Wedding Blog
I’ve been on the ball with everything for this wedding. Ahead of the game, way too early at times, but never really late. Until my Save the Dates.
I kept putting off designing them (and they weren’t even intricate) and when I FINALLY decided on what I wanted and chose where to get them printed, I realized that they will get here with less then 6 months to go. Then I still have to account for addressing and the time it takes to deliver them.
Is it super late that my save the dates will get to everyone with only about 5 months until the wedding? Most of the guests that will have to travel to be at the wedding have the date, so I don’t think that it should be an issue.
I hate being improper, but the time just got away from me. I definitely have learned my lesson and will be doing all things paper as early as I can before the wedding from this point forward.
From most of my wedding planning lists that I’ve accumulated during our engagement, they say to send them out around the six month mark. When did you all send out your save the dates?
|
Share this post: Super Late Save The Dates
Just sent ours out and the wedding is oct 4th. Im sure you will be fine with the amount of time you have. It will get everyone pumped up about the wedding! BTW I have been following your wedding planning and its going to be perfect!
Hee, hee! I got mine out four months before…
I think you’re in great shape five months before. You’re not improper at all! Yes, etiquette suggests six months, but those guests that need more time will call - trust me… I got phone calls from my very detail-oriented aunt asking about hotels, from cousins who wanted to be sure they could get the time off from work, and from my best friend that also wanted to know about the hotel block.
By the time I sent the save-the-dates, everyone just remarked about what a neat idea they are! Sooo many people still think save-the-dates are a novelty and have never seen them before!! If people who need to know the date already know the date, you’re fine to send them when you send them.
Btw, only those three people I mentioned have booked rooms in the block, and I’m two months away now…the invitations will really get the ball rolling on people’s plans.
I dont think thats too late! If they go out too early, people just forget, you know? 5 months is a good time to actually consider travel plans and getting days off for work and stuff. I think 6 months prior is pretty standard anyway?
We sent ours end of January for a mid-July wedding. I had read that 5 - 6 months before is an appropriate time. We sent them primarily because July is prime vacation time, we wanted folks to be able to factor the wedding into whatever plans they were making, and also because by 8 weeks before the wedding you won’t be able to get a hotel room on the weekend where we live.
Since the main point of the save-the-date is travel reservations, I think that 5 months is perfectly adequate. In retrospect I might have sent them out a month earlier only because we spent all Christmas and New Years’ answering the question “When’s the wedding?”
5 months is fine. As long as there is still plenty of time for booking flights and making hotel reservations you are ok.
We sent ours out a full year in advance. Since we’re Jewish, we can’t get married on a Saturday, and my entire family is flying in, so a Friday wouldn’t work, so like every other Jewish couple on the planet, we’re getting married on the Sunday of a 3 day weekend…. Memorial Day weekend for us. Since almost all our families own shore homes somewhere that they flock to on Memorial Day, we wanted them to know before Memorial Day last year that they may not be there the following year, should they decide to attend our wedding. So our save the dates were in the mail the first week of May 2007 for a late May 2008 wedding.
It actually REALLY paid off for us — multiple people have since been invited to other weddings that same weekend, but since they received our save the date first, they’re coming to our wedding!
We sent ours in late February for our August 2 wedding (just over 5 months out). I hope to send the invites in late May.
I had intended to mail them sooner (in January), but it didn’t work out that way. We’ll have at least 3 months between the STDs and invitations… I think it’s fine. We just wanted to be sure to give family/friends a heads up so they could make their summer vacation plans appropriately. It’s never too late to give people that courtesy, IMO!
the consensus seems to be that you are not at all late, and i agree! today is our 6 month mark, and we just received our SDs from the printer. they’ll (hopefully) go out in the next week or two, but if it takes longer i’m not stressed about it.
people who aren’t in wedding planning world have no idea about what sort of timing is right, so i think we’re all just fine!
We sent ours last week for our 10/11 wedding. We are a little early (7 mos.) but about 90% of our guests are out of town and there is a marathon that weekend so hotels are already swamped, super expensive, and we had a really hard time finding room blocks for our guests. So we really wanted to make sure they are aware well ahead of time so they can book hotels now before they get up to $500 or are forced to find stuff in the burbs or something.
So I would say given that 6 mos is standard, 5 is totally fine if you don’t have to be as concerned about accommodations or the like and most people already know the date.
