So you’ve locked in your wedding location and finally figured out the date, now what?

Luckily for you, that means it’s time to get lost in the stacks of stationery at your local stationary vendor and pick a save the date. A staple for traditional weddings, save-the-date cards deliver a mini celebration to guests’ mailboxes and offer the details they need to mark their calendars.   From date and location to your website information, it’s all there so your friends and family are in the loop.

How early do you need to give your friends and family a heads up? Timing for these little cards can be surprisingly tricky. You have to hit that sweet spot between so far in advance that your pretty little papers get misplaced and so late that guests don’t have enough notice to make the necessary arrangements.

Traditional Timing

Traditionally, that perfect timing is between six and eight months. However, if your wedding is on a holiday weekend or is a destination affair, you may want to send your save-the-dates between nine months to a year. Those extra few months may help make sure your invitees don’t plan their own vacations.

Sticking to that timeline takes a bit of planning. While there’s nothing better than thumbing through examples, there’s little worse than trying to rush the first piece of wedding stationery. Keep in mind that traditional save-the-date stationery requires everything from ordering and proofing to waiting for delivery, addressing, and mailing. So, if your date and venue are set, your wedding website is up and running, and your hotel block is ready for guests to book, you may want to head to your local stationary vendor this weekend play with some paper.