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Won't say what but will say we're going to be official soon. :)
That being said, I am really mulling this whole STD issue thing. I know personally I haven't received many, and would almost rather send out an engagement announcement that combos as one asking them to reserve a certain weekend.
Then have that follow up with the invitation.
I'm not having lots of guests, but the invites I have decided I love are not cheap either. I do not wish to make the mistake imho of having too much paper goods..plus why waste a perfectly good tree either? :)
Your thoughts on the whole issue of paper goods please? Do you really need a separate engagement announcement and then a save the date which is then followed up by an invitation or are you just going to send your invites and be done?
I don't think STDs are neccessary unless a lot of people are from out of town or you're traveling. If there are only a few, I'd notify them personally to hold the date.
I think the only time STDs are necessary are when your guests need the extra time to prepare (long distance, costly, etc.) I know when we sent them out we had a couple people think that they were the actual invitation and wanted to know why it didn't have all the information!
In your case, I think an engagement announcement and an official invitation would be perfect.
We're doing a save-the-date and an invite. We have a lot of people coming from out of town, and also we've been engaged for a really long time, so a lot of people have forgotten what the date is.
What I'd really like to do is an announcement and kinda a STD all in one. Everybody else but us is going to be travelling to wherever we go so we're in a unique situation!
Agreed that they aren't necessary for a small wedding where word of mouth will work. They're nice for weddings with a lot of out of town guests, or bigger weddings where it'll be harder to track the guest list. They can also be a fun way to share an engagement photo or a link to your wedding website, but absolutely not a must for every situation.
By the way, I have seen a lot of the STDs that have wording along the lines of what (I thinK) you're thinking. Like, "We're tying the knot!" Or, "she said yes" or simply "i do." as well as cute ones where the couple is holding a series of signs announcing it. You can easily do wording other than just "save the date" so that it can double as an e announcement.
I personally think STDs are somewhat blown out of proportion and are often just an added unneccessary expense. The only reason I am doing them is because we have a lot of out of town guests. Since they aren't that important to me, I'm not going to get carried away and spend a lot of money on them.
I don't think they are neccessary unless you are getting married on a holiday weekend. They are just a new trend that people like. I definitely won't be doing them either. I like the idea of an engagement announcement, but I would think if you were using them for both they'd have to only be given to people invited to the wedding? I am more in favor of sending out a wedding announcement after the wedding if something had to be sent out..
Personally I don't think they are necessary, and IMO more likely to get thrown away then the actual wedding invitation.
With the way everyone connects now days, announcements are spread through phone calls, emails, e-vites, etc. So its much easier to give everyone notice, including the out of towners, advanced notice.
BUT, I do think STDs are super cute & can help to set a tone for your wedding.
i think it depends on the situation, like others have said. if it's a destination wedding, or on a holiday weekend where people will be busy, than i think it's a good idea. i didn't do anything but the invite because it's not a busy weekend, i'm not expecting a lot of out of towners to come, and my mom and mil have been spreading the word for the date anyway so those who do need to fly already know and have their flights/hotels set.
I'm sending STDs and invitations because a big charity event is going on that weekend, so I wanted to give guests a heads up before they made plans. However, STDs are totally not necessary.
It's in my experience that the STD acts as an engagement announcement if a formal one isn't sent out. Usually on the magnet/card/etc. I've received it says "We're getting married!" and then goes on to give info about the wedding. I've never been sent an engagement announcement, a STD, and an invite. That seems like overkill.
Hope this helps.
We're doing them. Almost all of our guests are from out of town and we're asking them to travel to one of the most expensive cities in the country. The more advance notice possible, I think, the better.
We didn't do any engagement announcement. It wasn't necessary as words travel in the family and FB did the most for friends and also made personal phone calls to people. We originally were going to skip it or just do an email STD, but now since ordering from Vistaprint is cheap, I am thinking of going that route, as all of my guests are from out of state anyway and our wedding is on the formal side. If situations were different, i.e. everyone is local and it's a casual wedding, I'd definitely just skip it or just do email.
I also am not sure that STDs are necessary, unless, and pp said, your wedding is on a holiday weekend or you have mainly OOT guests. I was going back and forth on whether to do STDs, since we have neither--not a holiday weekend, and most guests are local. However, my FI surprisingly had a strong reaction--he DEFINITELY wants to do STDs!! Color me surprised! But since he feel so strongly about them, I guess we're doing them!
We're sending our STDs out today. So many of our guests are traveling (from Florida, Bermuda, New York, Denver, etc) that we felt they were needed. We also sent out engagement notices to ten or so relatives that live far away and most likely wouldn't hear about it any other way. But we only need a bout 35 invitations, etc. and I created them myself, so money-wise it's not a big deal.
Definitely not necessary, but so fun to do! It felt like a mini-invitation for me, and like, wow everyone knows we are getting married now. Although, they probably did before, it made it more real because we were "inviting" people. We do have a lot of out of town guests, but they are in touch frequent enough that I could have just made a phone call or sent an email. That would not have been as fun for me though. :)
I think a STD is a good idea if you're having a long engagement. In our case though, we got engaged 5 months before the wedding, exactly. So we just sent invites because we thought a STD and then an invite a couple weeks later would be a waste of time and money.
But we were also totally unaware of the concept of sending invites only two month before-hand. I think ours were all out by mid-May! Gave people a lot of time to decide though.
That is interesting to note, Mskalinin, b/c we'll prob be engaged for at best 8.5 months.
