Your personalised wedding invitations say a lot about your personality and style. Before officially inviting family and friends to join you and your beloved on the special day, it’s good wedding etiquette to send out save the date cards.

A beautiful save the date card lets your guest know that you’re planning to tie the knot on a specific day. This important piece of customized wedding stationery also gives them plenty of notice, so that they have time to make plans to join you in the happy celebrations.

While it is traditional to send your elegant and bespoke wedding stationery items in the post, some people prefer to hit the Send button on a computer to mail out e-invites instead. To help you decide which option is best for you, check out the pros and cons below…

E-Invites

An e-invite is the modern way to send out a notification of a special event. This non-traditional electronic invitation has become popular with brides and grooms that want to save time and money. E-invites are ideal for you if you’re environmentally conscious and want to make your big day as sustainable as possible.

The Pros:

If you’re getting hitched, and you’re working with a tight budget, e-invites can help you reduce some of the wedding expense. 

If you’re creative, you can design your own pre-wedding e-invites on a computer, and instantly send them out.

You can use an online service that specialises in paperless post, and can customise the templates by changing the e-invite’s text, style, backdrop and envelope.

There are many free pre-designed e-invites available online.

Cutting back on wedding stationery helps to make the big day more sustainable, if you’re actively doing your bit for the planet.

The Cons:

Although e-invites have become an acceptable form of wedding invitation, not all of your guests will be impressed that their invite landed in the computer Inbox, instead of on the doormat.

You will need to contact all of your guests to request their email address, so that you can send out your wedding e-invites. This can be time consuming if you have to chase people up. 

Some of your older guests may not have an email account that you can send the e-invite to. To ensure that they get your invite, you will need to send them a handwritten save the date card, and follow up wedding invitation.

Save The Date Cards

To ensure that the VIPs on your wedding guest list are free and available to attend your celebration, it’s polite to send out save the date cards. If your wedding takes place during peak travel times, such as the summer months, it’s a necessary courtesy to send this invite to your guests.

Whether you’re planning nuptials that are traditional/formal or casual/modern, or alternative, this is a perfectly acceptable form of pre-wedding invite. Designed to notify guests of the date that they need to reserve in their social calendar, this card and has become an essential piece of wedding stationery.

The Pros:

Everyone loves receiving an invite in the post!

Your stylish pre-wedding card gives advance notice of the big day. Receiving this important information early gives guests plenty of time to reserve the date, and to sort out their travel arrangements.

This chic pre-wedding invite traditionally complements your personalised wedding invitations and thank you cards, and provides a hint of your wedding theme and colour palette.

Save the date cards are designed to notify guests of your wedding plans, and lets them know that a formal wedding invitation will follow.  

As these invites are less formal than the official wedding invitation, you have an opportunity to show off your unique personalities, and couple style. You can play around with colours, motifs, calligraphy and fonts to create a wow factor invite that grabs everyone’s attention.

The informal pre-wedding invite sets the tone for your big day, and can therefore include a design that is bolder than other items of your bespoke wedding stationery.

If you’re stuck for design inspiration, you can easily personalise a pre-designed template to create a card that best reflects your style.

To ensure that your guests are suitably wowed, you can create one of a kind pre-wedding invites with the help of a professional design service.

The Cons:

Although the pre-wedding card serves as an official announcement of your intention to get married on a specific day, the invites are not mandatory.

Wedding etiquette recommends that you send out your personalised invites at least 6 to 12 months in advance of your wedding date. If you’re not super organised, it’s essential that you post them out as soon as possible.

Which One Is Right For You? 

To help you and your partner decide which type of pre-wedding invitation is right for you, you may want to consider the following…

• Your wedding budget

• The style of your wedding – formal, traditional, modern, rustic, destination etc

• The time of year that you plan to get hitched

• The number of guests that you want to invite to your wedding

If you and your future spouse want to ensure that every single element of your special day is absolutely perfect, including luxury save the date cards in your beautiful wedding stationery is a must!