I’ve been toying with writing this blog post for the past few months. My intuition is telling me that this may be an unpopular opinion, but I feel strongly about save the dates, especially in the time of a pandemic where we are constantly rescheduling weddings and/or lowering the guest count.

Original Plan

To start, we all love getting save the dates in the mail. Prior to COVID, we took advice from our stationer friends and were recommending sending them between 6 – 12 months prior to the wedding date.

COVID Plans

However, as you can imagine, whether you are knee deep in wedding planning or not, multiple mailings can get confusing during the time of COVID.

Let me explain why…

For some of our clients, we have had to change the date multiple times. Yes, that many! It’s been heartbreaking – but quite frankly, when the actual wedding day arrives, it will be even more amazing because we have all been waiting with such anticipation! Thinking the Plan B post COVID date would be a sure thing, some of them sent new information with a new date. However, once we had to change the date again, this quickly became outdated.

Therefore, this is why I have a strong opinion where I believe we should wait to notify our guests of upcoming date changes until a little bit closer to the wedding date. As a tip, use your wedding webpage to communicate updates with your guests. It’s a simple and effective way to keep guests aware of your plans without having the hassle of multiple mailings.

What About the Cuts?

Did you decide to move forward with your wedding date and adjust your guest count based on the most recent mandates?

(I should note that I’m writing this from IL in mid-March 2021. Knowing every state has a slightly different situation, it seems pertinent to let you know where I’m located.)

This winter I spoke with a couple of local stationers who offered some advice:

Stationery Station in Highland Park offered this wording for these difficult times –

We regret to inform you we’ve decided to cancel the Wedding we had planned. While we still plan to be married this year, we instead invite you to stay home and stay safe. 

The ladies at Mite Print in Glencoe recommended the following –

• Write a note indicating the wedding is still occurring with immediate family only and provide a zoom link for anyone who will no longer be attending.
• And/or, write a note stating you will not have the wedding as you originally planned but you hope to celebrate with them at a later date. This leaves the future date options open ended.

No matter what you do, it is best to always lead with the heart. I would imagine that most guests will be understanding and see this coming. We are all doing the best we can with these tough decisions. We wish you the best of luck as you navigate and communicate with your guests.