Save the date wording
The message you send before you know anything except the date.
A save the date has one job: to get the day into your guests' calendars before something else takes it. It is not a small invitation, and treating it as one causes trouble: every detail you put on it becomes a promise you have to keep, and venues, times and even dates move more often than couples expect.
Send it as soon as the date and the venue are fixed: six to eight months ahead for a wedding at home, eight to twelve for one people have to fly to. And send it only to people you are certain will be invited. A save the date cannot be taken back, and the guest list always tightens later.
Examples you can copy
The standard save the date
Save the date
Eleanor and Thomas
are getting married
Saturday 14 June 2027
Kingsbridge, Devon
Invitation to follow
The town, not the venue. "Invitation to follow" is the line that keeps your options open.
When guests need to book flights
Save the date
Eleanor and Thomas
are getting married in Puglia
Saturday 14 June 2027
We'd love you to make a few days of it.
Details and accommodation to follow in the new year
Nearest airport: Brindisi (BDS)
Naming the airport this early is the single most useful thing on a destination save the date.
A date and nothing else yet
Eleanor and Thomas
14 June 2027
Keep the day free.
Everything else to follow
Perfectly adequate when the venue is not signed. The date is the only thing guests need in order to protect it.
A long engagement, with a countdown
Eleanor and Thomas
are getting married
Saturday 14 June 2027
That's 412 days away.
We'll be in touch long before then
Ashcombe House, Kingsbridge
A countdown gives a distant date some weight. On a digital save the date it updates itself.
When the wedding is small and most people are not invited
Eleanor and Thomas
are getting married on 14 June 2027
in front of a very small group,
and throwing a party for everyone in September
Save Saturday 18 September:
that's the one we want you at
Says plainly which event the reader is invited to. Far kinder than letting them assume the wrong one.
What to watch for
Only send it to people who will definitely be invited
A save the date is a commitment. Guest lists get shorter as venues and budgets become real, and a guest who saved the date and never received an invitation is the one story about your wedding that gets retold.
Keep the venue vague until it is signed
The town is enough. Naming a venue you have not booked, or a time you have not fixed, means sending a correction later, and corrections travel worse than the original.
Say "invitation to follow"
Three words that stop a save the date being read as the invitation itself. Without them you will be asked, more than once, whether people need to reply.
Never ask for an RSVP on it
You are not asking a question yet; you are booking a square in a calendar. Replies given eight months out are worth very little and have to be collected all over again anyway.
Put your wording into a real invitation.
Build it free →Questions
How far in advance should a save the date go out?
Six to eight months before a wedding at home, and eight to twelve months before a destination wedding or one over a holiday weekend. The invitation itself then follows eight to ten weeks before the day.
Do we need a save the date at all?
Not always. If you are sending invitations more than four months ahead, or everyone lives nearby and the date is not in high season, you can skip it. It earns its place when guests must book travel or time off.
What has to be on a save the date?
Your names, the date, the town, and the words "invitation to follow". Anything else is optional, and anything you are not certain of should be left off.
Can a save the date be digital when the invitation is printed?
Yes, and it is the usual combination. A link costs nothing to send to everyone, arrives instantly and can carry a countdown, and it leaves the printing budget for the invitation itself. Our save the date link is free and needs no plan.
The wording is only half of it: a guest still has to reply, find the venue and put the date in their calendar. On a digital wedding invitation all three live under the wording on the same page, in any of 35 designs.
Written by Leon Bogičević, Founder, Say Yes at Say Yes Digital Invitations.