Difference Between STD and Wedding Invites?

A Save the Date is something you send 6-8 months before the wedding so that people can mark it on their calendars. A formal invitation is sent 6-8 WEEKS before the wedding. It formally invites your guests and contains the RSVP card (if you use one). Rule: do not send STDs to anyone who won't absolutely be invited. An STD basically says "You should expect an invitation in a few months". A lot of people also include website information on their save the dates.

Oh! I didnt think about putting our website on them. Thank you!

A save the date is to save the date of your wedding, the invite is the actual invitation stating location, time and rsvp info and all that...

They are particularly useful if you have a tricky date where people might make other plans (long weekend, near a holiday, etc) or if you have a lot of guests who will need to travel. You can give everyone a heads up without feeling like you need to provide all the details at that time.

It can feel silly though. I just sent my invitations out. I did so already knowing a lot of definite yeses and nos so it felt like wasted paper, but at the same time my guests seemed to really like getting the formal invitations.

People have answered above the difference, but some additional thoughts:

I sent STD's 8 months before. I sent STD's because we had many out of town guests that would need to make travel arrangements. I just simply had the date, city we were getting married in and link to wedding website. You don't need venue, time, anything like that yet.

Make sure if you put your website on STD it is updated. If you have venue, put it on there but no need to put ceremony start times yet, most people don't have that set in stone yet

Be sure to have your block of hotels reserved and info on your site before sending STD's. Many guests will log on to find accommodations so they can make them before they forget. Some won't, but some will! \

As you get closer to the wedding, be sure to update with times/locations/other guest info. Don't put website address on invite, but many guests will refer to your STD and go back to the site when they get the invite.

This is a way different topic than I thought when I read the title.

@Kat lol STD = Save the Dates

Just cracked up at @Kat's comment. I think that ALL the time with STD abbreviation.

I thought the same thing when i first got on this website!