At Be My Guest, designing wedding stationery for couples usually begins with their Save the Date cards. These are usually sent out around six months before the wedding, but there’s one notable exception – when you’re having a destination wedding.
Planning a destination wedding begins well in advance for most couples. And planning to attend your wedding needs to begin well in advance for your wedding guests too, since there’s usually travel and accommodation plans to be made – as well as putting some money away for ‘destination wedding’ activities and new outfits.
One solution many couples go with is to send out their wedding invitations really early. The problem with that is you might not have all your wedding’s details ironed out (like ceremony timing). You also get procrastinators – people who set the invite aside, as it seems like it’s so far away… so you need to send a follow up anyway! Plus you don’t really need to get RSVPs from your guests a year out – so what do you do?
Having a destination wedding is the perfect reason to send Save the Date cards. They are used to notify wedding guests that you’ve set a wedding date – and that they’re invited! When you’re getting married overseas and guests are going to be doing a fair amount of travelling, these optional extras become essential to having guests turn up.
For a wedding close to home, Save the Dates are sent out around six months to up to a year before the big day. But with a destination wedding, I’d recommend getting them out to guests around a year in advance – as long as you’re certain on the date and the location, you should be good to send them. Remember that you usually can’t book flights more than a year in advance, so sending Save the Dates really early, expecting people to book their travel ASAP, won’t work.
What Should You Include In Your Save the Date?
Since you’re usually sending your Save the Dates out pretty early, keep the details vague, since there could still be changes. You’re not constrained to the rigid wedding etiquette rules that come with wedding invitations, so you can have a bit of fun too! Stick with the main details, such as:
- Who the wedding is for (in other words… your names)
- A message to save the date for a wedding. (For example: Save our date! / Save the Date / Pencil our wedding in.)
- The wedding date! If you have a range of wedding related things happening, perhaps including a list so your guests know when to book travel for.
- The location – essential to share not just the country, but the specific area, so that guests can work out how much money they should be setting aside, and for booking flights (if necessary).
- A statement “formal invite to follow” so guests aren’t confused by the lack of detail.
- Your Save the Date is a good place to include your wedding website URL if you have one too.
Optional Extras On Your Save The Date
With a destination wedding, there’s usually a tonne more information to communicate to guests. Getting this information to them sooner rather than later can help ease any objections to travelling they might have. The following bits and pieces are optional extras, and if possible I’d suggest including them on a wedding website, or on the reverse of your Save the Date.
- Accommodation booking details. If you’ve ‘pencil booked’ some rooms at your wedding venue, let them know before they head out and book at a hotel that’s an expensive taxi-ride away.
- Travel suggestions (or your travel agents details, if you have one that’s going to coordinate your wedding guests).
- Your contact details for any questions.
I hope this Save the Date guide helps those of you planning a destination wedding – enjoy!
Images and designs by Be My Guest.
Ms Chinoiserie Says: Great advice about sticking to the main details for Save Your Dates – and having some fun with the design too!
About Be My Guest: Hey everyone, I’m Amanda! I am the wedding invitation designer and lead coffee maker for Be My Guest. Creativity has always been an outlet for me. It’s not just creating something I enjoy, but the challenge of problem solving. I love the process of creating… taking raw materials, lines on a screen and turning it into something beautiful, practical and awesome.
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