Like a dutiful bride-to-be, after getting engaged, I immediately began researching what I needed to do and by when. I looked at a whole bunch of checklists and timelines from a couple different sources, eager to make sure that I wasn’t falling behind in the wedding-planning mayhem. Most of the items were straightforward, and I had no problem tackling them right away. Get a church? Sure. Book a reception spot? No problem. Pick your bridal party? Got it. However, one item kind of gave me pause, since I’m not fully convinced it’s a necessary step in wedding planning.
Image via Wedding Planning Checklist
That item? Save the dates. For those of you who don’t scour wedding blogs like it’s your friggin’ job, save the dates are little cards sent out approximately six months before your wedding date. You send these cards to anyone who is invited to the wedding, giving guests a heads-up of exactly which date they should keep free on their calendars (in case you couldn’t figure THAT one out) and helping out-of-town guests get a head start on booking any travel or lodging accommodations they may need for the wedding.
Sure, sure, they sound practical and nice and all that jazz. However, here’s my dilemma. Pretty much all of our out-of-town guests (now called OOTers) know we’re getting married and where and when it’s happening. Most OOTers are college friends or relatives who are pretty in-the-loop with wedding stuff. Do I really need to shell out the time, money, and energy to create these cards so people can see information on a piece of paper that they already have in their brains? And if they are a bit hazy on the details, is it fair game to just email them and sort it out on a case-by-case basis? Maybe I’m a stick in the mud, or maybe I’m lazy, but a decent-sized part of me sees STDs (hee hee, I have the maturity of a five-year-old) as unnecessary time-suckers and money-wasters.
Buuuuuut on the other hand, I’ve recently discovered that STDs can be really cute and surprisingly not that expensive. If you go with a popular printing site such as Snapfish or VistaPrint, they are quick to make, too, since you pretty much pick a format, fill in the blanks, and *BOOM*—STDs!
Image via Wedding Paper Divas / Photo by Photorange Photography
Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Kristin Vining
Image via Brooklyn Bride / Photo by Bright Fizz Photo
Maybe I’m getting sucked in by the wedding industry; while I still don’t think STDs are necessary in our case, I think they could be super fun and a cute little wedding project for me. What do you think? Should I let my clearer head prevail and scrap the whole STD phenomenon, or should I join the masses of other brides who fall victim to the excitement of kicking off wedding festivities many, many months in advance?
I designed mine on VistaPrint. I spent $24 for 250 (although I did not need that many.) And it was kind of fun to send an engagement picture of us out!
You know why I liked having save the dates? So people who are invited didn’t ask me over and over again when the date is hah. They have a handy dandy little magnet that I made through vistaprint. It was surprisingly cheap, and we sent it out about 10 months before the wedding. Also, it helped us to figure out our exact guest list far in advance which made it easier to plan everything else.
I chose to do STDs because of my very popular wedding date 9/10/11. However, if all of your guest know when/where the wedding will be already… it might be something you can forgo… maybe spend some extra on a candy buffet or statement necklace 
You could always do a fun digital one that would be free!
I did them, quite begrudgingly, only because some of Mr. H’s family members were trying to plan their vacations at the same time as the wedding. We weren’t quite as good as you at getting the word out!
I wasn’t sure about them either but after I saw our cute e-pics I knew I had to put them to use and made some easy STDs and printed through PS Print.
I didn’t do that and I’m really happy with that decision. However, if you think you’ll have fun with them, do them!
I was against the STDs, and my reason was really awful, but I have A LOT of family that see our wedding as their personal family reunion, and I didn’t want to give them time to plan too far in advance. I know, I’m awful. My groom has a lot of OOT friends and we wanted to give them the courtesy of planning so I made a cute card and sent it to a few people on the guest list as a heads up. Long story short, people didn’t really pay attention to the email. They’ve lost it and are calling us to find out what the website is and when the date is again. So in retrospect, I do see some value in the physical card because people tend to stick it on the fridge until the date. For added pressure, it does seem to be part of your responsibilities as a “bee” to do an STD.
