But if I had the luxury of time...

...I would have used these for our Save the Dates. LOVE the Giving Tree. LOVE these. Sigh.

[Design and template by Merriment Design. Posted here on the absolutely indispensable Intimate Weddings.]

DIY: E-Save the Date

Venue? Check. Date? Check. Save the dates? Um, no.

I thought I didn't have time - or money - to do save the dates. After all, our engagement was only going to be about four months long and everything I'd read recommended sending out save the dates 9 to 12 months in advance.

Then I stumbled across this gem of a post on Weddingbee. I did some more research and apparently, electronic save the dates are not only easy and free, but acceptable by etiquette standards, too. I decided I didn't care if it was only four months out, I still wanted to ask our guests to set aside that particular day for us.

I took a favorite picture of FH and myself and doctored it up in InDesign to include our date information and also to request that they respond to the email with their mailing addresses. (Which, while a great idea, most of them didn't bother. But that is another post!)

I exported the file as a JPEG and used Microsoft Outlook to link the image with our wedding website and then sent it to my Gmail account, so I could send it out to everyone on our invitation list from there. I had a few bouncebacks and only about half of the group responded. But all of the responses that did come back were really positive and encouraging (both about the Save the Date and our upcoming marriage in general).

All in all, I thought it worked really well and we were both happy with how it turned out. I was a bit rushed at the end, so the image didn't link correctly to our website. I wish I would have tested it a few more times to make sure it was working correctly. I will probably end up doing a small insert in the invite with the URL to our website, so people know it exists and can check it out on their own time. Ah, technology...