Are save the dates necessary?

We sent save the dates to give our guests the best possible chance of making necessary arrangements and so on to be there (we also got married during the August long weekend). They didn't cost that much (got them from Vistaprint on sale), and it was good to have that peace of mind of giving our guests a "heads up" that our wedding was coming up.

It’s really up to you since they’re more of a cost difference than anything. We did it because we got them on the vistaprint 60% off sale. We sent ours around 1 year before just because we’re extra but anytime before 6 months is generally the usual time.

We’re skipping out on save the dates, as we feel it would an unnecessary cost. We’ll be sending out invitations earlier though, about 7 months prior. We booked our wedding for Summer 2021 as well, and have just been telling family by word of mouth so far. That being said, we will only have a couple of out of province guests attending, so that factors into the decision.

We made Save the Dates, sending 7 months in advance to local guests, 9 months in advance to overseas guests

I did save the dates from a pictures i took added text with mailing and printing at a store for 60 of them it was around $80. But if i hadn't done this myself i wouldn't have done them.

It really is a personal preference. My FH and I are on a budget so we are trying to cut costs where we can. One of these would be the Save the Date magnets/cards/coasters etc. They are all cute and a wonderful idea if you have it in your budget. But this was something I didn’t think was necessary. All the important people (family, friends etc ) know when our wedding will be so for us we didn’t think we needed to waste time or money.

We are not doing save the dates.


On the invite i wrote to contact myself with my phone number to rsvp by certain date.
If they do not I will simply call them, and they can keep our invite to remember the details 🤷‍♀️

My friend did her save the dates by email along with an address collection form. Also included an engagement picture of theirs.
I thought that was pretty smart & cute.

We are doing Save The Dates using an online website - there’s lots of free ones! I don’t know about you but anywhere I can save, I am. We are going to send invitations about 6 months before - I know lots of people say 6-8 weeks is common, but I would stress too much doing it in that time frame!

We only did save the dates for our of town guests

If you need to do save the dates I would consider doing them digitally.


Plus all the important people will know the date as you gush about planning to your friends/aunts/co-workers.

We got engaged in December 2018 - Wedding date set for July 11, 2020. I sent Save the Dates out at the 1 year mark. Invitations will come at the 6 month mark. They are entirely not necessary. In fact, 97% of weddings I have attended do not bother with them. They are an extra cost that is not required for any purpose. We only did them as we have family and friends from pretty much every province across Canada as well as some in the states. Makes it easier for those travelling to start planning and be prepared ahead of time.

We aren't doing save the dates thru the mail. We might make a Facebook post and make sure older family that aren't on it are informed of the wedding so they know to look for an invitation

I like the idea of save the dates because it gives people a heads up we’ll in advance. Invitations usually don’t go out until something like 6-8 weeks before the wedding.


We are doing save the dates mainly because we’ve had a long engagement (3 years) so I think people forgot we were even getting married lol

We did save the dates for all of our guests because we’re having a summer wedding and wanted to give people as much notice as possible so they can attend the wedding!


I would suggest sending them less than a year before the wedding. Lots of my guests didn’t read the save the date and assumed the wedding was this year and sent their regrets on “missing” the wedding.
Guests who’ve never seen a save the date thought it was the invite and kept asking for ceremony and reception details.
I’d send it 11-10 months out to avoid guest confusion.

A save the date is a nice way to give your guests a heads up. We did a video on one of the apps I had on my phone (who knew?) and sent them via whatsapp and text mssg.
For those that weren’t so savvy - sent the video via email. Received so many compliments. No cost and to this day I still look at the video and smile.
End of the day - whatever you and your fiancé decide.

View quoted message I also sent my save the dates through email format. I used a website called PaperlessPost, they have so many free options on there.


If your really good with design, you can even create your own save the date and upload it to the website.
As for when you should send the save the dates, I would say maybe 1 year in advance at the most, this gives out of town guest enough time to book time off for your wedding.

We sent save the dates via e-mail

it gives your guests a heads up and it saves you money!

My FH and I are getting married in August 2020 and we just ordered our Save the Dates. We decided to do Save the Dates since we have lots of out of town and out of country guests, so we want to give them advance notice...and show off our new engagement pictures Plus, because we don't have every detailed figured out with our venue yet, the STDs are a nice way to give our guests a heads up about the date and city of the wedding, as well as a link to our wedding website to keep them posted, without a commitment of having to give a specific start time yet. Plus, by linking the wedding website to our STDs, guests who know in advance that they will be unable to attend can RSVP there. Thus, this could save us money when it comes to sending the official invites (6-4 months in advance) because we could have an idea of some people who are already unable to attend. Ultimately it is your decision based on budget, location of your guests, etc. We got our Save the Dates ordered for about $40 through a great sale on Vista Print but I have also seen couples choose to do electronic Save the Dates, which is an even more cost-effective way to send the heads up

We did save the dates just because we had some people that would have to travel a really long distance, so we wanted to give them plenty of time to plan so that they could make it. I did them myself though so there was no extra cost and just sent them by email.

We only did save the dates for out of town guests.

We weren't going to do save the dates, until i got my engagement photos and loved them. I went with a photo template on zazzle and made only for direct family and friends not all guests for fun.

This decision is yours to make if you feel the cost is something you will want to incur.

Save the Dates are to let your guests know to keep the day open and free to make arrangements for that time frame when ready and get travel documents taken care ahead of time. Email your family and friends instead and let them know that way.

Skipping the Save the Date will save the extra cost and the invitations sent will have all the information provided to your guests with the RSVP deadline.

Most of my cousins along as myself did main invitations. One cousin did Save the Date.

Honestly you can do whatever you want. no one HAS to send save the dates. if your budget doesnt allow them skip it. people lose them anyways!

Nope.

We sent online save the dates to out of province and out of country guests to give them a heads up so they could make travel arrangements. They were free to send via Paperless Post.

Definitely do Save the Dates if you have lots of out-of-town guests (sent a year to 8 months before) and then invitations 4 or so months before.

If you don't do Save the Dates, I'd send invites 6 months before.

My FH and I have fairly long engagement (2 years) and we just ordered our STDs to send them out in a month or two. We wanted to wait until we A) got our engagement photos done to use one and B) have more information from our venue so we can direct our guests to our wedding website to book their accommodations, etc. We wanted to get them out around the 1-year to 8-month range since we'll have a few out of town guests who could benefit from lots of notice and also just want to get people off our backs about asking when the date is lol. Our invitations will then go out in the spring around the 6 to 4-month range since our venue wants people to book their rooms 2 months in advance.

Usually Save the dates go out if either you have guests that will be coming from out of province or further and/or you have the date set but are far off from the wedding date. For you I would send them out no later than just after the 1 year mark and then depending on how you send the invitations you could send them out at different times.

If you plan on having 2 waves of invitations then the first round can go out at the 5 month mark with RSVP's to be in by the 3rd month mark. Then the second wave goes out at that 3 month mark with a RSVP deadline of the 1 month mark.

If just one set of invitations I would wait till the 4 month mark and get them in by the 2 month mark.

Save the Dates are not required by etiquette, they're just an added bonus if you want to do them. It's really completely up to you what you want to do.