Wedding planning can be full of stressful decisions – decisions you never thought you’d have to make, or you’d ever need to stress over. They start to seem petty once you put them on a list… but you do and you will continue to until The Day. Save the dates can set the tone for your wedding theme, or just be a creative way to let everyone know you’re getting hitched! You can spend a lot, or a little. Your rules no one else. I’ve put together a small list of things to consider when picking your extremely important (and at the same time maybe not so crazy stressful decision you’ll have to make) save the dates.
1 – Figure Out Your Budget
Yea yea yea.. everyone says this is #1. But it’s true. If you say your budget is “cheap as possible” Welll… what does that mean? Might as well skip it all together or go with an email announcement. No? Too cheap? Ok, then set a budget.
2 – Simple or Elaborate Delivery
The 3 types of Save The Dates you’re going to come across on your research journey will be
(1) plain with only text
(2) engagement photo used
(3) elaborate gifts with cheezy getting hitched references
3 – Where to Buy, Where To Start Looking
Start with what you know. You’ve probably signed up with The Knot or something similar, so start with their recommendations. There’s the Minted, Wedding Paper Divas, Etsy and VistaPrint and a gazillion more. Look for ideas and inspiration only to start. Look at a few sites to see if some styles call to you are in your price range.
4 – Send it to The Printers or Buy The Prints
After looking at some sites and different styles, then you can decide if you want to design everything all on one site and wait for them to delivery the finished product! Or, the other popular budget-friendly option is to buy a template and then print them yourself at home or at a VistaPrint or Kinko’s type professional printing place.
5 – Matchy-Matchy or Mis-Matched With the Invites
Do you go with one theme through out the entire stationary process from the save the date to the invites all the way to the menu and thank you notes? Or not, say screw it and just choose something so you can move on to the next “big” decision on the huge laundry list of decisions for your wedding.
6 – Stay Calm, 200 Person Guest List Does Not Equal 200 Save The Dates + Stamps!
You’ll be happy to figure out that you will not have to pay for the cards and stamps in the same quantity as your guest list!! Yay!! Most of you might have figured that out, BUT it does give you a little relief since everything else Wedding related charges you by the guest list. Hey, you don’t even have final numbers, you’re just throwing a wide net out there hoping those people RSVP and come! Overly simplified estimate – with a 200 person guest list you can count on sending out about 100 save the dates.
7 – Choosing a Photo? Not as Complicated as You Think
Colored? Black and White? On a postcard? With the dog? One from the engagement shoot? One from our facebook album? A selfie? Or no photo?
If it comes down to budget it’s more likely it will be cheaper to ex the photo all together, and just do a simple postcard with your names, location, and website. Just a simple “ok, great! I told you we’re getting married so now let me get back to planning this darn party!”
If it makes you feel better, half the people you send them to will either lose them, or throw them out after the big day anyways, so just pick something that makes you happy. Bottom line.
8 – How I Did Mine
I ordered mine through VistaPrint. I didn’t go to the Save The Date page under Stationary, I went to the Postcard page under Marketing Materials and created my own postcard. With an online promo-code, I was able to buy 250 – 4×6 postcards (it was either choices of 100 or 250) for $38 – black and white both sides, 2 pictures. Basically instead of paying $0.52 a postcard, we paid $0.15… that adds up!! We handed out most of our family’s cards over a holiday party, so we only had to buy like 90 stamps. We have a guest list of 200. It turned out pretty great, dontcha think!?:)
Stay Inspired!
