When to Send Save the Dates, Invitations, and Thank You Cards for Your Wedding
Our Elegant Geometric semi-custom invitation with matching save the date and thank you cards
We are in the midst of engagement season and if you just go engaged you’re probably scouring every resource you can find about planning timelines. Venues, photographers, and dresses are usually the first things you might think about and sometimes stationery can get lost in the shuffle. It can be confusing navigating a stationery timeline among all the other wedding planning timelines out there, and even more so now with all the last minute changes and potential postponements due to the ongoing pandemic. Here are some tips from a professional wedding stationer:
Save the Date Cards - 8-10 months before the wedding
Save the date cards are a newer piece to the stationery puzzle. Back when people tended to stay in their hometowns through adulthood, it wasn’t necessary to give advance notice about weddings, as guests generally didn’t need to make travel arrangements. But now as couples tend to live away from their families of origin, and have friends around the country and maybe even the world, it’s become more common to let people know ahead of time so they can start looking for deals on flights and hotels, and budgeting for those expenses.
For destination weddings, or weddings where a majority of guests will need to travel, consider sending out your save the date cards 8-10 months in advance. For local weddings 6-8 months in advance is more than enough time to give people notice.
General tip: don’t send out your save the date cards more than a year or people might get confused which year the wedding is taking place.
COVID consideration: if you’re not sure how many guests you’ll be able to invite, consider only sending save the date cards to your VIP guests. If it turns out you can have a larger guest count, then go ahead and send them an invitation. It’s never bad etiquette to send someone an invitation without having sent them a save the date, but the opposite can be more difficult to do.
Invitations - 2-3 months before the wedding
Invitations -- the main star of the wedding stationery suite. With save the date cards becoming more common, your guests will already have marked your wedding date on their calendar, but that doesn't mean invitations are no longer important. You want to make sure you hit the sweet spot between giving your guests enough time to finalize any travel plans, but not sending them out too early so that the wedding falls off their radar and they forget to RSVP.
General tip: check with your venue and/or caterer to determine when they need their final head count and set your RSVP date two weeks before. This gives you plenty of time to chase down those stragglers that didn’t RSVP by the deadline.
COVID consideration: We all know that even though there is a light at the end of the tunnel of this pandemic, there is still a lot of uncertainty when it comes to weddings. If you’re unsure you’ll be able to include everyone on your guest list when the day comes, include a small note to let guests know that plans might change. If any major changes occur between when you send out your invitations and the wedding, make sure to communicate with your guests directly so that there is no confusion.
Thank You Cards - as soon as you receive the gift
There’s a misconception floating around that you have a year after your wedding to send out thank you cards, but somewhere wires got crossed -- it’s actually the guests that have a year to send you a gift. Once you receive a gift, it’s best to send the thank you note right away. That way, your guest knows it arrived safely and it saves you a mountain of thank you cards to write after the wedding. Thank you cards for any gifts received one to two weeks before the wedding can wait until after. Guests know that the weeks leading up to the wedding are busy.
General tip: It’s tempting to send a thank you email or a generic note to everyone, but people still appreciate a handwritten personalized note. It doesn’t have to be long but do mention the gift in the note. And if you received money, a general “thank you for your generous gift” is a good way to indicate that you received the money without mentioning it specifically.
COVID consideration: if you’ve postponed your wedding, or eloped and are having a larger reception later, but people still sent you gifts, really make sure to send a thank you card right away and maybe mention that you are looking forward to celebrating with them at a later date.
I hope that was helpful! Check back soon to see a detailed outline of when you should be ordering all these stationery pieces, whether you're going the semi-custom or bespoke route.
All stationery pieces pictured above are part of our Elegant Geometric Collection Suite. You can find more information on how to order and customize for your wedding on our Collection page.
