how early is too early?

elishanb

Ok 10/2/10 is far far away.but I know I have to start thinking about some things for the out of town people. Ok some of the in town guests too. and i need to think about what i want to do for a save the date...But how early is too early to send out save the dates because I have gotten them way to early and nearly forgotten about the wedding and I have also gotten them too late and already had plans and had to miss the wedding.Any thoughts on a "right time"

colleenmclaughlin1

We sent ours out in late January for our Sept 12th wedding.  We have a lot of OOT guests, so I wanted a little earlier, especially since we are the weekend after a holiday weekend and wanted people to be able to plan any vacation time if they needed to.  I think anywhere from 6-10 months prior is typically standard.

kwynn

I'd say one year in advance is fine. If you have a ton of out of town people, I'd send them between one year and eight months in advance. (I sent mine 6-7 months in advance, but had a shorter engagement)Just be sure you have your guest list totally locked before sending them, as it is the point of no return!

McBridetobe

We sent ours in Christmas cards for our July wedding.  Just be sure you have your guest list totally locked before sending them, as it is the point of no return!Ditto!  You don't want to send them to your entire guest list...just the people you REALLY want to be there. 

elishanb

he point of no return!! dang!! can they really only be sent to some people and not everyone on the guest list?

d78

Ditto kwynn & KR (I'm ditto-ing you a lot today, Kelly Rose! lol) We only sent STDs to the OOT family members and bridal party. We told friends, but didn't send them STDs, because you never know what can happen. Ours went out with Christmas cards for our June wedding, so about 6 months prior.

KimWard

I actually sent them to everyone (never heard of/that of just sending them to OOTers), and I sent them with x-mas cards in Dec. for my May wedding. I know I was cutting it a bit close, but I was cheap! :-) I think if you sent them in cards this Christmas, it would be fine! HTH!

e8jackson6

can they really only be sent to some people and not everyone on the guest list?Definitely - only send to the people you are 110% sure about.  If you send a STD, then you have to send them an invite, whether you change your mind or not.And I'd say 6-8 months out is more than enough time for people to make travel plans.  I think a year is too much - and people will forget.

McBridetobe

Absolutely!  Send them to whoever you want! 

kwynn

Don't send them to your whole guest list. That is just asking for trouble down the line. I only sent to people we were so sure we wanted there. Like Dori said, who knows what can happen? What if you have to make budget cuts, etc?

elishanb

oddly comforting to hear that not everyone has to receive a save the date. you know just in case something happens.  

npales

I did 8 months prior. I sent to everyone and have since changed my mind about one person, whom I wish had not received an STD. Oh well

britac11

We also sent ours in Christmas cards for our July wedding.  We only sent out 100 (compared to the 140 invites we sent out) because there were people we still weren't sure about.  Make sure you keep a list of people that you send them to!

elishanb

8 months seems like a happy time to send.. not cutting it too close but just far enough away to have good planning time for out of town people. And it gives me more time then i would have ever thought!

elishanb

recently I've gotten a lot of Save the Dates that were things like maganets and more just STUFF rather than just cards or notes. I even got a myspace Save the date (which i would never do) but the maganet never let me forget for even one trip to my fridge that i had a wedding to go to in 8 months,, 6 months,, 2 months,,, 3 days,,, (you get the point) but it is still ok to send a nice note or card to say " Hey save the date!" right?

jennybean2010

i agree, a year is too much, unless your wedding date is a holiday (which in this case, it is not. however, it is the same date as my baby sisters wedding!). people will forget, and it is too early for some websites to allow flight booking (apple vacations would not even give me flight options until june to book our january HM). 6 months will be more than enough time.

colleenmclaughlin1

Yeah, you can send whatever kind of save the date suits you and FI.  I've gotten the magnets, cards, even a card with a pencil that had their name & date on it and the card said "pencil us in!" (cute).A lot of ladies on here use vistaprint for postcards.  FI and I did shutterfly photocards.  You have a ton of options and enough time to explore what you want.

d78

We did Vistaprint magnets and they were great!!

LisaS1010

My wedding date is October 16, 2010 and I'm planning on sending out STD's around January - February time frame - so about 8 months.   

kbielak17

98% of our guests are OOT so we sent them about 11 1/2 months in advance. It worked really well. But like people said, we only sent them to the people we knew we definitely were going to invite.

skybluejen

Almost all of our guests were from OOT (we invited 340) and we sent our STDs 5 months in advance. I think any earlier is too early, people just throw them in a pile and forget. We bought magnets from magnetstreet.com and people loved them!

elishanb

the mags are cute. there are lots of cute ideas out there. which is something else i've been learning on this quest to the wedding date.. there are about a million things i never thought about before all of this started!

jennybean2010

our STD's were done by lauren at noteworthy (PIB). they were gorgeous-we're still getting compliments on them. some of our guests i found are carrying them around in their purses to show to people..lol. she does amazing work. she's also doing our invites, and we're only spending $2.50/invite! amazing!