STDs are the only thing we probably skipped (well, besides rings) in the end, but I bet if they came up later in the process after I’d lost my mind, we’d have had them too.
I have to say, even friends we see on a regular basis (i.e. at least once a week) were asking about hotel, flight info, reminders of the date, etc. before we even sent our STDs (giggle) – and we mailed ours 9 months in advance because its a semi-destination wedding! I think the most helpful part was putting our website on them, so people have one resource to go to rather than constantly checking with us. It may not be NECESSARY, but I think it helps – it also probably depends on how large your wedding is. With the size of our guest list, I did NOT want every person emailing me two or three times for a “reminder” of the date, or a question on which hotel to book!
We did, mainly because a large amount of our invitees are OOTers.
Then again, the less STDs floating around out there, the better. BWAHAHA I couldn’t resist
I made a digital STD that I embedded into a mass email, cost = $0! And I still got to experience the awesomeness of designing it for a few weeks. Our guests loved it!
We’re doing them because 90% of our guests are out of town, and most of them aren’t really “in the loop” as far as wedding planning goes. Heck, even my immediate family (who I still live with) aren’t 100% in the loop — this I view as their own doing, though; when I got engaged (and right beforehand), my mom couldn’t have cared less about my wedding plans, and was always telling me to slow down, and I’d change my mind anyways, etc. etc., so I stopped updating them. Now she wants to go dress shopping! WTF!
Anyways. Ahem. STDs. : D I really like them, because I’m in love with paper products. But when we were initially budgeting our wedding, we left them out because they really are extraneous, especially if your guests are in the loop.
I don’t think we NEED needed them, but we did them anyway because I thought it would be fun. It was how some of our far-flung friends found out the date of the wedding. If we hadn’t done STDs, we would have called or emailed. I just like sending mail!
Even though i did like the vistaprint STD’s, we decided it was not worth spending money on and digital was the way to go.
I’m doing them in lieu of an engagement announcement. However, no one in my family has ever seen a STD and they probably won’t care, but will appreciate the picture, I think.
I went back and forth on this too… but I think people get so excited about the wedding, and they really love seeing stuff like this in the mail That cookie STD is too cute!
We ended up doing them for 3 reasons: Lots of Out of Towners, an uber popular wedding date and I needed an excuse to send people our e-pics! They totally aren’t necessary though, so do what you feel is right for you and your guests!
I didn’t do them, mostly because we can’t justify sending those out and then our invites, when we are getting married only 7 months after we got engaged. 
Save the dates are one of those things that I put on my checklist…maybe to do later. But yeah, we are at the 6 month point and we have no STD’s (haha).
But, most of our family is local and the important ones know what day the wedding is. I’m planning on sending out a link to our website via email so the few oot-ers can start the travel plans
Mrs. Snow Cone, Pittsburgh/Johnstown, PA Age and Occupation: 23, Public Health Graduate Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Engineer Engagement Date: April 9, 2010 Wedding Date: August 2011 Venue: OMOS Church ceremony/Sunnehanna Country Club reception About Me: I’m one of the lucky ones---I met my future husband at the ripe old age of 13, started dating him as a mature woman of 15, and have been enjoying the ride ever since. Here we are, 8 years later, living in Pittsburgh, planning a "homestination" wedding in the place our school romance began---Johnstown, PA. I thrive on talking a mile a minute, eating my weight in chocolate, and internet shopping. I love a lengthy to-do list almost as much as I love a healthy amount of chaos in my life. Mr. Snow Cone and I watch countless episodes of Friends and The West Wing on repeat, root for rival college sports teams, and make each other laugh each and every day. We’re putting together a small-town wedding with a big personality and a classically modern (or modernly classic?) look for 250 of our closest family and friends. It’s been 8+ years in the making, and sometimes I still can’t believe I’m finally getting to marry my high school sweetheart!
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