So, you’ve secured your date and your dream venue, now what? It is time to order and send out your save the dates! Think of your save the dates like a preview of your invitation. Do you have to have a save the date? No, however, they are a great way to tell your out of town guests so that they can start planning their travel accordingly, and it also gives your in-town guests the heads up so they can mark your calendars. After all, the last thing you want is for someone you want present on your big day to have a conflict! Thus, save the dates area  great way to get the ball rolling.

In a perfect wedding planning world, you should really send save the dates out ASAP, like, as soon as you have your date nailed down. I will tell you right now I did not do this, because I’m just the most frantic, overscheduled bride. What can I say, I am doing my best! In the spirit of helping any other brides to be out there, I’ve compiled a list of everything you should consider when ordering and sending your save the dates!

What should be on your save the dates?

Your save the dates don’t need a ton of information, because, like I said, they’re basically just the precursor to the formal invites you will send later. However, you definitely want to cover the basics: the date (DUH!), your names, and the city in which the wedding will take place is really all you need. For an added bonus, you can add the url of your wedding website so that your guests can head there for more info.

To whom should you send your save the dates?

You should absolutely send your save the dates to all your out of town guests, people who are in the wedding or who will have some role to play in it, and anyone that is on your must have guest list. I like to think of this as the A-list. Now, not all your A-listers will show up. Statistics show that around 10-20 percent of people on your guest list will decline, so there will most likely be room to add more people in later. The key is to only send your save the dates to your A-list and reserve your invitations to everyone. The reason for this is that if you send someone a save the date late, they could realize that they were not on the first invite list, which could ruffle some feathers.

Now…where should you get your save the dates?!

This one can be tough, because there are honestly so many options! Nate and I went with Minted, mostly because they really offer tons of different designs. It was actually really hard to settle on the design we chose, but I really love it. We used one of our favorite photos from our engagement shoot, which has a La La Land/Old Hollywood theme, so I wanted the save the date style to match that vibe. (You can check out more from our engagement shoot here!) Another thing I love about Minted is that all their designs come from independent artists. You can choose from all different kinds of cardstocks or, if you’re like us, you go with a magnet…because who doesn’t love a save the date magnet?!

Check out our Elegance Save the Dates here!

Here is a screen shot of the design we almost went with…as you can see, everything is super customizable!

We will definitely be heading back to Minted to get our invitations ASAP as well as all our other paper goods needs for our big day!

This post contains sponsored content, however, all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make Miss Moore Style possible!

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