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What to Put on a Wedding Save the Date (and What to Leave Out)

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You’re keen to make your wedding day as perfect as possible. But now that you’ve begun the process of wedding planning, you’re starting to realise how overwhelming things can get, especially when it comes to all the details that you need to think about.

Having a save the date has become essential when getting married these days. Sent weeks or months before the formal invitation, the save the date will let your invitees know to keep the date free, and to expect an invitation in the future. This vital piece of stationery also gives you the opportunity to set the tone for your wedding, so they can look forward to what’s coming on your big day.

It’s essential to get it done right, because the save the date is the first impression your guests will have of your wedding. In this guide, we’ll talk you through what information needs to go on a save the date, and what you can leave out.

What Information Goes on a Wedding Save the Date?

When creating your wedding save the date, you need to remember one trick: “less is more.”
Since you’re sending out these cards at least six months before your wedding, you don’t need to give out too much information or details about the big day. At this early stage, you probably haven’t even finalised most aspects of your wedding yet anyway. You can save most of the little details for the wedding invitation, which you’ll send later on.

Here’s what you need to put on the save the date:
1) Your wedding date. This is, of course, the most important thing. Your guests will need to know which date to keep free in their calendars.
2) Who’s getting married. Don’t forget to include your names, so that your invitees know whose wedding it is!
3) Your wedding venue. You’ll need to book your venue before you can even think of sending out save the dates. You don’t want to tell everyone to keep March 10th free, only to find out that your venue is already booked up on that day!

Though the date and your names are the most important details, your guests will appreciate knowing the venue in advance. This is particularly true for destination weddings, or weddings held more than 1 hour away from where most of your guests live. This will give them extra time to plan their travel and accommodation.

If you’ve already created a wedding website at this stage, you can also include a link to it on your save the date. However, this isn’t strictly necessary, as long as it’s on the wedding invitation.

“Invitation to Follow”

As your wedding save the date could easily be mistaken for the actual invitation, it’s very important to put a note saying “invitation to follow” somewhere on the card.
This will let the guests know that this isn’t the invitation, and a formal invite will be sent out on a later date.

If you don’t include this detail, your guests may panic that they’ve missed some vital information about your big day – such as what time to arrive at the venue, where the reception will be held or the dress code.
A beautifully designed and professionally printed wedding save the date will get your guests excited for your upcoming nuptials, and give them time to plan their schedule so they can celebrate with you.

What About Destination Save the Dates?

Now, if you’re getting married in a foreign country, you also need to provide your guests with as much travel-related information as possible. This information would generally go on the wedding invitation, but for destination weddings, you want to give your invitees as much notice as you can.

For example:
1) The nearest airport
2) The best airlines and flights
3) What the weather will be like
4) Any vaccinations your guests will need to visit the country in question
5) The names of good hotels near your venue
6) Transit options to and from the airport

This way, you’re saving your guests a lot of time and effort. They can simply book their flights and hotels in advance without going through the hassles of figuring out the best options for their trip.
You should also ensure you send out your save the dates a lot earlier than you would for a domestic wedding (around a year in advance).

What NOT to Include on a Wedding Save the Date

Since your save the date isn’t your final wedding invitation, you can leave out the more intimate details – after all, you may not have even finalised them yet. For example, you don’t need to include:
1) The ceremony start time
2) The reception start time and/or end time
3) Accommodation or transport information
4) A map or directions to the venue
5) The dress code
6) Wedding breakfast menu or food choices
7) Where you’re registered for gifts

If you haven’t finalised the reception venue yet, it’s also okay to leave that information out. Since you’re still in the middle of wedding planning, you don’t need to be pressured into providing all of these details.
As long as you’ve mentioned that an invitation will follow, your guests will know to anticipate this information at a later date.

When Is the Right Time to Send a Wedding Save the Date?

Your save the date will serve as an advance notice for your wedding. So, as a general rule, you should send them out at least six to eight months before the big day, depending on whether your guests will need to travel.
This will give your guests enough time to block off their schedules, plan their budget and book their trip. Bear in mind that your guests may need a little more notice if they live far away.

You should send a wedding save the date to everyone you want at your wedding: family, friends, colleagues. Even if you’ve already told these people about your wedding in person, you still need to give them save the dates as proper courtesy.
Never send a save the date to someone if you’re not 100% sure whether you’re going to invite them or not.

