What are Save the Date Postcards?

Many people are very busy and may have their social lives planned well in advance. Those organizing special events may want to utilize some method to notify guests far before the event occurs. Guidelines on wedding invitations, for instance, usually suggest that people send these a couple of months before the actual ceremony, but guests may need more notice than that in order to plan their schedules. A solution is to use save the date postcards, which can be sent far ahead of time to let people know about upcoming parties, celebrations or events.

The benefit of save the date postcards is they don't require all details to be fully planned. Instead, they just notify guests that a certain date has been reserved for a special celebration. A postcard could request guests save the date for a charity ball, Julie and Jack’s wedding or the 50th anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. There are numerous uses for these save the date cards, and many places to find them.

There are some save the date cards as opposed to postcards, but these will cost more money to post, and the extra paper really isn’t necessary. This doesn’t mean postcards can’t be attractive, eye-catching or just as elaborate as cards. A number of stationary stores, wedding shops and online companies make lots of varieties to choose from, so people can pick designs and prints that are most apropos. Alternately, sometimes people can find pre-printed save the date postcards that can be filled out with relevant details. Custom ordering is actually often less expensive if a large number of cards will be sent.

When people really want to save money on postage, they can alternately send an online save the date postcard. Skilled programmers can create their own, and a number of companies specialize in sending these out too, for low fees. The perceived disadvantage of this method may be collecting all email addresses needed to notify every guest, and some people may not use the Internet and thus won’t know to save the date.

There is some discussion about which guests require save the date postcards. Family or friends who live a distance from a planned event should definitely get one. It may not be necessary to send one to a sister that lives three blocks away or a best friend who is also the bridesmaid at a wedding. Usually it makes sense to err on the side of caution and send save the date postcards to anyone who isn’t in on event planning and who might have scheduling conflicts they’ll need to address in order to attend.