday on which you’ll marry will now belong to you.

They do one of two things:

Let people know you’re getting married and that they’re invited
Let them know to set aside the date you have planned for the wedding

It also buys you time to get everything else in order before sending out wedding invitations.

Save the dates are particularly necessary if you’re marrying at a popular time of year when everyone is either going on holiday or when they may make family commitments.

Are they actually necessary?

That’s entirely up to you. If your wedding is small and all your guests are in close enough proximity that you merely have to send a couple of emails and you’re sorted, then no, you don’t need them.

But if you want to make the lives of your guests as easy as possible (and yours) and you really want them to save the date, then yes, you should send them. Particularly if your guests are scattered around the country, or in other countries.

The ins and outs of save the date cards:

Keep it simple – keep the specially designed, engraved creativity for the invitations, these are merely a ‘hook’ on which people will be able to hang a wedding, they’re not for framing (a simple postcard type save the date is easily doable on your computer); you could even do them as an sms – up to you
Say as little as possible – your names, the wedding date, and the location
Mention that an invitation will follow or some people will assume the save the date is the invitation
Send it around six months before the wedding – but again, when you send it is entirely up to you
Be clear – you can already decide to use ‘guest and one’, or just ‘guest’ on the envelope or addressee section as you’ll want to spell out if it’s your intended guest alone you wish to invite, or whether she can bring a significant other along