To 'Save the Date' or Not

For those of you not familiar with this new phenomena, a Save the Date is a small piece of paper that announces when your wedding will take place and asks guests to please save the date. It is sent out before your invitations are, like a preview for what's to come. Now, anyone who watches wedding shows will understand this concept, but of course many people don't.

Above is a picture of the one my fiance and I designed for our upcoming wedding.

We ordered them through Stephita. My fiance and I completely agreed on the invitations, and we were thrilled with the colours and the style.


Save the Dates was another matter entirely. He thought we should have them, I wasn't so sure.


The etiquette on Save the Dates is not entirely clear. Some websites say that Save the Dates should be sent out more than a year in advance of the wedding, and some say they should be sent out months before the wedding. Some articles claim that Save the Dates should only be sent to people living outside the country, or people that will have to travel for the wedding. Some articles state that Save the Dates should only be sent to dear friends and relatives that you don't want missing your wedding.


The issue - there is no clear method of attack.


The end result - we decide to do them.


The problem - our guest list has continued to increase at an alarming rate for the last few months. Our initial estimate of 100 guests has ballooned to 171 guests. Meaning some of our guests have received Save the Dates and some haven't. To be honest, it is a mess and more than a little stressful.


My word of advice. Think long and hard about whether or not you wish to "Save the Date" or not.