Save the Date!

Last week was all about invitations, but this week I thought I’d focus on Save the Dates – an important part of any wedding planning process and one of my favorite wedding stationery elements.

One of the reasons that I love Save the Date cards is their versatility – Save the Dates can be a simple postcard with the date and location where the wedding will be held, or more elaborate, such as photo-booth cards, magnets and stickers, small calendars, or, if you’re planning a destination wedding or if a majority of your guests will be unfamiliar with the location, a card with a map.

Save the Dates can be used to give your guests a sense of your wedding style or used as an opportunity to just have fun while letting your guests know about your upcoming wedding.  For my own wedding, since my husband and I knew that we were planning a vintage-inspired wedding, we chose to use a vintage reproduction DC postcard from cafepress, with a custom rubber stamp from Simon Stamps:

{photos by me, via my own blog, oh so beautiful paper}

Here’s a quick round-up of a few of my favorite Save the Date designs:

{michael fusco design}

Mike designed this spin on a film-strip Save the Date for friends planning a destination wedding in Dublin, Ireland.

{christine of pretty.pretty.paper}

The design on Christine’s Save the Dates was carried through the rest of her lovely wedding, all the way to her gorgeous menus.  You can see more pictures from her wedding here and here.

{chewing the cud}

Viola from chewing the cud created bookmark Save the Dates for her own wedding in 2007, which fit perfectly with her theme inspired by the book To Kill a Mockingbird.

{Alee and Press}

These super-simple Save the Dates from Alee and Press would be perfect for an informal, outdoor wedding…

{cheree berry}

…and this design from Cheree Berry would be appropriate for both formal or informal weddings.

{darling dexter}

Whitney from Darling Dexter also carried the design elements from her Save the Dates through the rest of her wedding, from her invitations to programs and decor elements.  You can see more from her lovely wedding right here.

{Martha Stewart Weddings}

And of course, Martha Stewart Weddings is always a fabulous source of wedding stationery inspiration.  I was {thisclose} to going with one of these fold-out calendar designs for my own Save the Dates before deciding to go the post card route!

That’s it for this week!  Until next Thursday, you can find me over at (Oh So) Beautiful Paper.