Save the dates

It allows your guests to appropriately plan for your event.
This means taking time off of work, booking flights/ hotels/ rental cars, getting pet or baby sitters, shopping for that new outfit 😝

If if you are doing a "destination wedding"- anything that is 3+hrs each way away, another country or state that people have to travel too are destination weddings- it is customary to send out sooner than a local wedding.

We we are getting married 500 miles from where we live( in Virginia, marry in Upstate NY) and, while some family lives near the area( special bc we had our first- blind- date there!) most do not and will have to travel. All friends live in VA....

I'm with FH on this expense.

We did them because almost every single guest had to travel to our wedding. We wanted them to be able to start making plans.

I originally thought they were pointless, but the more I mulled it over, the more I thought it'd be a good idea to do them. We do have a decent number of guests coming from out of town, and we picked what will probably be the most popular date of 2020. So we decided it would be a good idea to give people as much of an advance notice as possible.

I agree with everything above, and sent mine 10 months out. My fiancé didn’t like the idea so his side didn’t get them. As the RSVPs are coming in, there seems to be no correlation between ppl who received or didn’t receive a save the date saying yes or declining our invitation. So just do what you think is best.

I'm using them because the vast majority of our guests need to travel from other cities and a good number from out of state. Plus we did cute magnets so people can remember it's coming up and make sure they make their plans/don't schedule anything else. It just feels like a more coordinated way to tell everyone the date versus calling everyone.

We did them! Like PPs have said, it gives guests time to make plans to come to your wedding. Our wedding is 2 1/2 hours away from my hometown & 1 1/2 hours away from our current town so I wanted to give guests a good amount of time to make hotel reservations, etc. It’s, also, a good way to showcase an engagement picture as a lot of people use an engagement picture on their Save the Date.

My fiancé and I have had a similar debate - he doesn’t see the point (he actually didn’t know they were a thing until I mentioned them lol) but I would like to send them out.
My main reasoning is that a good chunk of my family will be traveling from out of state and my cousin is getting married two months earlier, so I do want to give them advance notice so they can plan if they decide to also come out for my wedding after hers. We are also getting married in June, which is of course prime wedding season and it’s also kind of at the tail end of graduation season. I’d like to let our guests know more than just two/three months in advance (when we’d be sending out invites) so that they can plan accordingly.
But I also can understand not wanting to send them out! Every couple/wedding is different!
My cousin actually sent her Save the Dates through email/FB messenger as a Google Form to collect people’s addresses for invites later so it didn’t cost them anything to send save the dates.

We are using them because most of our guests will have to travel and it gives them time to figure out travel plans. My FH's family is from out of state so they will need to make these plans ahead of time such as flights and hotels. We are sending them out in the next few weeks.

For my first wedding (24 years ago) Save the Dates weren’t even a thing. We invited 306 guests and 284 came.

This time I am using save the dates because 95% of our guests are coming at least 2 hours.

definitely not a requirement.

My wedding is in Feb and I just started planning literally a month ago. I did a digital save the date. I text all my guests our save the date, and whatever older guests that did not use text messaging, I called personally. Saved us some money, and honestly i loved my save the date.

For our tiny DW of 15 guests we asked everyone if they were available a year ahead of time and before we booked our venue/date.

For our local reception, we mailed a Save The Date about 8 months ahead because June is a busy time for family vacations and a few of friends were starting to make plans.

It can really help to send one but it’s totally ok to save money and send an electronic one! 😃

Because STDs are so iffy for many, if you guys can’t seem to agree, I would definitely send them electronically - saves on costs. I personally think stationary STDs are a hassle due to costs but I also want people to have enough time to plan whether that’s kids, work, travel, outfits and ultimately, to know that my wedding is coming up. I don’t think they’re necessary but there are ways to compromise.