Journal
When to send save-the-dates
A save-the-date is the first piece of the wedding’s paper. It should already look like the invitation, even though the invitation is months away. If the type changes later, the wedding starts twice. Guests will not scold you. They will simply hold two different cards and never quite feel that the day was planned as one thing.
Send them when the date and the city are firm, and when guests will need to travel or book a room. For a local guest list and a weekend that is easy to reach, six to eight months is enough. For a destination, a holiday weekend, or a room block that will fill, eight to twelve months is kinder. You do not need the menu. You do not need the seating chart. You need the names, the date, the place, and a line that says a formal invitation will follow.
The common mistake is to buy a save the date template that has nothing to do with the invitation you will choose in the spring. It is pretty on its own. Then the invitation arrives in another family of type, and the welcome sign arrives from a third shop. None of this is a moral failure. It is unmatched paper. A matching wedding invitation suite avoids it by putting the save-the-date in the same file set as the invitation, the reply, and the details card.
What to put on it: your names, the date, the city, and nothing that will change. Skip the timeline. Skip the registry, unless you truly want gifts discussed this early. Skip a dress code you have not decided. If you are unsure of a detail, leave it off. The invitation can carry it. A save-the-date that has to be corrected is worse than a save-the-date that is short.
What to leave for the invitation: the request to attend, the time, the street address, the RSVP, and the details card. The save-the-date is a marker, not the whole letter. People need enough to hold the date. They do not need the seating, the bar, or the first course.
Order the print the way you will order everything else. Export the PDF if a printer asks for a print file. Export the JPEG if you are sending a digital save-the-date or looking at a proof on your phone. Canva wedding templates in this shop use free fonts, so the proof you see is the proof you can print. A free account is enough. You will not be stopped by a font you have to buy.
Count the list before you print. Add a few extra for parents who will want a copy, and for the address you will remember at the post office. Then stop. A second style “just for the friends” splits the suite before it has started. If some guests should get a text and some a card, the card and the image can still be the same file. PDF for the printer. JPEG for the message.
Ivory & After puts a save-the-date in every suite, in the same colorways as the invitation. If you only need that one card, the Cream Garden save-the-date is sold on its own, pulled from the outdoor-lunch suite. If you want the cards that follow it — invitation, reply, details — start with the Cream Garden suite. The save-the-date is the beginning. The invitation should not be a different wedding.