I totally understand that.
This is such an interesting discussion btw!
I just did invites, and skipped the STDs. Everyone who was really "critical" knew the date anyway, and for the others, I thought the normal eight weeks was plenty of notice. I say save the money and hassle! :)
I couldn't care less about STDs. Even if I were indulging in a nice long engagement, I don't see myself bothering to make or buy them. The parents will probably want to put an engagement announcement in the papers, but I'd be just as happy using word of mouth and standard invitations!
The only reason I did STDs is because i'm having a destination wedding, otherwise I probably would have stuck to invitations only. But i do think if you're having a destination wedding or simply have a lot of guests that will need to travel to your location, then it is a nice for the guests to plan for that travel.
i like STD's but don't feel they're necessary. We didn't have them. We are having a DW so we just sent out the invites early so that people could make their arrangements at their leisure. Turned out to backfire a bit though, b/c of changing circumstances or simply changes of mind. Nothing you choose will work out perfectly, so may as well go with your gut and stick with your pretty invites.
STDS necessary? Heck no! I wish we hadn't sent them. It's better closer to the fact when you know your guest list more definitively. We sent engagement announcements and I highly recommend a touch of old fashioned grace in this world of facebook.
We are doing save the dates and an invitation. The majority of our guests will be coming from out of town, and we wanted people to have enough time to get good deals on flights, account for travel/vacation time, etc. I had a friend design them and got them printed at a local printer. We wanted to do thermography, but our printer convinced us the difference was marginal, so we went with flat printed on thick cardstock. Including envelopes and postage, I think we spent about $150.
I definitely don't think they're necessary, but I just want something to do! I've got so much time until the wedding that I need a project that I can get done this early! 
Definitely necessary in our situation. Our friends and families are scattered on either end of the east coast (literally- Maine to Georgia and everywhere in between), and we are getting married in our adopted Ohio! We are sending out STDs so that our favorite people in the world can make plans to be with us even though it may be considerable expense/travel. STDs also serve a couple of extra purposes in our case:
*We get to share our engagement photos
*We are combining STDs with holiday cards to kill 2 birds with one stone
*We can 'practice' getting everyone's addresses correct before the time sensitive invites go out.
We are not, however, going to spend a lot on them. Maybe a semi-DIY project even? We'll see... :)
I would do a STD/announcment as one and an invitation to follow. The Boy and I both come from large families that are spread across the country and would need to give anyone expected to travel as much advanced notice as possible.
If everyone was local, I wouldn't bother.
I think we'll be doing Save the Dates (MAYBE) and Invitations. I think STD are cute, but by no means are they necessary!
I like STDs (hehe) - our schedules are so hectic, that we tend to book up fast, particularly in the summer! Also, DH needs lots of advanced warning to get time off, so the more notice we have, the better. It also clears any confusion among your guests who may be wondering if they will be invited!
I like save-the-dates (I sent them and I like recieving them!) because they give you a lot of advanced warning time. However, in your personal case I think you may be able to get away with not doing it...if you wedding is small and you arn't having a long engagement then an announcement or party and invitations to follow would suffice. Just let the relatives who might need to travel farther know with plenty of time.
I sent STDs, but I do not think they are absolutely necessary. If you have a lot of people travelling far for the wedding then they are helpful so that they can make travel plans- but you can spread the word jsut as easily via word of mouth.
I don't think they are necessary and I'm not sending them out. The only time I think they might be necessary is if you are having your wedding over a holiday weekend or if you are having a lot of out of town guests. Otherwise, I think they are an added expense that you don't need.
I wasn't going to send STDs at all. I thought they were pointless. But then we got such cute engagement photos taken and my mom wanted to share them with everyone. So we made engagement photo STD postcards. They turned out really nicely and didn't cost that much to make. (Sign up for Vistaprint's email mailing list and then make oversized photo postcards when they have them for free and free photo uploads).
So we pretty much just had to pay for shipping the postcards from Vistaprint to us, and then for the postage out to people (which was like 80 cents per card since the cards were oversized).
In the end I was glad we sent them. Everyone seemed to like seeing our engagement photos. I would not have sent them if they didn't have some purpose (like sharing our photos with family).
I personally had never heard of STD until I went onto forums and websites. I have been to maybe 10 weddings and they never had STD. So I guess that it's more the norm in the States.
I didn't think STD"s were necessary. Everyone knew when we got engaged and we had a 13 month engagement. Honestly, they are cute, but when I looked at the cost of them, I just wanted to allocate the extra $100 elsewhere, so I felt they were kind of a waste of money in our situation. We got married 30 minutes from where we live. OTherwise I think they're cool and have a purpose. I feel as though everyone who knows you and loves you and who would be invited to the wedding is going to find out personally anyways! We sent our inbitations out 12 weeks early instead of 8, though to compensate for not having STDs.
I wouldn't be doing them if I didn't have too!
The majority of our guests are from out of town and I want them to be able to book the weekend off and book the hotel in good time!
If you don't need them don't do them!
I voted STD and invitation but we only did STDs because the vast majority of our guests will need to travel to our wedding. That said, after ours went out, I really didn'T think it was necessary as we had spoken to friends who would need to travel and they already saved the date over a year in advance as they were trying to determine if they would make the trip and planning vacation days, flights, etc. I think if your guest list is small enough that you will talk to people it's not really necessary. Also, I've never recieved an engagement announcement. I seem to find out my friends are engaged either per phone call or Facebook depending on our level of closeness.
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