Hi ladies, I thought I'd share a tip with you that I have just learned first-hand. It is very standard to use the phrase "Invitation to follow" on Save-the-dates and I'm sure that most of you did use that phrase or are planning to use that phrase.
When I made my save-the-dates I played around a lot with the formatting and the wording. At the bottom of the save-the-date I deleted the phrase "invitation to follow" and instead put the address for our wedding website. I felt that it was obvious that an invitation was to follow so that phrase wasn't necessary and I loved how my save-the-date looked.
To me, it was obvious that this was a save-the-date. It was a one-sided card with the this wording:
SAVE THE DATE
WE'RE GETTING MARRIED
SEPTEMBER 21, 2013
JANE SMITH
AND JOHN JONES
Smithville, Ontario
smithjones.ourwedding.com
(No, that's not our real info other than the wedding date!)
First, my future step-sister in law RSVP'd on facebook. I could tell that she didn't know what an STD was, and she was unsure how to go about RSVPing. Then, a good friend of mine sent me a postcard in the mail to accept my invitation. Then, my Grandma sent me a card in the mail to thank me for inviting her and let me know she would be attending. When I called her on the phone she told me that my Aunt wanted to send her own card to accept soon. I told my Grandma (and the others, too) that our proper invitations would be coming this summer and she was really surprised. She said "Oh honey, so what did you send me then?" I explained it was a save-the-date and I explained that the invitation would have a reply card and she could select her meal, and it would have a map and tell her exactly where the venue is located- she didn't expect that and she thought that what she had received was her invitation!
So, not a big deal but I do wish I'd kept the phrase "Invitation to follow" on the STD and I wanted to pass that along to other brides- although I'm sure you were going to anyway it was my mistake to think that wasn't important. To me it was obviously a save-the-date and I even wrote Save the date! on the back of the envelopes but I learned that not everyone is super familiar with the concept of save-the-dates or at least without that phrase it leaves then unsure of how to proceed. My website also said on the homepage that save-the-dates were out and invitations would follow this summer but, understandably, not everyone reads the website or at least not word-for-word.