The STD you actually want to get...

Their acronym is certainly unfortunate, but save the date cards (STDs) are anything but.

These announcements, sent up to a year in advance alerting guests to your impending nuptials, are a thoughtful yet simple way to get the word out that you are getting married, and soon! If many of your guests will be traveling for the wedding and needing to make airline and accommodation arrangements in advance, save the dates are especially helpful (especially if your wedding is in a popular destination, like on the Maine coast in the summertime, when rooms may book early). Seeing these are likely the first official correspondence your guests will receive regarding the wedding, the save the date can be invaluable in making that first impression and setting the tone for the style of the wedding to come. Lately, my mailbox has been at the receiving end of a flurry of save the dates from my 2009 couples, and I feel like I have such a better understanding about them and their vision for the day from just this little piece of paper. (I especially appreciate the magnets filling the front of the fridge, as they remind me every day about the upcoming wedding, and they are very useful.)

They are also an ideal way to put your engagement imagery to work, as Samantha Warren Weddings' couple Susan and Jeff did here. You might recall I shot their top of Sugarloaf mini engagement session in April, and they asked me to create a save the date using the photographs from that. The card I created (you can see the front below and the backside has all the details and the address of their wedding website where guests can go for more information) is reflective of their color scheme -black and white- and their wedding style -elegant yet simple and fun. Because their wedding will be in the winter, I had the cards printed on pearl paper, which gives them a nice sparkle, much like freshly fallen snow, and we purposely did the engagement session on the mountain in the winter. The cards, which are 5 x 7, will be delivered in white envelopes (though this could easily have been designed as a postcard).

You can read what Martha Stewart says about Save the Dates here and The Knot's insight here, but I encourage couples planning late 2009 (fall and beyond) and 2010 weddings to consider sending out save the dates if they have guests coming from afar. There are so many creative options out there for save the dates, but if you'd like to include images, do contact me soon to schedule your engagement session.



As a wedding guest, do you appreciate receiving save the dates? How far in advance do you like to get them? And what's the most unique save the date you've seen or heard of?