Save the date cards

I sent mine to my day guests excatly a year before x

I was thinking the same thing!

Just booked my venue so the big day is 12th of May 2012. Which feels like a very long way away but maybe sending out save the date cards 1 year in advance would be a good idea!

Does that sound like about the right sort of time?

I was going to send mine out a year advance but i'm waiting for something else to be delivered before I can send them! ? x

A year in advance sounds good to me! Enough time for people to make arrangements etc especially if they have to travel a long way.

I wouldn't personally send to evening guests, for two reasons.

Firstly, they might assume they would then be invited all day (I know I would) and I think it's rude to ask them to save the whole date and then only invite them in the evening. (Sorry if this offends anyone but that's just how I feel... what if I'd canceled other plans for the daytime?) If you specify "evening invitation to follow" then that's okay as they know, but for me there just wasn't any point in sending save the dates for evening people... if I was fussed enough about them to make sure they kept the date free and were there, I'd have invited them all day. Horses for courses though

Secondly, in six months' time you may well have changed your mind about the specific guest list. My day people were all definites... family and very close friends... but evening people not so much; obviously I still want them there but I know our guest list has changed from when we first started planning. Again, you might be different and KNOW your guest list!

As we are getting married in the summer holidays 2012 on the August bank holiday we will be sending ours out when they are delivered (which should be in about two weeks as we ordered them on the weekend) as a lot of our guests have children and book their family holidays up over a year in advance. So it depends on your guests really and your date and just think as though you were a guest, realistically when would you need to know by or when would it be useful for you to know by if that makes sense. HTH xx

Oh yeah forgot to say we're only sending them to the day guests as I'd be worried evening guests might get the wrong impression and think they're invited to the day too.x

Hi

I normally advise sending save the dates a year before the big day and generally they just to go to the day guests unless the wording specifically addresses day v evening guests.

I do save the date cards to match all my designs if you are looking for inspiration. They can be made with magnets as well.

Anna

I sent mine out 18 months in advance. I did this as most of the people I know like to get all their summer holidays booked up, plus I was sick of everyone asking me for a date the minute we had got engaged! I sent them to both day and evening guests so that they were all aware we wanted them to share our day in some if possible, but all our evening guests are friends and they are aware for the day it is just family (and a couple of mates who are in the bridal party). So far so good. Only change has been one tool who insulted my OH on our engagement party so their STD won't be followed up with a real invite!

We sent ours out about 10 months in advance (would have been sooner but we had to bring the date forward because of venue availability). I think that's an appropriate amount of time but if your wedding is in the summer, earlier would be better in case people are planning on booking holidays. And I agree with the others about evening guests!