Save The Dates?

BRoss85

This is probably a silly question, but seeing as how I only helped plan one wedding in my life, I thought I'd ask you gals! 

With save the dates, are the necessary? My FI and I are trying to keep costs down, and it would help if they weren't absolutely essential. Were doing a semi-formal type of wedding. Any thoughts, comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated! 

(If they are needed, I was thinking of doing them up myself, instead of sending them to the printers.)

Loopyseven

They are not necessary at all.  Save your $$.  If you really want to do them, try designing post cards on Vistaprint or something... 

saxy414

If your wedding is near a holiday or you have a lot of OOT guests, they can be helpful.  I second the Vistaprint suggestion for affordable ones if you want them.  But definitely not necessary.

katiewhompus

They are not necessary but are helpful if your wedding is going to happen around a holiday or people need advanced time to make hotel reservations/travel accomodations.

 A lot of people use postcards from Vista print, print out pretty business cards, or just DIY it. I bought magnets from a thrift store then printed out my own stickers and sent them out with Christmas cards.

jnic0319

Not necessary at all!  I love mine and think they are cute but kind of regret them.  Now I actually have to invite all of the people I sent STD's too and the budget has blown up. 

debjwes

not necessary unless you have a lot of oot guests and if it's a destination weddint 

katiewhompus

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_save-dates-18?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:e0c5583a-43f7-4d49-8b00-adc5bbe75878Post:b099f940-185c-4f5b-b1b9-f75954e35e1f">Re: Save The Dates?</a>:
[QUOTE]Not necessary at all!  I love mine and think they are cute but kind of regret them.  Now I actually have to invite all of the people I sent STD's too and the budget has blown up. 
Posted by jnic0319[/QUOTE]

That's a good point. If you do chose to send them remember you MUST invite everyone who received an STD. Make sure you don't go STD crazy.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

I signed up for vistaprint emails, got 100 free postcards (just paid shipping) and used postcard stamps to send them. The total cost was about $12.

madilld24

Do the STD have to match your invitations? for a labor day weekend wedding how early should i send out STD?