I have heard a lot about save the date cards and wondered how many people used them?

are they good to send or not? is it more for day guests than evening?

I have read somewhere that they should be sent out about 12 months before.

Any advice or experiences are are welcome :)

We announced our engagement two months ago and getting married in Jan 2010 so a year in advance would be impossible.

Do what you want - don't bother buying the tack magazines of glossy hell with "telling you what to do" sections. We've not sent our invites yet due to not deciding on a wedding reception location (please no one else PM me offering wedding services) and it seems pointless sending out two invites. Our friends and family will make the time to come whether we invite them two months in advance or two years in advance.

We are going to send out postcards with the details written on the back, once we have established the final details.

Don't be pressured into the wedding tack from hell "follow this regime or you wedding will be a nightmare". I know I am an event manager so being organsied is my job however do things at your own pace.

(Sorry rant over - I'm get really annoyed with the whole wedding process of tack I feel like I've been forces into and I'm rebelling and the fact that it is big business of billions of pounds and the whole reason why people get married in the first place has been lost.)

We announced our engagement two months ago and getting married in Jan 2010 so a year in advance would be impossible.

Do what you want - don't bother buying the tack magazines of glossy hell with "telling you what to do" sections. We've not sent our invites yet due to not deciding on a wedding reception location (please no one else PM me offering wedding services) and it seems pointless sending out two invites. Our friends and family will make the time to come whether we invite them two months in advance or two years in advance.

We are going to send out postcards with the details written on the back, once we have established the final details.

Don't be pressured into the wedding tack from hell "follow this regime or you wedding will be a nightmare". I know I am an event manager so being organsied is my job however do things at your own pace.

(Sorry rant over - I'm get really annoyed with the whole wedding process of tack I feel like I've been forces into and I'm rebelling and the fact that it is big business of billions of pounds and the whole reason why people get married in the first place has been lost.)

:hihi::hihi::hihi: i totally agree with the tack you talk about. I have been to wedding shows but only cause i won the tickets would never pay to get in! I also am using the net for everything research wise as not only need to save every penny but would not pay the prices for the glossy magazines as they are just full of adverts!

I have an aunt who works in print dept who will print the cards and a fellow forummer is designing my invites so basically all it would cost is the stamps and evelopes. I had never heard of them before but a few folk have said they are a good idea.

Thanks for your reply:D

If you know somebody has to book their work holidays months in advance, then yes, they'll need to know your date as early as you can let them know, but otherwise I'd say this is just another american import courtesy of the greeting card companies ;)

Just send your invites out like always used to happen :thumbsup:

BTW - we chucked out one heck of a lot of nonsense from our wedding :D Mind you, we took the whole thing apart and put it all back together the way WE wanted it :P eg - we dropped the church but had the minister come to the hotel to marry us - saving faffing with wedding cars (and who goes in them :rolleyes: ), and being rained on between venues :D

We used save the dates about a year in advance, it makes sure (you'd think) that people don't book holidays that clash as invites aren't normally sent out until 3 months in advance.

I'm getting married next year and I have no intention of sending save the date cards.

I sell wedding stationery so I should probably be telling you to send them but I just don't think it is necessary most of the time. As mentioned above if you know someone who has to book holidays far in advance then maybe send them one. Or perhaps for guests coming out of town or from another country because they will need to make travel and accommodation arrangements. But I think for other guests they aren't really needed.

We did send save the date cards but only because we were getting married over the August bank holiday weekend and we had a number of people travelling up from London.

We did however go without other "traditional" things eg top table & seating plan (we had a buffet and let everyone sit where they liked even though this did lead to Kevin and I not having a seat!), gift list (we said we didn't need anything but if people did want to give us something then Euros for the honeymoon would be good) and we made our own thank-you cards by sticking a photo from the honeymoon on a plain card.

'wedding tack' lol I like that one, I also refer to tack as wedding naff-ness.

I think that save the date cards can work, but I don't see the point of them personally

Its all tack if you ask me but I am the most cynical bride to be ever given I organise events and have seen EVERYTHING you can ever imagine.. *gulps* I got a save the date card through the post THREE YEARS in advance a few weeks ago. I told them to send me one closer to the time.

She wasn't impressed that I wasn't going to commit three years in advance so she could sort out her numbers.

we sent save the date cards but only because our wedding was at the beginning of kids summer holidays and didn't want people to miss i due to being on hoilday we sent them 7 months in advance, we made our own by printing on business cards and sent them out with christmas cards (our wedding was july)

Why would a save the date expect any commitment, it's not an invite, it's just a heads up...
Of course if you can't commit to something in advance it implies that you think something more important might come up before then.

StD's don't need to be expensive, they can just be a small letter/card with some brief details and a date on it.

I agree, I got personalised ones from eBay that were fridge magnets and it cost me about £20 for 100, so I thought that was pretty reasonable.

well i think i will send them to people who live far away and the rest can just wait for an invite. I only need to pay for stamps so its not a fortune :)

thanks for all the responses.x.x.x.

Its all tack if you ask me but I am the most cynical bride to be ever given I organise events and have seen EVERYTHING you can ever imagine.. *gulps* I got a save the date card through the post THREE YEARS in advance a few weeks ago. I told them to send me one closer to the time.

She wasn't impressed that I wasn't going to commit three years in advance so she could sort out her numbers.

not at all, I am a wedding planner as well and I have seen some bizarre things - I have not encountered the 3 year in advance save the date cards, well not yet anyway.

I didn't use them, partly because I'm not very organised and didn't send the actual invitations out until about a month before (incidentally, everyone we invited was able to make it even at short notice).

The main reason though, was that one of the "do it this way or you'll be cursed" websites I looked at regarding wedding etiquette stated that you should only send them to people who will be getting a "full" invite to the whole day. As we had a tiny ceremony of only 16 (who were all involved in the planning and execution in one way or another) but had a huge evening party, it didn't seem necessary.

i sent them 20 months in advance to friends and family. OUr wedding is Aug next year, but I wnated to make sure people knew when it was, they wouldnt book holidays and also its a nice souvenir! we ordered fridge magnets from Vista Print, personalised them and put a photo of the venue on. my wedidng is that far away i wanted to do something lol!

I agree with the whole wedding tackiness business, I also ordered the firdge magnets. My reasoning was that the majority of people would be having to travel to get to Sheffield so wanted to ensure they had plenty of time to book time off work and book their hotel room at the venue!