Save This Very Important Date

Oh my goodness, you have decided to get married and are planning for that wonderful event to take place.  It might be months away, it might be two years away but the first thing you are going to want to do, especially if you have relatives and friends coming from all over the country and globe, is to send out “Save The Date” cards.

Before you can send out your Save The Date cards, you have to put a guest list together.  This can be a time consuming activity.  Obviously, there will be guests from the groom’s side invited, guests from the bride’s side and guests who are friends of the bride and groom.  If you have to stick to a certain number, which is the case more often than not, it can be difficult to pare it down.  Have patience with this process – use that quality of love!

Remember that this will be the first “encounter” your guests have with this very special occasion so you will want to “set the stage”, create the mood, with it.  You may have decided on a theme for your wedding and, if so, it would be great to bring that theme into the Save The Date cards.  This card is basically letting your guests know when the wedding is so that they can put it on their calendar.

As soon as you are able, choose your invitations.  Take some time to look at different invitations.  Traditional ones are always lovely – there is something very elegant and “lasting” about a traditional wedding invitation.  Some invitations take more time than others to be printed, but give yourselves lots of time as, once you get them, they have to be hand addressed, postage has to be put on them, and they should be ready to be mailed six to eight weeks before the wedding.  Please remember that, if you have registered for gifts and we would suggest you do, you should not, and I repeat not, add this information into your invitation.  Telling people where they can go to buy you a gift is the same as asking people for one and that is always in poor taste.   You want sending the information about your special day to be a gracious invitation to others to be a part of your celebration.

The invitation contains the information about the actual wedding ceremony.  A separate reception card is printed with details about the reception and placed into the envelope with the invitation.  Wedding invitations are usually in two envelopes.  The inside envelope is not sealed and does not have a return address on the back.  The outside envelope has a return address – no name – on the back flap.  This dates back to times when mail was delivered through dirty streets and it was felt that there should be a “protective” covering on the envelope so as to deliver a pristine, beautiful invitation to the invited.  Any information about dress (Black Tie, Black Tie optional, Cocktail Attire) should be printed on the reception card in the bottom right corner.

The stage has been set, the invitations have gone out – oh, what a time we are going to have!

Love, joy and abundant living is out in full force!