Save the Dates?

ejheart · March 2012

Hey ladies, my wedding is Sept. 22, and I know that we need to get save-the-dates out soon. I am debating over whether to do a traditional STD with no picture, or rushing to have our engagement shoot done and using one of those photos.

I know the picture STDs are really popular now, but I was just curious...what are you all doing? Is there a particular reason why you chose the type that you did?

If we don't go the photo route then we will probably use the engagement shoot for our guestbook. TIA for any input!

wineo929 · March 2012

We chose the route of a magnet because we know it will hit people's fridges. I ALWAYS lose paper, so I didn't want my guests losing the STD. We did one with a few e-pics because I love the personalization of it!

mamameech · March 2012

We added ours to our xmas card mail out. It didn't really matter to us if the card was tossed seeing as it's just a "pre" invite anyway and with facebook, everyone knows anyway LOL

Ours looked like this:

Can I ask why you want to send them out at this point? I'm so not trying to be rude - I just want to make sure you don't spend money/time if you don't need to. You could always just send your invitations out a bit earlier instead and save yourself double the $ in stamps/printing. I do like the idea of the STD but if it's not practical then it's a lot of work for nothing. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

AriesAngel86 · March 2012

I did a traditional one with envelope. We aren't doing engagement photos.

bridalmomma · March 2012

Also not trying to be rude , but I have to ditto what Mama said.... at this point I don't think I would send them. If I HAD to send them I would maybe just send to anyone who needs to make travel arrangements. In which case I would forget the picture ones and just get them in the mail ASAP! GL

BMcLeodTeam · March 2012

We did thet magnets, however hadn't had our Epics yet. We went to a local park with FI's friend and had a couple pictures of us taken holding signs that said "Save the Date" and "Sept 22, 2012" and used those. There are pictures in my bio

That being said, I wouldn't rush your Epics just for the STDs

lbarr088 · March 2012

We did the magnets. A CW of mine did our "E-pics" so we chose one of those to use. The funny part about it is that half the people:

1. Didn't realize it was a magnet - held it up with a magnet

2. Thought it was the invitation - say what?

3. Threw out the card that held the magnet that had our wedding website because they thought it was from the magnet company, so they are missing all of the accomodation info, etc.

Sigh. If I had a re-do I would definitely do just a plain STD. They are cool and all but people are most likely to hold onto the invitation vs. the STD for longer. In the end, everyone is going to throw it out. I wouldn't waste a ton of money on these.

volleygurl0306 · March 2012

I picked other because we did an "other" because we were running a little later than expected with our STDs and didn't have a big budget for them. We did email STDs with photos. We chose to do photos because frankly, a lot of our guests don't know what one of us looks like haha. Only my local friends and family has met FI and I've only met essentially our GM, his immediate family, and a few extended family. We sent the email because it was free and we only sent to those who had to get on a plane (my entire side). Also, the emails got to people immediately and didn't have to worry about shipping times.

We just sent emails that said:

Dear Joe and Jane,
(inserted this into the email)

(inserted link to website they could click)

Love,
Kathryn and Radhi

smartlypretty · March 2012

Okay, well you at at almost exactly 6 months right now. This would be a totally appropriate time to send out STDs. I guess my one concern (if you used pictures), would be, how quickly do you think you can get them out? You would need to schedule the shoot, do the shoot, wait for the pictures, actually make the STDs, order them, wait for them to get it, address them, etc. I would be worried that this would take too long (ended up taking me like 2 months). It might just be better to do non-picture STDs so that you can send them out now.

entropicbeauty · March 2012

You won't want to "rush" getting engagement pics just for a STD - your photographer might not be able to get you your pictures back in enough time for a STD to be relevant before you send out invites.

An alternative, if you really want a picture, would be to just use a nice picture you already have of the two of you.

I've attached my STD just for funsies.

romamor4 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_september-2012-weddings_save-the-dates?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:a464c18c-2e4d-469b-8eae-3865079cb9cfDiscussion:39f949d2-2911-4218-9a01-19a5b90f6856Post:67cbe9b7-28c1-4a93-8022-4380d5d0a6ca">Re: Save the Dates?</a>:
[QUOTE]You won't want to "rush" getting engagement pics just for a STD - your photographer might not be able to get you your pictures back in enough time for a STD to be relevant before you send out invites. An alternative, if you really want a picture, would be to just use a nice picture you already have of the two of you. I've attached my STD just for funsies.
Posted by entropicbeauty[/QUOTE]

<div>This is one of my fav STDs that I've seen on here! </div>

AnnamarieZTA · March 2012

We just mailed ours out last week for our September 22 wedding. We actually did our engagement photo session last year since it was a gift while we were in Puerto Rico, so we just used one of those photos. What we did though was use a business website, vistaprint.com, and made our own postcards. They are MUCH cheaper than the normal magnets, cards, etc... and you also save on postage!

ejheart · March 2012

Thanks everyone for the great feedback! The reason that I am set on sending out save-the-dates (and not just skipping it altogether) is that all of FI's family is all from out of town and will need to make travel arrangements. The main point of the STDs will be for them to have access to our wedding website in order to get the necessary info earlier that they would with the invites.

With our photographer, she would be able to do our shoot then let us look through her camera that day and pick a few of our favorites. She would then edit the favorites that night so that we could have a quick turnaround time. But, Smartlypretty, you are right...it would still take me a while to get them ordered and addressed. Surely not 2 months if I had help, but at least a few weeks.

I think I will probably go the traditional paper route just to save myself the hassle of doing the pics, choosing the perfect one, THEN choosing a STD that goes well with the picture size/shape/our clothing colors, etc.

cpasquale · March 2012

We did a magnet with caricature that we had someone from etsy draw up for us.

They were a huge hit! And probably my favorite thing we've done so far!

junebug19 · March 2012

We did a magnet with no picture, just our names carved in a tree. The tree & forest background fit our theme and FI didn't want his "face on people's fridge's for a year" but we did a magnet so it wouldn't get lost.

MrsBassPlaya · March 2012

I tihnk at this point, I would just do a post card with info on it. I did a magnet with a pic, etc. but that was a few months ago. If it were me, I'd go the cheap route now to get the info out. They'll be getting an invite relatively soon (eek!), so I would just save the pics for a guest book or something.

Laur110 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_september-2012-weddings_save-the-dates?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:a464c18c-2e4d-469b-8eae-3865079cb9cfDiscussion:39f949d2-2911-4218-9a01-19a5b90f6856Post:05778ae4-c175-4271-84d9-25be6132fc64">Re: Save the Dates?</a>:
[QUOTE]We did a magnet with caricature that we had someone from etsy draw up for us. They were a huge hit! And probably my favorite thing we've done so far!
Posted by cpasquale[/QUOTE]

We did this as well and got such great feedback! :)
Also one of my favorite things we have done for the wedding so far...!

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