Save the Dates Necessary?

Save the dates aren’t necessary but are helpful if you have a lot of out of town guests. They don’t do the same purpose as the save the date doesn’t actually give you any information beyond the date and town and doesn’t require a response. Save the dates go out 6-8 months before the wedding and invites go out 6-8 weeks before.

View Quoted Comment Thanks Kelly! I guess I’m way ahead on the invite timeline. Lol.

STD are good if you have a lot of guests or out of town ones. Many people need advanced notice to take time off for weddings and the save the dates are a heads up to plan accordingly. You can send save the dates out 12-6 months in advanced.
Invitations are the formal invite to the event with the RSVP card and detailed information. They go out closer to the date.

View Quoted Comment I see. It might be something to consider then. Our wedding will be on the smaller side. No more than 70 guests. About 80% are in town and a few family members out of state

Yea I got 65 people. A lot of my fiance's family travel for work and had to already reorganize a business trip for the wedding so we're doing save the dates a bit earlier over it. At our size wedding we could easily call people instead of papers in the mail.
I got a deal on some cute magnet STDs on Shutterfly so I went for it.

Save-the-Dates are not necessary for every wedding. I'm getting married in April 2020 as well, we just had our engagement pictures done so I am currently working on addressing our save the dates. However, unlike your wedding, we have a much larger guest list and a lot of them are not in state, especially since a bunch of my family just moved. We will be sending ours out in late August

I only did invitations which I sent out about 8-10 weeks before the wedding. Save the dates are a waste of money in my opinion.

Thanks for the input ladies! I might consider to just skip the save the dates

Only if you want them to be. I think for some people they are good because it gives them ample time to get off work and get travel plans set. For us we'd rather use that money on something else. I created a Facebook event page that is serving as our "save the date" announcement.

It doesn't sound necessary for you. They are generally sent out 10-12 months in advance for people who are having their wedding on a holiday (Memorial weekend, 4th of July, Thanksgiving weekend, etc.) so people will know before they make their holiday plans. They are also to warn people who have to make travel plans, so they can save money, book flights, book hotels, etc.

No necessary. It's entirely up to you.
We are sending them to close friends and family and out of town guests. But I dont know that we will send them to all guests.

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Fabulous idea on the Facebook event page!

Thank you guys so much! I was really going back and forth on it because I wasn't sure of the custom. Thanks for completely putting me at ease!

While not absolutely necessary, save the dates may be useful during prolonged engagements or destination weddings.

We sent our save the dates 11 months in advance for a few reasons: our wedding is 3 weeks before Christmas, over half of our guest list would be traveling, and I have military family members.

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It's been a big hit! I was able to start a post asking about food allergies so I don't kill anyone LOL so far no replies. Everyone seems to love me keeping them up to date on the planning.

I only sent save the dates because my wedding is on a Sunday.

We have an a-list and b-list for invites, so we will be sending ours out 6 mos in advance to be able to send out our 2nd round soon after.

We didn't have to do save the dates, as most of our guests are local. However, we got an engagement photo shoot and free STDs with our wedding photography package. When I found that out, I decided that it would be fun to do them. We do have to pay for the postage, of course, but it's not that many.

No. They aren’t necessary… but in certain cases, they’re helpful. For example, if you’re going to have a DW and guests need to prepare for travel arrangements or your wedding is over a holiday. Otherwise sending an invitation early enough is sufficient.

I sent them because we had a lot of out of state guests. I always appreciate getting a save the date in advance so we can plan!