Save the Date

Also I have seen some people not send a postcard/magnet to everyone. I have received some save the dates by internet via invite to a wedding site, facebook, email and those that are not tech savvy I see an actual postcard/magnet being sent. What is the proper way?

Save the Dates are a fairly new thing in the wedding world. For a destination wedding, 12-9 months out is a good idea. In your case, I would try to do it a year ahead of time. You can also spread information by word of mouth before that so that people who really like to plan ahead or want to make it a vacation have plenty of time!
Sending an actual card, postcard, magnet, or other physical item in the mail is more formal than an electronic option. Electronic Save the Dates are more cost effective, though. It’s really up to you. You know your guests better than anyone!
I personally prefer physical ones because I tend to open an email once and forget about it while I hang up physical STDs where I can see them. Either way, it’s a good idea to include a link to your wedding website if you have one so guests can easily access information for your wedding such as accommodation recommendations, airport information, etc.

Save the dates are sent out to everyone roughly 8 months ahead. Invites go out 6-8 weeks. Anyone who receives a save the date must also receive an invite. A magnet would be less likely to get lost and you can design them inexpensively on Vistaprint.


On the save the date, include your names, date, location (just the city and state are fine) and a link to your website.

For a destination wedding in 7 mos, I would send out save the dates ASAP!! Popular vacation areas fill up quickly & you want to give your guests as much notice as possible. I would definitely include your website info so they can make travel arrangements soon!

I would go ahead and send you rSTDs now or as soon as you can. That would be a great idea to add the link to your wedding website then everyone who is tech savy could stay up to date by checking your website.

If we followed our Planning book we were supposed to send our STD by Christmas for our October destination wedding (also the states). We opted to wait till after the Holidays and finalizing our venue location. We procrastinated, then Covid came.... but we still sent our STDs in late March for October. And it too is a popular location. To save money, we opted for postcards because people really aren't going to keep our memorabilia like we are.

Our wedding venue / resort has a minimum of 8 rooms held for us (we've invited 50) and without guarantee (So we're not financially responsible if we don't meet the room count). And we choose the minimum amount of rooms because our resort is higher priced we assumed only our family would choose to stay there.

It looks like you're not getting married until 2022? If that's the case, I wouldn't send them more than 8 months in advance. Anything longer than that people are going to forget and overlook the postcard / card / magnet on their refrigerator. Just my opinion.... The day is HUGE for us, but not really so much for the people we invite.

View Quoted Comment

It appears that the wedding date of July 4, 2022 didn't post to this inquiry, hence my confusion on some of the replies. I so apologizes. the Feb 2021 was the date I was leaning toward to send out the save the date, since those that may want a beach house could do some research, save up the deposit and book the place on July 2021, since some place go fast and you can only start reserving them a year in advance.