Are Save the Date Cards necessary???

I personally didn't send save the dates actually as you said word of mouth is a great way to do it especially if you are like I was, talking about your wedding all the time. We also didnt send them out because we didnt have a huge wedding about 65-70 guest and that was one less thing to have to pay for, but I do say if your having a big wedding then it might be a good idea to send them out only so guest that you dont talk to in a daily will remember, and you can always DIY save the dates cards.

It is never necessary to send save the dates. We sent them out though and we sent them to everyone on our A list. We are having over 200 guests and more than half of them are out of town. I know they would hear it by word of mouth but I wanted them to be able to see my website which shows them the accommodations and things to do in the area. If you do decide to get save the dates you don't have to send them to everyone. I am sure everyone at work knows when you wedding is. You could just send them to out of town guests and the people you are sure you are inviting. But again, not necessary I just find them very cute and fun.

I opted not to send save the dates, we are not travelling anywhere to get married. and a majority of our guests are from town, the one that are travelling, are all living in the province, so we saved our selves the cash and P.I.A of the S.T.D's, our guest list has also changed a million times, Our A list people are the people invited to the ceremony and reception, the B list people are people who are invited to just the dance after the supper, they all live in town. We can't afford and we don't have the space to invite everyone to everything.

No they're not necessary unless your wedding is during a holiday, you have a lot of out of town guests or it's a destination wedding. I sent them out because I'm getting married the day after New Year's and we have a lot of friends/family from out of town. They are just cute little reminders. I got mine real cheap from Zazzle.com. You can send them to just the out of town guests, But DO NOT send them out to anyone unless you're 100% sure you're going to invite them.

http://www.zazzle.com/wedding+gifts

Save the dates don't have to be printed, I sent mine by email and told others in person. They really are most important for those who have to travel. Whatever you do though, DO NOT send a STD to someone you may decide later to not invite, and don't verbally invite anyone you're uncertain of. If they get a STD (paper, email, or verbal) they get an invite. If you already have an A and B list, send STDs just to the A list. The B-listers can wait until you mail the invites 6-8 weeks before the wedding. In fact you may want to keep quiet about your plans at work until you are ready to send invites, so people don't assume they're invited. Be careful, workplace invites can be problematic!

I didn't send them out. I am planning my wedding in about 5 months so I just didn't have the time. I instead passed the word around and sent out my invitations at the 3 month mark rather than the 8 week mark so people who were coming from out of town could make arrangements.

What about a Save-the-Date video that you can post on youtube.com. You can hire a professional videographer or just do it yourself. Find a friend who has a video camera and have some fun with it. Check out the ones that are on youtube.com.

As the other ladies stated you don't have to send out save the dates. Although you don't have to send them out, there are several situations that it would be nice if you did. Like if you are having a destination wedding, have lots of out of town guests, or are having your wedding on a holiday weekend. In these instances giving your guests time to plan and pay for the trip (or just not to make other plans for the holiday) is helpful. But word of mouth works too!

As far as who to send them to, I opted to send them to my entire invite list. Originally I was only going to send them to the out of town guests but just decided to send them to everyone since my wedding is on the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend. Also as some others stated, send them to only those you are sure you are inviting. Like your A list.

I DIDNT SEND ANY, PLUS I ONLY HAD 3 AND A HALF MONTHS TO PLAN. ALL OF OUR GUEST ARE LOCAL. THEY SEEMED NICE BUT LIKE A COUPLE OF LADIES MENTIONED JUST ANOTHER EXPENSE AND NOT THAT NECESSARY.

Send out Save the Dates to guests you are going to invite. If you have out of town guests, it is better to send it to them so that way they can mark the date on their calendars early. Also, Save-the-Dates can work to your advantage on who you do not want to come to your wedding.

In Example: say that you are in an interracial relationship, and there is drama with certain family members because of it. You can discover these issues when the Save the Dates are sent out, before they receive the invitation with the wedding's address. You don't want any negativity on your day, so the Save the Dates keep those whom you don't want from knowing the wedding's location.

Finally, save the dates are not just about the date. You can also put other information like your registries, etc.

Honestly.. I have a bunch of people coming from out of state but we have already told all of them when we're getting married so there's no real point in Save-the-dates. If you want to send them out but don't want to spend the $ I would follow PP and just do something electronic.

Haha our only problem is now word of mouth may be spreading TOO much and people who weren't invited are finding out details.

Meg, If your send out your invites, you really shouldn't need both. at the cost of stamps these days and extra printing. Save the money for something else.

This is kind of funny I was just asking my wedding planner how hard save the dates would be as magnets. She said costly and than you have to pay for postage. So between me, mom, chris and his mom we can all tell everyone and to mark it on there calendars. And our guest list has changed so many times already. I'm not inviting everyone I'm telling. So I just share what the wedding plans are so far.