Save The Dates - When To Send? What To Include?

[angelajackson]

 I am a new Bride (April 2015 - Hard Rock Hotel Cancun) 

 

Looking for any advice on SAVE the DATE's and Invitations.

 

I haven't decided on colors, invitations, theme, etc... does this matter on Save the Dates? I could wait until all that is decided but will mean less notice time for my guests to decide and secure deposit? I am from Edmonton, Alberta Canada and would love any referrals of Wedding Branders who are savvy, nouveau, and creative!

 

Thanks in advance!

[kmk2016]

We are sending our official invitations (not doing a std) and access to our full service wedding website in July this year for our feb 2016 wedding so people can start booking. It will have all of our information on them and are following our theme.

 

 

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[stefadile]

Hey there, we sent our save the dates out 10 months in advance. We didn't use our colour theme with the cards. We made them ourselves, I'm pretty sure you can templates for free online. We did a boarding pass, and used a picture of the beach venue as the background. I haven't made the invites yet, I got all the stationary ages ago, just need to get around to putting them together.

[AllieH]

Hi Angela!

 

It really depends on the purpose of your STDs. Are they just to get people to reserve/book rooms within a short timeframe? Then I'd do more of a general beach theme, and then you can decide on your colors and other items later.

 

We did a beach post card look for our STDs, and referred our guests to our wedding website for the details. We had some preliminary colors chosen, and a logo - of course we tweaked the colors a little later. Noone noticed...or if they did, they didn't say anything.

 

here's what ours looked like:

 

 

we later changed from the teal to a light blue (less green, more blue) to fit with other decorations I found - much easier to coordinate than "what shade of teal?".

 

We sent these out in February for our November wedding. And then used the formal invites as a reminder to book airfare. We had to book our packages with hotel only, with everyone booking airfare separate because our guests traveled from many different airports.

 

Destination weddings...no rules - just what works best for you! (I think that's my new theme...)

[Soon2beMrsJ]

We actually just designed and ordered our save the dates last night!  We kept it to a simple message in a bottle on a beach photo (since I don't have all the colors/theme finalized yet) - it includes the date, put the name and town of the resort, our website and the wording Invitation to Follow on the bottom.  We put all the information we have on our website - name and contact info of our travel agent, time of there ceremony, etc.

 

Happy Planning!!  I'm April 2015 too so we'll be on the same planning schedule 

[rtscent]

Hi Angela,

 

One of the biggest challenges with brides having destination weddings is getting their guest to actually book their accommodations. This is why I would highly recommend doing a STD. I had almost 50% of my guest book and pay for their accommodations after sending a physical STD. Which is now 28 rooms, 50 guests.

 

I sent my STD a year in advance (30 days before the group deposit was due). I sent out an electronic STD from my wedding website, as well as a 5x6 postcard type STD. I didn't get hung up on the theme, just selected real images from the resort and had a nice design laid out. My friend who is a graphic designer did the artwork for the postcard, and I had them printed  @ Overnightprints.com. I would highly recommend them. My total print job for 100 postcards full color with spot UV + envelopes plus 2 day shipping came out to $97 bucks. I also had a majority of my guests book and pay on time, which really helps with planning your reception and event details. I think the nice postcard really got people excited about the wedding.

 

I plan on sending my invitations 6 months out, and these will be more of a travel guide / brochure / package type of presentation. I will already know who is coming at this point. 

 

Attached is a pic of the front of my STD postcard, the backside had all of the travel arrangement information and TA contact information.

 

What to include:

Wedding Date

Wedding Location 

Instructions on How to book their room and by when (on the backside)

Link to your wedding website

A blurb about the resort 

 

[angelajackson]

Thanks @@kmk2016

I was contemplating not doing STD's also and utilizing a website, email, e-gram, etc to keep costs down and one source of information.

 

Did you do website through resort Wedding Services?

^{Thanks @ stefadile... I appreciate the input. I too will be closer to 10 months by the time I have all the details to do STD and develop a website, so you've put my mind at ease.}

Wow @@AllieH you are a wealth of information! I would respond more, but I am being summoned to get back to work! lol

 

I just came back from a 2 week vacation at El Dorado Royale and Generations Riviera where I was proposed to. I can only imagine how beautiful your wedding was.

 

We will be visiting the Resort again this Christmas.

 

Thanks for your support and info.

Congrats @@soontobemrsJ and look forward to sharing reviews and advice until April 2015. I loved Jamaica and also looked there for our wedding, however we are limited on  chartered Flights still flying late April.

 

Have a Terrific Tuesday

[kmk2016]

I ended up paying for a site on wedshare.com because of the amount of customization and tools associated with the website. Everyone we are inviting to our wedding are tech savvy enough to use the website for RSVP, and our invites are a cross between what most would likely think are STD and Invites.... Didn't see the need to have both for us. It saved money and trees.

 

 

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[tygrrlily]

We decided to skip STDs and sent out our invites early, but they are fairly casual. We figured the earlier the better, especially because we're aiming to get married this year, and we're only giving people 8 months notice. We did send out some feeler and info emails first though. We have about 22 people booked so far including ourselves, and we think we'll have bt 35-50 as a final number. We sent out invites to our whole guest list, so we chose something fairly cheap and simple. We'll be sending more in depth info packages (passports?) to the people that are actually coming.

 

I find having a website the best tool! I made ours very in depth so we could just direct people to our website (and our travel agent!), and we don't have to deal with a ton of questions that way . I just used theknot because I was cheap, and I liked the templates they had. I think for a destination wedding, you really can't give ppl too much time!
 

Edited May 14, 2014 by tygrrlily

[angelajackson]

@@tygrrlily thanks for the info! I think I will look for a website today, I agree, it is more in line with today's communication. Accessible by mobile phones. Also it prevents looking all over the house for the STD they put where they wouldn't lose it! lol

 

Truly appreciate the input and definitely helpful. I will check out the Knot today.