Too late for save the dates/too early for invites?

I would say notify the younger more tech-savvy people via email. Anyone else, call them on the phone. Have your parents or your fiancé's parents help you get whatever phone numbers and addresses you can. If you send out the official invites now, people will lose them or forget about them. But you can do your best to spread the news by word of mouth.

Call/text/email everyone on your list. In past generations, save the dates were sent over the phone or by word of mouth at 6+ months with no issues and eliminating paper waste. This applies to cross country and international guests as well who have ample time to prepare. Do not send invitations earlier than 6-8 weeks because guests will lose and forget the information and think you are B listing. Don’t send them after 6 weeks because they will think they are seat fillers.



In order to decide who to invite, make a list of those people who you cannot imagine the day without. They get an invitation. If anyone is invited out of obligation to please others and their presence doesn’t add to your happiness, they get an announcement instead. Parents can host other relatives at another time and can start a tradition of a family reunion picnic, again at another time that is your wedding. That way, you have everyone in attendance you want without B listing and you don’t regret inviting someone you don’t want there.

You could always do something random like send an Easter card and include a message at the bottom “we hope to see you on July 16 at our wedding! It’s finally here!”

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These are good suggestions. I've started texting since it's the way we normally communicate with many friends, but I also wonder if that's too informal. My fiance had an idea to create a digital save the date and then send it via text. I'm thinking about that only because we have way more telephone numbers than we do email addresses.

If we create a wedding website with registry info etc., does that get included with the invite?

Thank you!

View Quoted Comment There is no such thing as too informal for a save the date beyond not giving any notice. Communicate how you normally do. If that’s by text, send a text. It doesn’t have to include a picture that requires work to put together as long as all necessary information is given. If texting existed 50 years ago, that is how save the dates would have been announced. Instead it was rotary phone and chatting over coffee in person to evolve to the times from mail delivered by servants on horse and carriage. Plus texting and a regular phone call will reach more people than an email.



Be aware that just as many younger people are as tech illiterate as older generations so make sure to have any and all info on a website listed on a details card. Website info is listed on the details card separate from the actual invitation but included in the packet. The same applies to QR codes that many across generations don’t know how to use, and rsvps. Make sure you have a way for non tech guests to reply either via text or paper reply card.