More Top Tips for Writing Save the Dates

Now that we’ve sorted out the basics of a wedding save the date, here are some of the most important things that you need to remember when putting together your card:

1) Don’t include your registry information. Of course, your guests will want to know where you’re registered so they can start thinking about your wedding gift. But that information should be included on your wedding website, not your paper stationery. It’s considered tacky to include this detail on a save the date.
2) How many dates need to be saved? You’re giving out a “save the date” but it’s very important to be specific about the number of days you want the guests to save. For instance, you could say “save the weekend” if you’re planning any activities before or after the big day itself.
3) Forget the RSVP. Although it would be great to get a glimpse of your headcount early on, don’t send out RSVP cards with save the dates. Save these for your proper wedding invitation.
4) Decide on plus ones and kids. When addressing save the dates, you need to be decide how many people you want to invite from that household (including kids), and whether your guests can bring a guest of their own.

For instance, if the guest doesn’t get a plus one, then you only need to print one name on the save the date card. But if you want to invite the entire family, then you can go with “the Smith family” for example. And stay consistent – don’t change your mind between now and the formal invite.

What If You Need to Change the Date?

Now since you’re sending out these save the date cards early on in the wedding planning stage, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that some details about your wedding might change between now and the big day itself. For example, you might need to change your wedding date or venue.

If this happens, you have the option to send a “change the date” card providing the new details. You can use a regular save the date template for this, and simply alter the wording.
You can also post updates on your wedding website, so that guests can easily check in on them whenever they need to recall the details of your wedding.

Where Can I Order Wedding Save the Dates?

Save the date cards are a necessary part of wedding stationery that not only helps your guests plan, but also gets them excited for your upcoming wedding.
Follow these tips to make sure that you get your wedding save the date wording just right. But it’s equally important to choose a beautiful, appropriate save the date card design that will match your wedding theme.

123Print has a wide range of over 200 wedding save the date designs, so you’re bound to find one that matches your wedding aesthetic perfectly. You can choose between small, medium and large cards, or even vinyl magnets!

Ideally, choose a save the date which features the colour your bridesmaids will be dressed in. This hint at your colour scheme allows guests that aren’t in the wedding party to make appropriate attire choices.

When you’ve picked your favourite design, simply open up our editor to input your wedding details at the touch of a button. Your save the dates will be with you within days!

How Late is Too Late to Send Wedding Save the Dates?

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Sending “save the dates” for weddings has become standard these days. Sent before the formal wedding invitation, this card serves as advance notice of the big day. It gives guests ample time to book the day off work or arrange childcare before all the little details are finalised on the invitation itself.

Save the dates also give guests a tease of what the wedding will be like, as you’ll choose a save the date card which reflects your wedding theme, colour scheme and overall vibe.
Because save the dates serve a practical purpose as well as a decorative one, it’s crucial that you send them out at the right time. Send your save the dates too early, and your recipients may forget all about it. But send them too late, and there’s a chance that some of your invitees will already have made plans for your wedding day.

In this guide, we’ll talk you through the perfect time to send save the dates, and what qualifies as too early vs. too late. We’ll also share some general tips for how best to word save the dates, and

When Is the Right Time to Send Wedding Save the Dates?

More than choosing the design of the save the date itself, it’s very important to decide on the right time to send them to make sure that they serve their purpose.
Most wedding experts would tell you to send out your save the dates around 6 months before the wedding, and we’d agree.

6 months’ notice is usually more than enough time for your recipients to:

1) Decide whether they’d like to come to your wedding
2) Book the day or the weekend off work
3) Organise childcare for the day, if they aren’t bringing their little ones along
4) Arrange transport to the wedding, or figure out the best driving and parking options
5) Buy a new wedding outfit, if necessary
6) Mark the date in their diaries so they don’t accidentally double-book themselves

This will also give you plenty of time to answer any questions your invitees may have about your wedding, before you send out your formal invitations later on.
If you have a wedding website, we’d recommend setting it up before you send out your save the dates. Including a link to your website on your save the dates will help drive more traffic towards it, so you can get important information to your guests that will be useful during your planning process.

As you finalise details about your big day, you can update the site in real time. You can also add a Frequently Asked Questions section if you find that your invitees all have similar queries.

Local vs. Destination Weddings

The 6-month rule for save the dates is a very general one, and may not apply to all weddings equally. Depending on where you’re getting married, and who you’re inviting, you might send out your save the dates anywhere between 4 months and 12 months before the big day.

If you’re getting married in your hometown, and most of your guests live nearby, you can get away with sending out your wedding save the dates closer to your wedding day (4 months in advance). This is for the simple reason that your guests won’t have to travel, or book accommodation. They’ll also only need one day off work for the wedding.
But if your guests will need to travel for your wedding, it’s best to send your save the dates out earlier than you usually would.

