Written by the Wedvite founders
A save the date needs four facts and one closing line, and nothing else: the words “save the date”, both your names, the date, the town — then “invitation to follow”. The six examples below cover formal, casual, destination, date-only, a wedding website line and bilingual.
A save the date does one job: it asks a guest to hold a day, months before there is anything to decide. That makes it the shortest thing you will write for your wedding, and the easiest to overload.
That is the whole brief. Everything a guest actually plans around — the ceremony time, the dress code, the travel, the hotel block — arrives later, on the invitation, when you know it. The wedding invitation wording guide has ten examples of that longer note, and when to send save the dates sets out how far ahead this one goes.
Everything on a save the date is a promise a guest will hold you to, which is why the short version is also the safe version.
Do not name a venue you have not booked. Guests look it up the same evening, price a hotel near it, and remember. A region is a safe promise; an unconfirmed venue is not.
Do not commit to a ceremony time you may still move. On a printed card that means leaving the time off altogether: it is exactly the detail a guest will screenshot and never check again. On a link it means treating the time as provisional — the details strip shows the time you have so far and the add-to-calendar button uses it, you can change it later on the same link, and you can take the time row off the page entirely if you would rather not show one yet.
Do not ask for a reply. An RSVP on a save the date collects answers from people who have not seen the venue, the time or the schedule, and you will have to ask them all again anyway.
Do not mention gifts. It is early, and it reads badly at any stage.
And one thing to be sure of before it goes out: everyone who receives a save the date must receive an invitation. There is no polite way to take it back, so the save-the-date list is the moment the guest list stops being a draft.
Each one is complete and labelled with the situation it fits. Copy it, swap the names, the date and the place, and it is done.
For a formal wedding, and for a guest list that will expect the invitation to match.
Save the date
for the wedding of
Charlotte Anne Whitfield
and
Thomas Michael Ashworth
Saturday, the twelfth of June
two thousand and twenty-seven
Winchester, England
Invitation to follow
Full names and the date in words, because the invitation that follows will be formal too. The save the date sets the register for everything after it, so if this one is formal the invitation cannot suddenly be chatty.
The short, warm version: everything a guest needs, over in six lines.
Save the date!
Charlotte and Thomas
are getting married
12 June 2027
Winchester
Invitation on its way
First names, numerals, one exclamation mark at most. Everything a guest needs to book the day off work is here, and nothing else is.
When guests have to book flights, a save the date is not a courtesy — it is the only warning they get.
Save the date
Charlotte and Thomas
are getting married in Puglia
Saturday 12 June 2027
Masseria Grava, Ostuni, Italy
Three days, one long lunch
Invitation and travel details to follow
Name the country, and say plainly if the celebration runs over more than one day — that is what decides how much leave a guest books. Send it earlier than a home wedding would need, and promise the travel details rather than trying to fit them here.
You have the date and not the venue. That is enough to send — waiting for the venue is how save the dates end up going out too late.
Save the date
Charlotte and Thomas
Saturday 12 June 2027
Hampshire
Venue and invitation to follow
Give the region even when you cannot give the venue, so guests know whether this is a drive or a flight. Never name a venue you have not booked; a save the date that changes its location is worse than one that admitted it did not know.
When you already have a page holding the travel, the hotels and the schedule, and would rather answer the questions once.
Save the date
Charlotte and Thomas
Saturday 12 June 2027
Winchester
Everything we know so far:
charlotteandthomas.com
Formal invitation to follow
Only add this line if the page already exists and already says something. A Wedvite save the date has no field for an outbound link of your own — the save the date is itself the page you share — so this wording is for a printed card, or for the message you send alongside the link.
Two families, two languages. Stack the languages rather than mixing them line by line.
Save the date
Charlotte and Thomas
Saturday 12 June 2027 · Winchester
Invitation to follow
Réservez la date
Charlotte et Thomas
Samedi 12 juin 2027 · Winchester
Faire-part à suivre
One language, then the other, each complete. Never interleave them line by line — both halves become hard to read. Check the date format in the second language as carefully as the words: it is the part that gets written out of habit and comes out wrong.
A digital save the date is the same four lines on a page instead of a card, sent by WhatsApp, text or email. Nothing about the wording changes. Two things about the experience do.
The first is the calendar. A guest who opens a printed card has to remember to write the date somewhere; a guest who opens a link can add it to their calendar in one tap, which is the entire point of the exercise. It is the practical reason to send this one as a link even if the invitation itself will be printed.
The second is what the page holds. A Wedvite save the date is deliberately small: the animated envelope, your names and the date, and a strip with the venue, the time and that add-to-calendar button. There is no RSVP and no scrolling, because a save the date that asks questions is an invitation wearing the wrong name. It is $19 on its own, hosted through your wedding date and at least 90 days after, and it grows into the full invitation later for the difference between the two prices rather than making you buy twice — the invitation itself is $89. Not every design is offered as a save the date; the picker shows the ones that are.
What to write in the message that carries the link matters as much as the card. One message per household, naming the people you are asking to hold the day — how to address wedding invitations covers that message and the envelope it replaces. The digital save the dates page has the designs and how the announcement works end to end, the invitation template gallery shows what the matching invitation will look like, and the wording builder drafts the invitation that follows.
Four things: the words "save the date", both your names, the date of the wedding, and the town or region. Add one closing line — "invitation to follow" — so guests know a fuller invitation is coming and that this is not it. Anything else, including the venue you have not booked and the timings you have not decided, belongs on the invitation.
Only if it is booked. Give the town, the city or the region instead, which is all a guest needs to work out whether the wedding means a drive or a flight. A save the date that names a venue and later changes it causes more confusion than one that said "venue to follow" in the first place.
No RSVP, and a time only when the schedule is already fixed. A save the date asks a guest to hold a day, not to answer a question, so the reply step belongs on the invitation, six to eight weeks before the wedding. On a printed card leave the time off, because it is the detail a guest screenshots and never checks again; on a link you can show the time you have, let the add-to-calendar button use it, and change it later on the same link.
Name the country, give the date, and say how many days the celebration runs — those three facts are what a guest needs to price flights and book leave. Promise the travel details rather than including them, and send it earlier than you would for a wedding at home.
Yes. A digital save the date is one link you send by WhatsApp, text or email; guests open it, see your names and the date, and can add it to their calendar in a tap. Wedvite sells it as its own design at the save-the-date price, and it can grow into your full invitation later for the difference between the two.
A save the date is $19: your names, the date, one tap to a guest's calendar — and it becomes your full invitation later for the difference.
Start your save the date