When's the best time to send Save the Date

[Cherrie]

Hie all,

My wedding is on the 4th of April 2009. Whats the best time to send save the dates? ie. how many months before the Official Invitation can one send save the dates?

[ikkin510]

People will send out Save The Date Cards as early as a year before the actual wedding date.

[sandy03]

I've always heard 4-6 months. You know your guests and how much time they will need to prepare.

Our wedding is in May of 09 so we're going to send our save the dates out right around Thanksgiving. Hopefully everyone will already have their 2009 calendars and be starting to make plans, but they won't get caught up in all the Christmas cards and accidentally get thrown out!

[Hippolyta]

I would say it depends on your guests. Do you have anyone who has a distance to travel, but you know may want to come anyway? If so, you may want to send them out early. Or at least be courteous enough to send the cards to those who would have a distance to travel earlier. We will have people outside the country, and they will know the date as soon as we do.

[caligal85]

We're getting married in August of next year and sent ours out in September, so a little under a year. We have people traveling from all over, plus we want people to look at their calendars now rather than later. August is a popular wedding month, so we want people to be prepared.

[f77g4]

I'm sending mine out with our Christmas cards and our wedding is in August.

I think it all depends on the wedding and your guests. If you are having a destination wedding where people are going to have to save money to fly somewhere then the earlier the better...same goes if they have to travel across the country.

Otherwise I would agree with the other ladies with 6-9 months before.

[Ninedays9]

I think for an April wedding, it'll be good to send them out soon. Ours is in July of next year, and we sent them out a couple weeks ago. But I really don't think there's a standard time to send them... just whenever you think is enough notice for guests.

[Cherrie]

Oh thank you. I guess the time is round about now, at least before Christmas. I overheard a cousin of mine saying they are planning their wedding in April as well. That might bring confusion so I better send out my cards earlier!!! lol

[caligal85]

Oh thank you. I guess the time is round about now, at least before Christmas. I overheard a cousin of mine saying they are planning their wedding in April as well. That might bring confusion so I better send out my cards earlier!!! lol

Good idea! I know we have a friend who's planning an August wedding as well so we sent ours out to give people a head's up.

[tortoisegirl]

We sent ours out over a year in advance because everyone has to travel, and, I was tired of everyone asking me when the wedding was! I think now is a good time for you.

[FutureKelley]

We are getting married April 25th and I sent ours out in the middle of Oct.

I think the general rule is 6 months in advance for something somewhat localized or 10-12 months for a destination wedding. I really wanted to get ours out as soon as I finished them since a good majority of the people that are invited are from out of state.

[mj512]

I believe we sent ours out late October/Early November for our May 12th wedding. So a little over 6 months before hand. We just got a STD in the mail a few days ago for someone's wedding that is in March.

[tk93]

i've heard/read various things, but i think anywhere from 4 months to a year out is the acceptable timeframe for mailing out the save the dates. consider your guests - what type of notice would they require, how are the travel accomodations for your locale, etc.

to give a more specific example, i had to take several things into consideration planning ours:
1. our wedding is in june '09 with nearly all of our guests coming from out of town. not only is june a peak wedding season, there're many events going on during this time, so the hotel our reception is being held at is only holding a block of rooms for us until 30 days prior to the wedding. this could be a big factor since the pricing we obtained for our guests is at least $100/night cheaper than normal pricing.
2. my fiance is in the intern year of his medical residency, and a big chunk of our guests are in the same profession in varying stages of residencies, so we figure we need to give our guests plenty of time to make arrangements to get a free weekend. as of now, the groom's brother (one of our groomsmen) is scheduled to be on call at a hospital 2 hours away the weekend of the wedding!
3. i know with everybody's crazy schedules they generally won't remember what they received in the mail a full year out, and people are travelling and going mad around the holidays, so i wanted to avoid sending something out just before or during the holidays.

taking all this into account, i sent out a mass announcement email w/ our wedding website (which clearly states the date, location, hotel reservation blocks, and all other info) 9 months prior to the wedding to those we know are definitely on our guestlist. i also included a line requesting people to email me their mailing addresses because our save the dates will be sent out just after the holidays - this way, not only do i gather up all the necessary info for the mailing list, but our guests are made aware as to when to expect the save the dates, PLUS the email also acted as an informal invitation of sorts so people could start making travel and hotel arrangements.
i had a tremendous response rate to the mass email (make sure to BCC your emailing list so guests are not all receiving eachother's responses) and a number of guests have already booked their rooms at our hotel.

[Moon.Dust.]

We sent ours out May '08 since we got engaged in '07 and everyone was spazing on how it was soooo far away and they'd never remember the wedding date.
So we decided to send them out on the one year mark.

[ChristineLS]

Our wedding is in August... maybe we should have already sent them, hah.

Looks like we're sticking with invitations...

[Docsgirl]

My wedding planning timeline says 6 months, but we sent them out just a few days ago....kind of behind on some of the planning!

[f77g4]

Our wedding is in August... maybe we should have already sent them, hah.

Looks like we're sticking with invitations...

No I wouldn't say that....My wedding is in August too and we just sent our in the Christmas cards...so I think you still have time.

[futurefuchsy]

I just sent out out in the mail yesterday, they are xmas and save the date so I killed two birds with one stone. even if you get them out after the holiday who cares?

[dizy1j62881]

ok we are getting married on a friday and i was thinking about doing some DIY save the dates due to it is on a friday...its in sept so i was thinking about the end of march first of april?

[Moon.Dust.]

Think of it this way... if wedding invites go out 6-8 weeks before the wedding and you're going to kind of "warn" them the date is coming. I'd send them out as soon as you had a date set. Save the dates are just that. You don't really need any more details other than the fact that you've set a date and you'd like that person to make sure they have that time earmarked for your wedding.

[Jettadear]

Most of our guests were out of town. We have been engaged for over a year now and have known the exact date for about as long. If you have alot of out of town guests I would recommend atleast a year out or as long as you can give if not shorter. Many people have to request off for work and this may be tricky if they don't know to near the last minute. The way my job works is its a first come first serve so if three people already asked off for the days around the wedding than I wouldn't be able to attend because I would be forced to work. If you have more local people than it may not be an issue then. I always like to have plenty of notice so that I don't have to worry about not getting off but Im an uber planner and I hate leaving things to the last minute. lol