It’s hard to imagine that not long ago, save the dates weren’t a thing. You sent out invitations and RSVPs before the wedding, and your guests responded. Perhaps they marked their calendar from word of mouth.  But today, save the dates are extremely popular for all weddings and even more so for destination weddings! They are a great idea to give your guests a reminder to set aside time for your upcoming event.

It gives your guests time to plan ahead for your big day – book hotel rooms, make flight arrangements and take off of work, if necessary . It also gives you an opportunity to share your engagement photos in a unique way and creates excitement around your upcoming event . And there are so many different designs to choose from online, and so much fun to look through all of them!

If you are planning to DIY parts of your wedding, I highly suggest investing in a cutting machine like a Cricut or Silhouette Cameo. If you aren’t familiar with these machines, there are plenty of tutorials out there on YouTube and around the web but here’s one to get you started .

I fell in love with the airline boarding ticket design and decided to create one from scratch. Our Save the Dates were created using a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine and included a jacket to hold the ticket, a custom luggage tag and a magnet that I designed and bought from Vistaprint. (If you want to create this design, you can get the file at my Etsy shop here. It includes SVGs for cutting the ticket, the jacket and a #10 envelope).

Since we were having a destination wedding, I wanted to give my guests plenty of time to plan ahead if they wanted to attend. I decided to send out my save the dates nine months ahead of the wedding date, although many planners suggest one year in advance for a destination wedding. Keep in mind, you may need to know many of your wedding details before creating your save the date and will have to figure that into your timeline for sending.

You’ll want to have the details of the event, your theme, guest list and address list pretty much finalized before you start to create your save the dates. I decided to also place a map of the area, showing places to stay within a two-mile radius from the wedding and reception to make it easier on guests to book accommodations.

Find a map of the area online, take a screenshot of the map and add text and directional arrows in a free photo editing app (I used Font Candy), email the final photo to yourself – then print them to send with the save the dates. You could also make them into postcards and there are some reasonably prices ones at Vistaprint.

We also decided we wanted a magnet for our guests to place on their fridge as a reminder, and I came up with the below design to incorporate the magnet on the ticket. I bought the magnets for a reasonable price at Vistaprint ($16 for 50 magnets with a coupon) and I was able to highlight our favorite photo from our engagement shoot.

If you want to create this design, you can get it at my Etsy shop here. There are also great design ideas on Etsy, Zazzle, Vistaprint, Minted, Shutterfly and all over the internet. Just remember to have fun with it and create a wonderful memory!