Save the Date Etiquette

CPM17

Hello. I have been searching far and wide for an answer to my question and have not found a sufficient answer so I am hoping someone can help. We have secured our wedding venue, which is an inn, as well as a reception hall. We have booked the rooms at the inn for our wedding night and have also blocked rooms at another inn owned by our wedding venue since we will be having a lot of out-of-town guests. We need to release the block of rooms at the other inn two months prior to our wedding if they will not be used. Would it be acceptable to let guests know on our save-the-dates that they can begin booking rooms? Since our wedding invitations won't be going out until 10 weeks before our wedding, I don't want to risk guests not being able to book a room since they will only have two weeks between our invitations going out and the room block being released. Would it be better to just send out the formal wedding invitations early instead of mentioning the room block on our save-the-dates? Any help is greatly appreciated. 

AddieCake

Yes, that would be fine to put on the STDs. You could also make a wedding website and include that info there. 

manateehugger

I agree with @AddieL73 - it's fine. 

Most people recommend that you don't send invitations out earlier than 8 weeks before the wedding date. 

StephJean83

If you have a wedding website you could include the URL and info for booking rooms on the STDs. I wouldn't send invites out early because you get a lot of people who forget to RSVP or decline because they don't know their schedule. I will say from experience my sister sent STDs at 18 months pre-wedding and sent her wedding invites at 7 months before her wedding. She had a ton of people decline because they didn't know their schedule and those who RSVP yes, they probably had 40% no shows because people forgot they replied or didn't really care if they went or not.

People are not stupid, when they get STDs they start looking at booking rooms and will call if they want to know about blocks or recommendations. They might have loyalty points to use or something and will research hotels without using the room block anyways.

Danie484

PDKH said:

I agree with @AddieL73 - it's fine. 

Most people recommend that you don't send invitations out earlier than 8 weeks before the wedding date. 

I think OP sending them out earlier is fine (especially because of the hotel deadline). Don't sweat it, OP. Just put it on the STDs and put a link on your website and you're golden.

manateehugger

Danie484 said:

PDKH said:

I agree with @AddieL73 - it's fine. 

Most people recommend that you don't send invitations out earlier than 8 weeks before the wedding date. 

I think OP sending them out earlier is fine (especially because of the hotel deadline). Don't sweat it, OP. Just put it on the STDs and put a link on your website and you're golden.

No, I don't think it's the worst thing in the world if she sends them out early. But this recommendation is based on exactly the reasons @StephJean83 mentioned. People forget. 

niki&rob

On our save the dates we wrote: We reccommend booking your accomodation at least 6 months prior to July 2014, you will find all related wedding information and accomodations on our website.

AddieCake

I definitely don't think you should send the invitations out any earlier. If people need to make arrangements, they will know via the STD. 

StephJean83

Sending them at week 10 vs week 8 to me isn't compared to month 7 prior vs week 8. Two weeks IMO isn't a huge difference in time. If OP sends STDs with booking info/website now/soon and 10 weeks before the wedding mails invites, it gives people ample time to use the room block if they so choose. Sometimes hotels will honor the price even after the cut off date.

loca4pook

putting on STD's is fine..I also did word of mouth on my hotel. Alot of my closes friends/family booked before invitatinos were sent out, as well