To think that 'save the date' cards are a waste of money?

[MummyDoIt]

Why not just send the invitation? You know the date, and presumably have the church/registry office/venue booked, otherwise you wouldn't be able to give that date for sure, so what other information do you need? Why pay for two lots of cards and two lots of postage? Complete waste of money. Especially in a recent case where someone I know sent out 'save the date' cards, then changed their minds about venue, couldn't get the new place on the old date so had to change the date anyway.

Complete waste of time, money, effort and resources!

These days most people are on email, or we have phones! so if you really want people there, to "save the date", just email them with the date!

YANBU.

Saying that, we did receive a "STD" card for the recent wedding of some friends of ours in Australia.

In their case, they did have friends and family all over the world, and they did just want to formally let everyone know where and when it would be.

Still a bit excessive though, although I guess it shows they really wanted everyone there!

(We didn't go, three days after Christmas, airfares for four us, it was never going to happen...)

A lot of our elderly relatives did not/ do not have email strangely enough so emailing would not work. Phoning is always unreliable in my mind as how many people remember to write down the date afterwards or even get their diary our when you are on the phone - or maybe that is just my family. As for setting up a website that really is something I didn't have time for as well as organising a wedding.

Another reason for sending them (for us anyway) was to let people know we were engaged in case it hadn't filtered through.

I probably would have said they were unnecessary myself before they became necessary for our situation.

But then when I got married, it was a small wedding, and I thought invitations were a waste of money, so I only sent them to the small number of friends we invited - then FIL got huffy because he didn't get one.

Just seems like another thing to spend money on.

Clever marketing ploy by the wedding industry.

I expect there will soon be a trend for sending WWSBSASTDC cards (we will soon be sending a save the date card).

Eventually people will be announcing their engagements before they have actually met.

I have recently received a two STD notes, one in a handmade card and one via Facebook and I've just realised that neither stated the venue! If they've not booked it yet, why send it out, and if they have, why not tell me?!

Argh. Anyway, YANBU. I hadn't even heard of them until about 4 weeks ago when I received these two. I found out the date of my other friend's upcoming wedding by way of an excitable 'oh my god, we've just booked our WEDDING!' conversation. Nicer, no?

Our friends didn't tell anybody where the wedding and reception were going to be - you just had to turn up at the ferry outside Sydney Opera House on the right day and the right time! Don't know what happened if you were running late!