For UK weddings where your guests will need to travel for more than an hour each way, we’d recommend sending them 6-8 months in advance.
For international weddings, where your guests will need to fly abroad, it’s best to give everyone 8-12 months’ notice. It can take quite some time to plan a trip to a foreign country, and they’ll need plenty of notice to book at least a few days off work, if not a whole week.

Is There Such Thing as Sending Save the Dates Too Early?

With wedding save the dates, it’s best to stick with the ideal timeline of 4 to 6 months for a local wedding and 6 to 8 months for a destination wedding.
You may believe that there can’t be anything wrong with sending your save the dates too early. Surely, the more notice you give your invitees, the better? What would be wrong with asking them to save the date more than a year in advance?
Sadly, sending your save the dates more than 12 months in advance creates two big problems.

1) Your recipients may take one look at the date and say “that’s ages away, I don’t have to worry about that yet.” They’ll then file the card away and forget about it. When the wedding invitation turns up, they’ll realise they already made plans.
2) Most people won’t be able to book the day off work as soon as the save the date arrives. They’ll have to wait until the year of the wedding in order to access the holiday rota. This means they may completely forget to do it at all.

Another important point to make is that you must book your venue before you send out save the dates. If you rush into things and send save the dates before you’ve got a venue finalised, you may have to change the date. Then the whole thing will have been for nothing.

You also need to have fully finalised your wedding guest list before you send save the dates. Once you send them out, there’s no turning back: every single person that received a save the date must also receive a formal invitation. So if you aren’t completely sure yet who you’re going to invite, hold off until you are.

When Is It Too Late to Send Save the Dates?

On the contrary, sending save the dates too late is also a bad idea. It creates a massive problem in and of itself.
First and foremost, a save the date is supposed to be advanced notice. If you wait until 2 or 3 months before the wedding to send them out, there’s a very good chance that a lot of your invitees won’t be able to make it. They may already be busy that day, or may not be able to book the day off work.

Even if they aren’t busy on that day, they may decide not to come anyway because they haven’t been given enough notice. Attending a wedding, even as a regular guest, is quite a big deal. Sending out your save the dates too close to the day may not give your guests enough time to plan their travel, save up for a new outfit or arrange childcare.
Not only would sending save the dates too late render them useless, but it could also cause confusion among your guests. They may mistake it for the wedding invitation, and wonder why some of the details are missing.

So, as soon as you have the basic details of your wedding figured out, it’s best to start thinking about designing your wedding save the dates and ordering them from a trusted supplier.

What Do I Do If I Miss the Deadline?

If you completely forgot to send wedding save the dates, and you’ve now realised that it’s too late, don’t panic.
The best thing to do is to just try and get your formal wedding invitations sent out earlier than you usually would, so that your guests have as much notice as possible.
Normally, you’d send save the dates 6 months in advance, and then the wedding invitations would go out around 6-8 weeks before the wedding.
But if you haven’t sent save the date cards, simply send out your invitations as soon as possible – ideally at least 3-4 months before your wedding. You can include a link to your wedding website that you can update with extra bits of information if you haven’t got it all sorted out yet.

Now that you know when you should be sending them, let’s go over a brief list of what you should include on the wedding save the date.
Don’t confuse your wedding save the date with your wedding invitation. Remember that the purpose of this card is to let your guests know of your wedding date and location so they can start planning their schedule around it. Leave the more intricate details for your wedding invitation.

On a wedding save the date card, you should include:
1) The names of the couple getting married
2) The words “save the date” and “invitation to follow”, so it’s clear what the card is for
3) Your wedding date, including the year
4) The name of your venue and which city it’s in
5) A link to your wedding website, if you have one

You don’t need to include things like the food menu, the ceremony start time, the gift list, or the dress code.
An RSVP card isn’t also necessary at this point since you’re still several months away from your wedding. You don’t need to know the final headcount or any dietary restrictions just yet.

Order Your Wedding Save the Dates Today from 123Print

Wedding save the date cards are essential for keeping your guests in the loop for your upcoming wedding. It is also your chance to set the right tone and mood for your wedding, so it’s very important to do it right.

If you’re looking for a trusted wedding stationer to guide you in designing your very own wedding save the dates, look no further than 123Print. With over 100 years’ experience printing professional-quality stationery as part of our parent company, CCA occasions, you can trust us to make everything perfect for the biggest day of your life.

You can choose from a range of pocket-sized save the date cards, medium postcards, large postcards, and even vinyl save the date magnets. Head to our website today to browse our wonderful selection of templates, and start the easy personalisation process! With our 100% satisfaction guarantee, there’s nothing to lose.