We sent our out the beginning of January for our Sunday, October 12 wedding.
Our wedding is on the Sunday of Canadian Thanksgiving weekend (wedding in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), so we wanted people to have lots of notice.
Plus most of our guests (and us as well) are travelling, so we wanted to give people lots of notice … plus like previous posts, so many people were asking us when we would have wedding information available - so 10 months out worked well for us…
I still haven’t sent mine out!!!!
My wedding is Aug 1st and we just finalized the design and will be printing them on Wed. I’m getting the envelopes on Monday so I can start addressing them.
I think 5 months is fine! Hey, a friend of mine was only engaged for 6 months before she got married last year, so of COURSE she couldn’t send her save-the-dates any earlier 
People will just be excited to “officially” start counting down to your big day!
we sent ours in mid january for our late june wedding… yes 5 months was later than we wanted to do it but like you the time just slipped away. people were excited to get them and im really glad we ended up sending them bc now we can send our invites out a little later (at 2 months) & not worry about people being able to book hotels.
5 months is plenty of time! Our wedding is in August and we just sent ours out at the beginning of March. We weren’t planning on sending any but everyone kept asking us about hotel accommodations so we kind of decided to send them last minute!
I’m not planning a wedding, so I probably shouldn’t be giving advice, but I thought I’d just give you the opinion from a different point of view. From all the responses, it seems as though you aren’t too late, but if you feel you are, why don’t you scrap the STDs altogether (unless you really wanted to send them out :))?
I honestly didn’t even know there was such a thing as STDs until I read Weddingbee. Isn’t that pretty much the whole point of an invite? I will admit that I am clueless when it comes to wedding planning, though. Just figured it would help you save money!
You are okay with your STD’s. STD’s are a trend. Unless you are having a wedding that is a year away, a destination wedding or a wedding with most guests traveling to the event, then they aren’t even needed. So, if you are less than six months out with sending yours, you are okay. Like you said, your guests already have the date anyway. So, it’s already saved! 
L — for my wedding 90% of the group are coming from out-of-state so sending STD’s is really important so that people can schedule the trip. We already know of a few that can’t come because they made summer vacation plans.
that’s not late at all. We are only engaged 6 months so our STD’s went out about 4 months ahead and our invitations are going out 7 weeks ahead.
We sent ours with 3 months to go (our engagement is only 6 months), and I didn’t know or think that we were too late.
@L: Invitations usually go out 1-1.5 months in advance and sometimes that is not enough time to adequately shop around for cheap flights/hotels…giving guests a “heads up” 4-8 months in advance allows them to put the trip on their calendar, keep an eye on deals for flights, etc. It is a newer wedding trend, but one that is most courteous especially to out of town guests
for example, suncountry airlines had an insane one-day-only $50 each way ticket from minnesota to california about 3 weeks ago…some of our guests were able to book tickets for only $100 round trip! we sent out STDs but didnt send out invitations yet, so I dont think anyone (outside of immediate family) would have been so bold to book that ticket if they werent 100 percent sure they were invited to the wedding. that was a whopping savings of $500 per couple for plane tix!
If you’re late, I’m later … our wedding is in June and I *just* mailed out our save the dates yesterday
I think you are fine. About 75% of our wedding guests will be coming from out of town for our Oct 4th wedding and I haven’t even started designing our STD or looked at hotel rooms blocks! It will be at least the end of April before ours go out.
I’m sure you’re fine but I wouldn’t really worry about them. It’s just something *else* to worry about. I’ve decided not to go the STD route.
I mean, I’m crafty and all that and would love a little craft project, but it’s just one more unnecessary added expense when we’re cutting all the corners we can.
But I’m totally jealous of all the DIY’er brides out there having fun with their’s.
| Visit our sister sites | Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Fertile Thoughts Infertility Support |
Mrs. Hydrangea, Dallas
Age and Occupation: 26, Administrative Assistant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Network Analyst
Engagement Date: June 2007
Wedding Date: September 2008
Blogging Since: January 14, 2008
Venue: Catholic Church and Reception at The W Hotel
About Me: Mr. H and I come from very different cultures and backgrounds so I'm excited to plan our wedding with a balance of both traditions. My mom has always been a DIY queen, and I'm just now starting to get into it with a new house and a wedding to plan!
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 |
Latest Gallery Pics