Save-the-Date Prep

In preparation for planning our wedding, I've spent some time looking at planning lists in wedding organizer books and magazines, as well as online. Here's a little something they don't tell you before suggesting you send the save-the-dates 6 to 9 months in advance: you have to do a third of the planning before you can get the things out the door!

Things to secure before you send a save-the date:

1. List of people you plan on inviting to the wedding. You need this so you have a rough guest count, which is required to find...
2. A venue. If you're religious, count on needing both the church and the reception site secured in advance, because a critical component of the save-the-date is the...
3. Date for the wedding. Come to think of it, this might be important to figure out - at least in the abstract - before hunting for venues. In our case, we wanted it to line up with my spring break from school, so it limited our choices quite a bit.
4. The addresses or email addresses of all of the people on the list from #1. You want them there, you've got to get them the details, like...
5. Where to stay. Blocking off hotel rooms for out of town guests is on the many lists I read, but not until about 4 months before the wedding. Giant fail if you have 75% of your guests coming in from out of town. These guests need details, which is why you also need your...
6. Wedding website. Include everything you can and then just update like crazy as you go to avoid a million phone calls.
7. An actual design for the save-the-date. If you're having someone design all of the stationary, you've got to secure that person too. Oh, and if you want a photo of you and your love on it, you have to find...
8. A photographer for your engagement photos. Luckily, this is not the same person as our wedding day photographer, so we still have another couple months to handle that. If you're not using a picture, you still probably want your save-the-date to reflect ...
9. Your theme. And if you are not the type of girl (or boy) who has been planning your wedding since childhood, this can take some time. Thank goodness RJ and I knew exactly what we wanted, and who we wanted in our...
10. Bridal party. Best to let them know a bit before everyone else about the upcoming nuptials. Saves on another million questions later on.

I'm capping the list at ten. If I figure out another thing I thought I still had months to do, but actually need to finalize before these save-the-dates go out the door, I might as well just send invitations and forget about saving the date at all.

Which would be a total shame, because the design is looking really awesome. :)