There’s so much you need to organise for your wedding. Before you can even invite your guests, you’ll need to work out the venue, the head count, the registrar to help sort the timings of the day, and the caterers and wedding suppliers you’re using, to ensure everything is within your budget. (You don’t want to invite a hundred people to the day then realise you can only afford to feed fifty of them!)
Then there are the details you’ll want to give your guests when they RSVP: the dress code, the menu, the transport, the gift registry, information on the area… Your guests want to know the details, so if you haven’t organised them before you send the invitations out, you’re going to get a lot of phone calls!
And it’s not just things you need to tell your guests – the RSVP is your chance to get all the answers you need from them, so you also need to have made decisions like DJ or band, to ask them for dance floor preferences, and if you’re having an evening buffet, to ask them for dietary requirements.
There’s a lot to think about – and a lot that can’t be nailed down more than 12 months in advance.
If you’re having a longer engagement, be aware that registry offices won’t take appointments to organise the legal side of things more than 12 months before the wedding. And, if you’re organising accommodation for your wedding party or a budget block price for your guests, hotels won’t let you book rooms more than a year ahead.
There are a lot of things you just won’t be able to plan far in advance.
But you also don’t want to leave it too late to send out your invitations.
If you wait to invite your guests until you have all of the details planned out – especially for a wedding during the coveted summer months, over a bank holiday weekend, or somewhere abroad, that will need a lot of organisation – your friends might not be able to come!
Save the dates give you time to think.
With a save the date card, all you need to have decided on is… well, the date. You can tell everyone all the nitty gritty details later – without worrying they might make other plans in the meantime.
A save the date lets your guests know they’re invited; and it’s not a problem if you later only invite them to the evening do or don’t ask their octuplets to the day. No one expects you to have planned out more than when and where your wedding is. They understand to pencil that date into their calendar, and wait for the rest of the details much closer to the time.
If you’re interested in getting more time to make decisions – and in making your wedding planning less stressful! – you can check out our range of save the date cards here.
