In the grand scheme of things, save the dates is a fairly new concept. While they are super useful in letting your guests know the date of your wedding, often people wonder, are they really necessary?
When you take all things into consideration, some people do find that save the dates is an extra unnecessary cost, which is understandable. However, for others they are something that can be looked back on, cherished, and are useful to make potential guests aware of your planned wedding date.
In this article, we will be exploring save the dates in more detail, to come to the conclusion of whether or not they are really necessary.
What Are Save The Dates?
If you are unaware of the purpose of save the dates, they are essentially a small note that will make people aware of your wedding. They are sent to those you are planning on inviting to your wedding.
They are separate from the official invitations, and are a more informal way of letting people know when you are planning on getting hitched. They are sent out a while before the official invites, shortly after you have decided on the time and location of your wedding.
They are helpful for guests as they allow them to be prepared in advance, and they are a nice addition to the wedding experience.
Are They Really Necessary?
Whether or not saves the dates are necessary really is down to the individual couple. When you take all of the wedding traditions into account, they are certainly not something that a couple has to do. Rather, they are a nice addition that many couples would like to send out.
When it comes to preparing for a wedding, there are so many different aspects to take into account, and it is only natural to wonder whether you need to send save the dates. As they are not mandatory, if you want to cut down the costs, or feel as though they are not needed, then they are not necessary for your wedding.
Given that you will be sending out official invitations closer to the wedding date, there is not a huge need for save the dates, though they can be useful to have.
As save the dates are sent out in advance, this does allow your guests to inform work or other engagements of your wedding date. It will allow your guest to have a good amount of time to prepare, find babysitters, or save up for an overnight stay.
The sooner guests are informed about a wedding, the more likely it is that they will be able to have that specific day off work.
In addition to this, it will also set clear boundaries of who is invited to your wedding and who is not. Often it can be difficult to narrow down the wedding invitations, and this will allow you to do this in advance, so that you can prevent any confusion closer to the wedding date.
How To Keep Save the Date Costs Down
It is no shock that save the dates are costly. This is why many people avoid sending them out, which is understandable when you take into consideration how expensive a wedding is. However, save the dates does not always need to be expensive, and there are a few things you can do to help keep the costs down.
Digital Designs
If you pay to have the design of the save the dates digitally made, this will cut the costs down significantly. While you will have to pay for the design, it can then be printed out as many times as necessary. You will then only need to pay for the ink and the paper.
In addition to this, you can choose to send the save the dates by email. The design will still be beautiful, but you will not have to pay for the extra costs of printing out the designs.
Hand Delivery
Instead of posting the save the dates, where possible, you can hand deliver them. Not only is this a lovely thing to do, but it will save you a significant amount of money on postage costs too.
Make them Yourself
If you are someone that is creative, you can choose to make the save the dates yourself. While this can be time-consuming, it is a lot cheaper than paying to have them all handmade. The cost of the decorations needed will be less than if you are paying someone else to source and use them.
Alternative Options Instead Of Save The Dates
While there are ways to cut down the costs of save the dates, as they are not really necessary, there are alternatives you can choose to do instead.
Emails
While you can send save the dates digitally, if you want to save even more money and not have to worry about the designs, you can simply send emails. You will need to have everyone’s emails, however, which can be more difficult to obtain. However, the vast majority of people have email addresses nowadays.
Word of Mouth
You can just inform people verbally of the wedding date and location, and keep a note of those who can and cannot make it. This does not cost anything at all, though it can be more difficult to keep track of.
Text Messages
Text messages are a great way of letting people know that they are invited to the wedding in advance, and what the date and location is.
Social Media
Social media is so useful, and you could choose to create a group to inform everyone of the wedding date and time. However, this can be an issue if not everyone that is invited has social media.
Summary
As you can see, save the dates are not something that is necessary. While they are useful and lovely to send out, there are alternatives to these if you are looking to save some money.
