Pre-invitations - Save the Date Cards

Do I really need them?

Pre-invitations can be sent out to your indented guests, before the wedding invitations. This announcement gives the details of the upcoming wedding.

It is not essential to send out these pre-invitations for every wedding, it would be helpful to you and your guests especially if your wedding was to take place during a major holiday season (eg Christmas time).

Notifying your guests early will give them time to make travel plans and hotel reservation well in advance if necessary.

Save the date cards are less formal than the wedding invitations and should be sent out a least one month before the formal invitation.

It is a polite way of finding out who can actually attend the wedding and will save you having to print out more formal invitations than actually needed. It will also help cut back on “no shows” which will help ease your budget.

If your intended guests receive a save the date card first, then followed by the formal invitation a month or so later, they will get the message that your wedding invites are to be taken seriously.

These cards are usually small and sent out in envelopes or as postcards. You can make these as creatively and as much fun as you like. It is up to you if you want these to match your wedding invitations.

There is no limit to the variety and style of papers available to help you design the cards. These can be handwritten (or use your computer), keep them plain or embellish them.

Some couples send out magnets, sticky notes or picture postcards from the area that the wedding will take place. The message in the pre-invitations (save the date cards) should be very clear, you could write something like this:

I’m writing to let you know that Mark and I are getting married in Perth on the 5th June 2008 at 2pm with a reception to follow at the Pacific International Hotel.

We would love you to be there but as we have only space for a limited number of guests at our reception, I wonder if you could please let me know if you will be able to attend the wedding.

* Could you please phone/write/email me before 20 January 2008 and if you are able to attend, we will send you a formal invitation in about six weeks.

* You can add and extra paragraph here if you wish for the people who you are really want to deter from attending you wedding. “We realize that it is a long way for you to travel/the weather may not be so good at that time of the year/accommodations is limited but I am sure you could share a room with somebody…”