Save the dates- necessary?

They aren't necessary..however I sent mine out in September (six months before my wedding) and I'm glad I did..I feel more organized having all the addresses now in a notebook..getting all the addresses was the worst part for me this far so now that I have them when I send out invites early January it's one less thing I have to get..I got my STD from Vistaprint for only $50 for 90 and I didnt get engagement photos so they don't have a pic of us on them..but I like that better honestly lol anyways its up to u but u still have some time if u wanna order them now u can send out right after Thanksgiving

It not necessary send out 6 months. I found my venue in July and getting married in February 2018. My engagement photo shoot was until September so I barely sent it this month and I still missing to send them

They are not necessary. We skipped them and just told people the dare as it came up in conversation. And family spread the word for us too

IMO if you are having a large amount of OOT guests then yes STDs are necessary, especially so they can plan ahead. If the wedding is in May it is when many kids get out of school, etc. and people are already planning or have planned vacations for that time frame.

We sent ours out 11 months in advance because a good majority of people will have to travel at least some distance to attend. We didn't have our engagement pics done yet, we still don't and will have them done at the end of February. You don't have to have the E pics for the STDs. We might incorporate them in the invites but honestly, we just want them for posterity's sake (and they are complimentary with our photographers' package...which for $6k they better be haha).

We will send out actual invites probably six months in advance. I am wanting to give notification and invitations early so people can really plan as our wedding is on a holiday weekend (labor day) and you just never know. Also I am really not wanting to have people RSVP then have them not show up. Each plate is almost $200. Not trying to spend that money for a ghost.

They're not a new trend, and you don't need to send them out 6 months early... But as soon as you can would be nice for those you want to make sure actually save the date.

I sent ours five months out. Got magnets for about $50 from Vistaprint. We didn't have engagement pictures yet, so it was relatively simple. I'm personally glad we did because OOT guests wanted to know airlines, weekends, and times to start looking. Plus it had our wedding site on it, which helped early on with answering questions. Then we didn't have to hound for addresses later...We did get one or two wrong, so it helped! AND it stopped the whole, "Am I invited? Is cousin Chris invited? How about uncle Joe?"

We did electronic ones (free!) and only sent them out to VIPs and OOT guests. Just be careful - there are a lot of stories on the forums of couples who have sent out STDs and then circumstances changed, leaving them in an awkward position because once you've sent someone an STD, you have to send them an invitation. Hence why we sent them to VIPs and OOT guests only...

Absolutely not necessary. Your VIPs presumably already know when your wedding is. Other guests are unlikely to plan vacations, etc., so as to be available for your wedding. For anyone other than the VIPs, therefore, sending the invitations out 8 weeks before the wedding will give them plenty of time to get the best rates for airline tickets and hotels.

I too have been thinking about STD's. I told FH that we would need to get everything ordered this weekend (yay sales!) in order to do a Christmas card STD. While I will be closer to the 5 month mark when people will be receiving them, I figure as long as they know before the new year, people should be ok to not already have plans set in stone.

Im definitely sending save the dates, 3 months early tho...some of my OOT guests have already been notified last month

We are sending them out. 1/3 of our wedding guests are out of town. We are getting a great deal through Vistaprint, so why not!

No. People have had weddings for centuries without STD's, and they can crate as many problems as they solve. Essentially, they are an invite; if your plans or budgets or relationships change, your list is fixed; you can't NOT invite anyone who has gotten an STD.

Call your immediate family to let them know the date. For everyone else, send the invite 6-8 weeks ahead. Save the time and money.....https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/save-the-dates-necessary/8e2d47ac9b6b2787.html#

They're not necessary. They're helpful for out of town guests planning, but if you are concerned, you can just let people know directly

We are thinking of doing them but only because our wedding is in a tourist town that gets REALLY crowded that time of year. We want to give people a chance to book rooms before they are gone and since our wedding is on a Friday a lot of people are going to at least need to take a 1/2 day from work.

STD's are not necessary. All of the people I'm closest to knew the date the moment we booked out wedding venue

HOWEVER - we are doing a holiday card/save the date, because we usually do a fun photo holiday card anyway.

We are doing them only because 80% of our guest list is from out of town, pharmacist, or doctors that all need to know well in advance to take time off of work. If it wasn't for that I don't think I would even bother.

I agree with Celia, we see posts here with people saying they have run out of room or money, and once you send out STDs, you MUST invited the people. If you insist on doing them, I would:

1. Make absolutely certain you understand the maximum at your venue. If the venue says 125, ASK them, does that include if I want a band and a dance floor, then how much room. ASK, does that include vendors (yes, you have to feed band or DJ, photographer, anyone else there for the entire function).

2. If you are not giving a plus one for every guest, add in "cushion" in case cousin Ann gets engaged or your FH did not tell you one of his grooms is engaged. Yes, these things happen.

3. You and FH need to decide, and communicate to both Moms, are kids invited? Does everyone get a plus one. People will ask as soon as STDs go out.

IMHO, you are far better off sending a letter to grandparents, emailing confirming date with wedding party.

We are only sending save the dates because the majority of our guest list are out of town and we want them to have as much notice as possible to take time off, book their hotel rooms, and arrange transport. We will probably send them out 8 months on advance with our wedding website on them.

I enjoyed the experience of doing them (doggie photo shoot: my icon is the photo we used) and i think they were useful because a LOT of guests live far far away, but if your guests are all local, I would say skip.

I had grand plans to send out picture STD's at 6 months out. Then real life happened and plans got delayed. I'm getting married in May also and we are going to send out (picture-less) STD next week. It's "late", but no one who receives it will know.

We have a bunch of OOT guests and very forgetful family members, which is why we are doing them. Our venue also has a minimum guest count, so we know our guest list is fairly solid right now.

It was also helpful to collect addresses now for out family holiday cards and now we have everything for when we address the invites.

We're doing our engagement photo shoot on Sunday, again behind the timeline for that... but we're getting it done and will be using the pictures in a ton of different ways (just not STD).