04 Jan Common Mistakes Couples Make with Their Save-the-Date Cards
In today’s busy world save-the-date cards are increasingly popular piece of wedding stationary. Not only doing they formally announce the wedding to your invited guests, but they’re an important reminder of the wedding date. Done correctly, they can be a vital part of ensuring that all of your loved ones are present on your wedding day. It is, however, surprisingly easy to make big blunders with this humble piece of wedding stationary. If you’re looking to read up on the etiquette and avoid a faux pas, read our tips here.
Sending them out too late
As a general guide, save the date cards should be sent about six months before the wedding. If you’re sending later than that, you’re risking your guests RSVPing no. Guests need time to set aside the date, with six months advance notice they can set aside the date and make the appropriate arrangements. If you’re giving them less time than that there a lot that can go wrong. Some guests may have already booked holidays for example, or all the hotels might be booked out close to your venue.
If you’re having a destination wedding it is especially important to send out your announcements early. Destination weddings can be considerably costly for wedding guests to attend and they will need additional notice to save their money and make bookings to attend.
Sending your date announcements out too late can be considered quite rude by your guests. It can also just be simply irrelevant, if you are sending announcements later than six months then it is probably time to send the invitations instead!
Sending them out too early
It is equally problematic to send your save-the-date cards out too early. If you’re sending earlier than six to eight months, there’s a higher likelihood that your guests will forget your date. If received too early, you run the risks that guests will not set the date aside or double book themselves. Premature save-the-dates can also cause planning problems.
If you’re sending early there’s a higher likelihood you have yet to lock down all the details of your wedding – you might find that you need to whittle down your guest list or change venues at a later date.
Sending a save-the-date card implies and invitation, if you have to later backtrack and do not follow up with a wedding invitation you’re probably going to burn bridges with your guests. It is considered to be very bad manners to uninvite a guest and not to follow up with an invite will appear very rude.
If you need to revise your venue, sending out amended save-the-date cards can add a considerable cost to your wedding budget that could have been avoided and risks confusing your guests.
Making the wrong choice of style
Save-the-date cards come in many different forms. Traditional stationary printed on card is a popular choice, but can be pricey to send out, especially for large guest lists. There are many less formal choices on the market, including cute whimsical ideas like magnets, confetti bags or e-vites. The worst thing a couple can do is make the wrong choice for them and their needs based on the expectation of others. If you have a very traditional family or many older guests who might not have email, then snail-mail might the way to go. If you’re looking for something cost effective, then there are thousands of great designs and templates online that can be sent at the push of a button. There are many more options in between to suit all budgets and every couple.
So if your special day is on the horizon be sure to read through these save-the-date card mishaps so that you don’t make the same mistake.