Digital Save the Date: Timing and Wording

A digital save the date does one job: it gets your wedding date into your guests' calendars before their year fills up with other plans. No printing, no postage, no waiting for cards to come back from the shop. You write it once, hit send, and it lands on everyone's phone the same afternoon.

I've played more than 100 weddings as a DJ, and I've heard the same story at plenty of them: the couple sent lovely printed cards, then the venue moved the date, and half the guests never saw the correction. That experience shaped the advice below.

When to send a digital save the date

As soon as your date and venue are both fixed. Not before, because a save the date with a wobbly date causes exactly the confusion it's meant to prevent. For most couples that means 8 to 12 months ahead of the wedding. Go earlier if any of these apply:

• You're marrying in summer: guests book their holidays in January and February. Get your date in first.
• You're marrying abroad: people need flights, hotels and days off work. Give them 10 to 12 months, more if you can.
• Many guests have school-age kids: their whole year bends around school holidays, so the earlier the better.

How to send it

• Messenger: the fastest route for most guest lists. One message, sent in an evening. For grandparents without smartphones, ask a family member to pass it on.
• Email: good when you want a slightly longer note and a tidy record of who got it.
• A link to your wedding website: the version that keeps working. The message stays short because the details live on the page.

In practice the best combination is a short messenger message with the link at the end. Guests get the news instantly and have one place to check back later.

Wording examples you can copy

Keep it short. A save the date is a calendar note, not the invitation. Three versions that work:

• Short and warm: "We're getting married! 12 June 2027, near Augsburg. Save the date, the invitation will follow. Anna and Ben"
• With a link: "Big news: we're getting married on 12 June 2027! Everything you'll need to know will appear here over the coming months: anna-and-ben.about2marry.de. Save the date!"
• For a wedding abroad: "We're getting married in Tuscany on 5 September 2027! We know that's a trip, so we're telling you as early as possible. Travel tips and details will be on our wedding page soon."

Why a link ages better than an image

A designed image looks great, but it's frozen the second you send it. If the start time shifts or the venue changes, you send a correction and hope nobody scrolls past it. A link points to a living page: whoever opens it sees today's version, not the one from eight months ago. And the same link grows with your planning. First it holds the date, later the directions, the schedule and the online RSVP.

That's the setup about2marry is built for: your own address like name-and-name.about2marry.de, an access code so only invited guests get in, and the page deletes itself 4 weeks after the wedding. You design it for free and pay €49 once when you publish, no subscription. If you're starting from zero, here's how to make a wedding website step by step. And once the printed invitations go out, a QR code on the invitation brings the paper and the page together.