Are you a planner, or is your personality more to “wing it” and do things on the spur of the moment? Everyone is different, and that variety certainly makes life interesting and exciting for all of us! But even if it doesn’t come naturally to you to think months in advance, your wedding is one event for which you’ll want to make an exception. A save the date is a critical part of your wedding preparations, and even more so as people seem to get busier and busier all the time. Here are a few of the key features that your save the date should have in order to make sure that all of your friends and family members are in the right place at the right time.
Date and Location
Obviously, the date and location of your wedding are the most important elements of your save the date. It’s about more than just getting the date put into your potential guests’ calendar, though. If you are having a destination wedding that is far from home for some of your guests, they need plenty of notice in order to arrange airline tickets, a long drive, babysitters, pet care, lodging, and whatever other details are necessary to allow them to attend.
A destination save the dates makes it clear where your wedding will take place, with varying levels of detail depending on your preference and the specific event venue. It may be enough to simply list the city, as in the example above. There are plenty of great hotels and house rental options in and around Charleston, and if your wedding venue is within a short drive of the city, your guests will be able to start planning where they will stay.
If your wedding venue is farther out, or if you have more specific lodging ideas for your guests, you may want to include that information on your destination save the date so that they know what to expect. As you work with your wedding invitation designer, they’ll help you figure out just how much information you should put into this piece compared with your official wedding invitation to be sent later on.
Website for More Information
We live in a digital world! We don’t expect the wedding invitation process to move online any time soon; there are so many beautiful traditions associated with the process of inviting guests by mail that we believe we’ll be creating customized invitations, save the dates, and other physical pieces of wedding stationery for a long time to come.
That being said, there are fantastic opportunities for you to expand your wedding communications with your guests in a digital format. By providing your wedding website in your save the date, you can establish the headquarters for all sorts of fun, informative, and creative updates leading up to the big day.
Let your family and friends know right away where they can expect to find engagement photos, registry details, venue information, and any other exciting items of interest that you’ll want to share with them between the sending of your save the date, the official invitation, and the wedding day itself. Your guests will love checking your site to see how your plans are progressing!
Your Unique Style
There’s one other critical feature that your save the date must have, and that’s your own style! Will you go with modern, streamlined, and simple; flowery, pastel, and watercolor; or something totally different? This is where it really pays to work with a designer that can show you samples and get your creativity flowing, then work with you to settle on the color scheme, fonts, illustrations, logos, monograms, and extras that represent you as a couple in just the right way.
And if your style is too diverse to be contained in one set of features, that’s perfect for a save the date! Usually your save the date will go out in a different season than your wedding, so there’s a great opportunity to use varying design elements in your save the date and your wedding invitation that complement each other.
We always treasure the chance to work with a couple throughout their entire wedding planning journey, from creating their save the date right through the stationery needed to make the special day as beautiful as possible. Contact us to get started!
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