So, you have the ring and you’re super excited and you can’t wait to start planning.

Now what?

Most people would tell you to start selecting your save-the-dates. Before you start working on that, let’s analyze some things:

-Are you doing a destination wedding that will require your guests to travel a long distance and spend a good amount of money to get there?

-Are you getting married during a holiday weekend?

-Are you getting married during a three-day weekend?

If you said yes to any of these situations, then you should probably send a save-the date.

But, if you’re getting married in your home-town and people are driving an hour or two in order to attend your wedding, then  you can hold off on the save-the-date. It’s really not necessary. The tradition of sending the save-the-dates was really to give guests a heads up that you were planning, for example, a wedding in Hawaii that would require them to save their money AND make travel arrangements far in advance of the date.

In addition, you may not want EVERYONE to save the date for your wedding. As a planner, I’ve seen multiple brides say, “Well, we really only want to have 100 people at the wedding, so maybe lots of the people on our guest list won’t come.”

In this instance, you DON’T want everyone to save the date. To save space or to save money, you may actually want some of your guests to send their regrets. Best way to make that happen? DON’T SEND A SAVE-THE-DATE. You might actually want a person to receive your formal invitation and say, “Darn. I can’t make the wedding. We just scheduled a trip for their wedding date a week ago.” And just like that, you’ve saved money since that person and their guest can’t attend.

So, remember, save-the-dates aren’t necessary unless you’re planning a destination wedding, a holiday weekend wedding or there’s some other extraordinary circumstance that requires you to notify guests in advance.

And just like that, I’ve saved you money on your stationery budget!