This article is about what goes on a save the date. If what you need is when to send it, and how it relates to the invitation, that is when to send wedding invitations — the two questions get muddled together constantly and the answers are unrelated.
The content question is simpler than most couples expect, and the usual mistake is generosity.
The five things it needs
That is the whole list. A save the date is not a small invitation and it is not an information sheet. Its entire purpose is to occupy a square in someone's calendar before something else does.
- Both your names, as guests know them
- The date
- The city or area, not the full venue address
- The words save the date, or something that unmistakably means it
- A note that an invitation will follow
What to leave off, and why
Everything you print is something you have committed to. Save the dates go out six to eight months ahead, which is long before most of the detail is settled, and a correction is far more expensive than an omission.
| Leave off | Why |
|---|---|
| Ceremony start time | It is the detail most likely to move, and guests will remember the first time they read rather than the correction. |
| The full venue address | The city is enough to book travel. The address is an invitation detail and it changes more often than couples expect. |
| Dress code | Months too early to be useful, and it makes the card read as an invitation, which prompts replies you are not ready for. |
| Gift or registry information | Wrong moment entirely. It is barely acceptable on the invitation and reads badly this far out. |
| An RSVP request | You are not asking for an answer yet. Requesting one gets you replies you have to track, then re-ask for later. |
| Plus-one wording | Guest numbers are rarely settled this early, and a promise made on a save the date cannot be quietly withdrawn. |
The one optional addition
A website address, if you have one, is the exception worth making. It costs one line, it does not commit you to anything, and it gives the curious somewhere to go instead of asking you.
It is also the only thing on the card that can be updated after it is printed, which is precisely why it earns its place: it converts a fixed piece of paper into something that can carry the details later, once they exist.
Paper, digital, or both
Digital arrives instantly, costs nothing, cannot be lost in the mail, and can be resent to the guest who swears they never got it. Paper is a nicer object and some relatives will genuinely appreciate receiving one.
The pragmatic answer for most UK weddings is both, split by guest rather than sending everyone two: paper for the people who would find an email cold, digital for everyone else. Splitting the list this way costs nothing and removes the argument.
Whatever you send, keep the design and the wording consistent with what the invitation will look like. It is the first thing guests see of your wedding and the visual jump is noticeable if the two are unrelated.
If your builder makes a save the date from your site, the advantage is not the design so much as that the details on it are the ones on your site rather than a second copy that can drift out of step.
Who gets one
Only people you are certain you are inviting. A save the date is functionally a commitment, and there is no polite way to send one and then not follow it with an invitation.
This means the guest list has to be roughly settled before they go out, which catches couples by surprise. If the list is still moving, send fewer: nobody minds receiving only an invitation, and everybody notices receiving a save the date and nothing after it.