BloominBrides.com

STD = Save-The-Date

This week we sent out our STD’s.
What are STD’s?  Perhaps not what you think!  STD = Save-The-Date .
Save-The-Date annoucements are sent to invited guests to let them know when your wedding is to take place.
They are helpful for our busy guests and especially for the out-of-town guests who would need to make special arrangements for time-off and travelling.
Personally, we have 6 weddings to attend this year not including our own!
2007 seems to be the year for weddings!
It is great to know many months ahead of time when a wedding is going to take place.

Here is an example of the Premium Smilebox postcard that we sent.

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Please note that STD’s are different from formal invitations.  STD’s do not have the complete wedding details such as venue addresses and event descriptions.  They are simply an announcement as to when a wedding is to take place.

The most common STD’s being sent out are stationary / print cards.
To cut costs, we opted for STD’s sent by email.  We have the emails of the majority of our guests so this would make it convenient for us.  At the same time, in our STD’s, we asked our guests to send us their mailing address to where we could send our formal invitations as well as their full names.  We requested their full names so that we could address the formal invitations with correct etiquette and also have the correct name on their place cards.  We got really confused trying to remember some of our guests’ spouses/partners names, whether they went by their maiden names, or the names their children took.  I think I’ll keep it simple and take my fiancé’s last name and add it after my maiden name!

At first we were going to send out our STD through www.OurWeddingDay.com .   It’s a free service!
Then, I stumbled upon Smilebox.  Smilebox has hundreds of designs to choose from.  You can personalize your e-card with your own wording, music and photos.  You can even embed video in it!  We were going to add a video annoucement to ours but my fiancé didn’t want to be on camera.  Party pooper! =)
Smilebox card is free.  They also have a Premium card which costs $1.99 US for a full-screen card and allows uploading of your own music.

Are you sending out a Save-The-Date annoucement?
Are yours stationary or e-cards?