Don't Tell the Guests

The fun bit? YOU get to decide how to create a fun save the date! Via

A bride and a groom make a marriage, but family and friends make a wedding, so one of the most important things to do of course, is to let those closest to you know that they'll need their best dancing shoes ready to celebrate on your special day.

Yes, I'm talking about save the dates.

Date set TICK

Venue booked TICK

Guest list created TICK

Now that you have the ingredients, you can unleash your creative side and start cooking up a save the date storm (or asking someone else to do it for you!)

Whether you've 'pinned' fifty million save the date ideas, have no idea about save the dates, are a creative genius and own shares in Office Works, or have friends in the right places, creating your save the dates should be fun!

Luckily for the I-missed-hitting-every-branch-on-the-creative-tree self, I happened to have a great friend who helped to design the master piece that you can see above.

This is a quick, easy and cost efficent way to create a save the date.

Ingredients:

photo

creative mind

computer

printer

moolah

envelopes

stamps

glue

paper

I also cut and stuck a piece of paper with extra little details for guests who would be needing to board a plane, road trip, or sail to our wedding (yes, some of our guests are going to try the latter one!!) We didn't want our guests missing out on accomodation and we wanted to give them the local tips for what's best and affordable, so we included this on the back of the save the date: 

It takes a bride and groom to form a marriage, but it takes friends and family to make a wedding. We’d love for you to be a guest at our very special day.

The ceremony (TBA) and reception (Yacht Club) will be held in Port Lincoln.

As it’s held over the long weekend, we strongly encourage you to start booking accommodation and flights soon!

Here are some of our picks:

The whole 9 yards

The Port Lincoln Hotel (right on the foreshore and a 5 minute walk from the reception).

The Marina – lots to choose from including apartments.

The Hilton (right next door to the reception)

On the pover side of life

The Pier (walking distance to reception)

The Grand Tasman Hotel (walking distance to reception)

Caravan Park

Getting here

Road trip! (7 hour drive)

Plane flight (45 minutes). Regional Express (REX) or Qantas

All up our save the dates cost around $120, including postage, to 130 guests. BARGAIN!

Many people believe that the save the dates set the scene for the wedding. What do I mean by this? Well, the colours, fonts, photos, bunting, flowers and paper choices that you make to include on your invite, all start the reflect the overall theme of your wedding (who would've knew?!) haha.

Our wedding for example, is going to have a "country fair" type theme, with bunting, fairy lights, a photobooth, and fun games to keep the guests entertained between the ceremony and reception. We therefore chose a playful photo, bunting, and the colour of the bridesmaid dresses to appear on the save the date (trust me, I didn't realise this "golden rule" before becoming a bride myself!)

If you are having a "hand crafted/diy wedding theme", then you might choose to make your save the dates by hand, hole punching out shapes, cutting and pasting ribbons, flowers, shells, pearls and gems to your invite.

Mick's original suggestion was to print the information on napkins or newspaper (typical male hahaha). 

Haha another cracker one that I found on the internet! Via

I think the best thing about weddings is that each one is different, and whether you chose to send save the dates, print, make or recycle paper, cut, chop or stick, is up to you!

One little tip that I have found is to collect your guests postal addresses in an Excel Spreadsheet (or whatever kind of filing system you find easy to manage). That way you don't have to badger your guests again for their addresses when it comes time to send the actual invites (oh yes, there are those too!)

Spreadsheets are also handy to manage your guest list - you know who you have invited, and whether they can or can't attend, as well as keeping track of the overall number of guests.

Via

It's so exciting seeing your ideas come to life, and I'm starting to realise that the process of creating a wedding is (and should be) as fun and stressfree as the day!

What did you do for your save the dates?

Look after yourself and those around you,

Kirsty xxxx