E-Save-the-Date from Cocodot

Save-the-Dates have become almost an obligatory part of the wedding planning process. Shortly after one’s engagement, as key details of the wedding have come together, a bride and groom send word of their wedding and ask guests to mark their calendars. I generally encourage brides to keep the Save-the-Date consistent with the rest of the wedding stationery, as it is the first impression and taste guests will have of their event and it helps to set the tone for the wedding.

Recently, I have found that more and more brides are turning to electronic Save-the-Dates — something I used to cringe at. E-Save-the-Dates make sense for many brides for a lot of reasons:

• E-Save-the-Dates can point guests seamlessly to your wedding website, if you have one.
• They are a green alternative to mailing out paper Save-the-Dates.
• If you are pressed for time, you can prepare and send out E-Save-the-Dates relatively quickly.
• It saves on postage — particularly if you have a lot of international guests — and is more economical all-around.
• It allows guests to more readily reach out to you with congratulations or questions.
• New E-Save-the-Date companies are a radical departure in quality and aesthetics from E-vite and what we are used to seeing with respect to electronic invitations.

I am still an old-fashioned gal when it comes to wedding stationery and almost always prefer to send out paper Save-the-Dates, but with this laundry list of pros for the electronic version, I might be convinced that it could be appropriate in certain circumstances.

If you are doing an E-Save-the-Date for your wedding, PLEASE, PLEASE do not use E-vite. The ad-laden, clunky, outdated site is not the first impression you want to give your guests. Further, there are so many competitors to E-vite now — many with more modern template options and user-friendly features — that it is worth going with one of them over ubiquitous E-vite.

Two of my favorite E-invitation sites are Paperless Post and Cocodot. Both offer a great selection of modern, cleanly-designed options and are sure to impress guests as they click to open them given their significant departure to what they are used to seeing with E-vite.

Classic Save-the-Date from Paperless Post

Other alternatives for E-Save-the-Dates (some are definitely better than others…) are Socializr, anyvite, pingg, Purple Trail, and mypunchbowl. Yes, some of these sites charge, but in comparison to what you would spend on paper Save-the-Dates, it is worth it. Even if you don’t use these sites for your wedding Save-the-Dates, you may want to keep them in mind for invitations to informal parties you might be hosting.

Mark your calendar to check out some of these E-Save-the-Date sources!