Wedding Save the Dates: Ideas and save the date wording

Congratulations—you’re engaged!

Like many newly-engaged couples, you’re probably wondering what’s next. Preparing for a wedding can seem overwhelming, especially at first. You have so many things to think about—where do you even start? If designing wedding invitations, crafting the perfect RSVP wording, and sending out a Save the Date to your guests are still on your to-do list, we understand.

A good set of first steps is to choose a location, venue, and date. Making those initial decisions will give you a concrete timeline and a sense of the space you’ll have to work with. Once you have a date in mind, it’s time to let your guests know!

A “Save the Date” card is usually sent about six months before the ceremony. The wording on this card generally includes:

• “Save the Date!” – a call to action for what you want your guests to do!
• Couple’s names – you can go as formal (first and last names) or informal (first names only or nicknames) as you’d like
• Date(s) for the celebration  – if you already know you’re planning a one-afternoon, multi-day or week-long celebration, let your guests know so they can block off the relevant time
• Location where the wedding will take place – this could be the actual venue or just the city/area if you haven’t booked a venue yet
• Wedding website URL – Your wedding website can be a great place to start sharing more details, like accommodation and travel options, and start to collect some tentative RSVPs. Your website is dynamic, so you can always add to and update it as your planning continues. If you’re sending email save the dates, the card can link directly to your website so that guests reach it directly
• At the bottom of the card, many couples add the note “invitation to follow” to inform guests that more information is on the way

Kate and David used Glö to send out these gorgeous Save the Date cards for their winter destination ski wedding.

Your Save the Dates can be as unique as you are, whether you’ll be printing hundreds or sending paperless versions. The design and wording on your Save the Date will help set the tone for a celebration that your guests can look forward to. A photograph is a fun way to add your own personal, creative touch to your Save the Date design. We love these ideas from Pinterest. If you’re going to DIY your save the date cards, then personalized stamps make it easy to prepare large numbers of cards by hand.

Looking for something that will save time, stress and tears? Email Save the Dates are a great way to save on printing and mailing costs. They also eliminate the grueling task of physically addressing, stamping and mailing hundreds of cards and ensuring that each potential guest receives all pertinent info. A paperless save the date can also offer tracking, so you know for sure that each and every guest has received the good news.  Going digital doesn’t mean losing your personal style, though, as you can see in the Save the Date below from Broen and Kristin’s 2012 wedding.

Broen designed these custom Save the Dates with the couple’s wedding logo and sent them digitally with Glo. Guests conveniently received the Save the Dates via email and then visited the couple’s wedding website for additional details so they could start planning to attend.

If cards aren’t your style, you could announce your “Save the Date” with a refrigerator magnet. That way, your guests can pin up your wedding date where it’ll always be in sight. If you’d rather stick with something guaranteed to fit in a letter-sized envelope, these mini calendars contain your wedding date, are easy to produce, and will let your guests think of you all year long. Want to break the mold? Maybe you and your intended love to read (or your guests do)… Send them a bookmark.

Do you have any other gorgeous Save the date wording ideas or design tips to include? Share your comments below! Be sure to check out our complete guide to wedding save the dates as well!

Read Part 2 of this miniseries, which covers RSVP wording.
Read Part 3 of this miniseries, which covers wedding invitations.
Read Part 4 of this miniseries, which covers addressing invitations.
Read Part 5 of this miniseries, which covers the invitation “host line.”