Save The Date!
At this point in time, I’m guessing that you’re no longer new to the idea of a Save-The-Date card—that card that couples send out to their guests months ahead of the actual wedding invitation which simply says, “We’re tying the knot… Save the date [the date of the wedding]!”.
If you ask me if sending out Save-The-Date cards is necessary, I’d say it really is a personal choice but ultimately, it boils down to how much time you have until the wedding day.
Save-The-Date cards are typically sent out six months prior to the wedding. And the purpose of these cards is to inform your guests of the wedding date and to prompt them to mark that date on their calendar so they don’t forget it or make other plans on that day.
Another good reason to send out a Save-The-Date card is when the only information you can give your guests is the date and general location (city and state) of your wedding but not necessarily all the other details yet. That’s why a Save-The-Date card always says, “Invitation to follow” so they know that more details will be given soon.
But if you have less than six months before the Big Day, then there really is no point in sending out Save-The-Date cards since you’re going to have to mail out the actual wedding invitations about two or three months later anyway. I’d advise you to save the money that you would’ve spent on ordering your Save-The-Date cards and use it instead on the next item in your Wedding Checklist.
We sent out our Save-The-Date cards on September 8th, so we were right on schedule—six months prior to the wedding day—and at the time of writing this post, our wedding invitations are in “Production” stage and we’re expecting them to be shipped out to us within the next week or two. So depending on when we actually receive them, I’d say we will probably be mailing the invites by end of this month (OMG… this year!).
Anyway, please allow me to share with you a few details on what went into designing and ordering our Save-The-Date cards…
Before I continue, let me just say that choosing our wedding stationery provider was one of the most time-consuming and difficult parts of this wedding planning… only because there’s a specific “look” or “feel” (and colors) that we want to remain consistent throughout all our wedding elements. I must have looked at twenty or more websites, looking for the right company. We eventually chose Minted.
Our Save-The-Date card had to be custom-designed because I liked the folded “all-in-one” style which is available in the wedding invitations category. So basically, it’s a wedding invite + rsvp card in one. Well, it wasn’t available in the Save-The-Date cards category because a Save-The-Date card doesn’t have a need for an rsvp card. You’re not asking your guests to rsvp just yet, you’re just asking them to “save the date”, as the name clearly suggests.
And then I was also drawn to their Save-The-Date + Timeline design—which shows a short timeline of when the couple first met all the way to when the proposal happened. I thought it was a very cute and unique design.
I wanted to combine the two styles together—the all-in-one invitation format combined with the Save-The-Date Timeline design. So I reached out to a Minted designer and asked if this was possible. The designer said yes, for an additional $100 custom design fee that will be added to the total purchase cost which is determined by the number of cards you’re ordering, the type of paper, and other special add-ons like gold foil, etc.
So instead of the original layout where the wedding details are at the top fold of the card, and the tear-out rsvp card at the bottom fold, I asked our Minted designer to place a photo of Bernie and me at the top, place the timeline under our photo, and then replace the rsvp section with the wedding date and the words “save the date” in big, bold letters.
Here’s the actual timeline for the entire process:
Ordered the cards on August 4th
Custom Design Process took 3 weeks, not including weekends*
Approved the Design Proofs on August 25th
Production and printing began
Cards were shipped out to us on August 31st
Cards were delivered on September 7th
*The process of custom designing included sending them a few pictures from our Engagement Photo Shoot to see which one looked best on the card, choosing the font style, or sending them the actual file for our wedding font if they didn’t have that font style available (fortunately for us, Minted had our wedding font style in their library), our wedding color palette, the actual wording… and a few revision requests such as, “Can you please increase the font size on the words ‘save the date’?” or “Can we replace the photo with the second photo option?” or “Our photo doesn’t look centered… would you move it a little to the left?” …
I said this before… I’m no Bridezilla. However, I am very detail-oriented, and I’m owning that with a wink and a smile. 😉
The timeline I shared above gives you an idea about how long it took us to go from ordering the cards to actually receiving them. But customers who aren’t placing a custom design order can expect a much shorter timeline. Minted has a tool on its website that allows a customer to do simple customizations on their own, such as changing the colors, font styles, and wording. All I remember is that the standard production time is 7 days from the time you successfully placed your order. And then you will be notified via email once your cards are shipped. So if you are, or someone close to you is, planning a wedding, you can take that into account when deciding whether it’s worth it to you to purchase Save-The-Date cards.
The Save-The-Date card (or the wedding invitation, if you decide to forgo the Save-The-Date card) is the very first impression your guests will have about your wedding. It sets the tone, builds anticipation, and gives your guests a glimpse of what to expect—the colors, the style, the sense of elegance or playfulness—all of this showcases a little bit of your personality, style, and what you care most about as a couple.
From the moment we announced our wedding date to you, our families and friends, you all have become a part of this journey and experience. And the feeling we wanted to evoke through our Save-The-Date card is the exact same emotions we’re feeling about our wedding—that of excitement, joyful anticipation, fun, and love.
So we hope you marked it on your calendar and saved the date… see you on March 12th, 2022!
