Do you really need save the dates? Yes you do. Someone somewhere is bound to book their holiday on your chosen date!

Here are 5 save the date mistakes to avoid when you’re spreading the big news.

Sending them too late

The earlier you can notify guests that they are going to be invited to a wedding, the better. That gives them all the more opportunity to book the time off work, confirm hotel reservations and so on.

Not making them personal

Your save the date doesn’t have to exactly match the colour scheme or wedding theme you’re having – you may not even know what that will be at this early stage. Simply make it personal to you and your partner and your guests will never forget! You may like to include a picture of you both? Or you with your pets? Whatever immediately says ‘us’ will be fine.

Not including the location

You may not know the exact venue as yet, but try to decide on a destination and include this on your save the dates, especially if it’s going to be abroad. If you’ve always ever lived in London and you send a save the date, people may assume that’s where you’re getting married – but that may not be the case.

Sending a save the date but not following up with an invitation

Think carefully before sending out save the dates because they have to go to people that you are actually going to invite to the wedding. You can’t send a save a date to someone who you might bump onto the evening-only guest list at a later date.

Making it too over the top

Save the dates give you the opportunity to be creative and fun, but don’t go over the top. The most important thing is that the main information like your names, the date and location are very clear.