• Tips & Advice

How amazing is this proposal? Photographed by Flytographer. So we know the proposal happened and the wedding planning is on. The first thing you should start doing is figuring out when you would like to have your special day.

Will you and your closest friends being flying to Greece for a destination wedding? Or perhaps you will be holding an intimate backyard wedding at your parents home. Either way you need to set a date and a location. After that you can begin to shop around for your Save The Dates.

Now before you pick out a design and fill in all your information, keep scrolling to check out six common mistakes about sending your Save The Dates out.

1. deciding you don’t need to send save the dates

If you want your guests to show up, then we highly recommend sending out Save The Dates. Especially if you would like your out of town guests to attend. This gives them enough time to book their flights, get a good rate on a hotel and just make travel plans in general.

Personally, we would have to arrange for someone to watch our dogs, water our plants and possibly take care of our children if they weren’t invited. If we only had 2 months to plan for this, then more than likely we would just be sending a gift. We bet that Elisha and Wesley sent out their Save The Dates with plenty of notice. They went with The Biltmore by GeekInc Design. We are loving the real gold foil. So fancy!

2. sending out your save the dates before you book your venue

You know for sure you are going to get married on Memorial Weekend, you took your engagement photos but have not had the time to officially book the venue.

Trust us, stranger things have happened and you might change your mind on the location or date. Until you put down that deposit DON'T send out your Save The Dates.

We are quite confident that the couple who had this lavish wedding reception booked their venue before sending out their Save The Dates. This amazing reception was designed by Revelry Event Design.

3. being vague about who is invited

We know it is your wedding, but be upfront on who is invited to the wedding when sending out your Save The Dates. For example, one couple would not let anyone bring a plus one that was not in a serious relationship. Serious meaning they had to have been together for over a year.  Another couple asked that you leave your children at home.

Don’t wait to send out the invites to address this. It gives your friends and family time to make arrangements and possibly find a date. Regardless of what you decide, it is your day and basically you can do whatever you want. By the way that stunning engagement ring is from singlestone.com and the band is from trabertgoldsmiths.

Here are some ways to address the invitees depending on who you are inviting:
Go ahead bring a plus one
Miss. Jenny Aster & Guest

If you are not allowing your single friends to bring a guest.
Miss. Jenny Aster

Only adults are invited. Please leave the kids at home.
Mr. & Mrs. James Wright

Bring the entire family, kids and all!
The Wright Family

3. sending out your save the dates too late

If you plan on having a destination wedding like Greece, we recommend sending out your Save The Dates 8-10 months in advance. Your family and friends can really start to prep, set aside money, ask for the proper time off from work. This also gives your friends and family enough time to possibly plan for travel before or after the wedding.

If you are planning a holiday weekend wedding, then 6-8 months in advance is enough notice. For a wedding, where most of your guests are local and you only have a few out of town guests then we recommend the traditional 4 months prior to the wedding. *Tip - be sure to email or call those few out of town guests personally and let them know around 6 months before. So, they can shop for flights.

8-10 months for a destination wedding (think a 17 hour flight to Greece)
6-8 month for a holiday weekend wedding (think a long weekend in Napa, California)
4 months for a local wedding not far from your house

Pretty Greece wedding below put on Crete for Love weddings and these gorgeous Gilded Elegance save the dates designed by Simona Cavallaro from Minted.

5. FORGETTING TO ADD YOUR wedding website

Not having a wedding website is crazy! Most of them are for free. Since it is in bad taste to let people know where you are registered on your Save the Dates, you can add it to your wedding website. It also is a great place to add any information about the event for those out of town guest.

If you did make mistake #2 and did send out the Save The Dates before booking the venue, then you can add the location change here. Check out all the cute wedding websites that Minted has to offer. Bonus! All of their designs are FREE!

6. cherry picking who you receives a save the date

There are different opinions on this, some say you can send them to a select few. We’ve heard that some couples only send them to out of town guests. We’ve even heard of couples sending out Save The Dates and waiting to hear who is coming or not and then sending out another batch if they hear a lot of their first round of guests cannot attend.

There are so many options on what the proper etiquette is on sending out Save The Dates! Finding what works for you will be easy, just be sure to take your out of town guests into consideration, and don't forget to add all of the appropriate information. We assure you that by following these guidelines you will have no stress. P.S. how cute are the ones above? It is the Meet in the Middle by Lauren Chism from Minted.