Destination wedding save the date: when to send it and what to say.

Send save the dates for a destination wedding 8 to 12 months before the wedding, as soon as the date and the location are confirmed. Two wedding publishers, Zola and WeddingWire, give that range. For a local wedding, Zola's answer is 4 to 6 months. The Emily Post Institute puts it more simply: send them as soon as the wedding date is known.

The difference is the travel. Guests have flights to book, time off to request and several nights of accommodation to pay for, and some will need to renew a passport or apply for a visa. The destination wedding timeline on this site uses the same range. Zola cautions that a save the date sent too early can drop out of guests' minds, so an early one needs a wedding website guests can return to.

None of these numbers is a deadline: the dates that bind you are in your venue and hotel contracts. If the wedding is closer than eight months, send the confirmed details as soon as you can, and say which details are still undecided.

A destination save the date has to give guests enough to hold the dates and start pricing the trip. Five lines do that.

• Your names. Both of them, written the way your guests know you.
• The date, with the year. Give the exact date if the venue is booked, or the month ("June 2027") if it is not, and the full range for a wedding weekend. Include the year on anything sent more than 12 months ahead: "12 June" alone points at the wrong June.
• The destination. Name the country and the region or city, as in "the Algarve, Portugal". The venue can wait for the invitation. Guests cannot budget for "somewhere warm". Once you have a region, the guest travel estimator gives a rough estimate of their flights and rooms.
• Your wedding website address. Guests return to it for flights, rooms and updates. The Emily Post Institute advises having the site ready before save the dates go out if you can. A minimal page is enough for now: the date, the region and a note that more details will follow. Check that the address opens when typed exactly as it appears on the card.
• What comes next. "Formal invitation to follow", or something more exact such as "Formal invitations to follow this summer".

Everything else has a better home.

Guests are not expected to answer a save the date: Debrett's says a reply is neither necessary nor correct, so the RSVP waits for the invitation. The registry stays off the card too. WeddingWire calls registry details on a save the date "the major wedding etiquette no-no", and the Emily Post Institute's rule is that an invitation never mentions gifts. Both allow the registry on the wedding website. Our wedding website FAQ guide has wording for the questions guests send next: which airport, where to stay, what to wear.

Debrett's advice on save the date wording is to keep it brief and give the basic information about the event. Each example below gives the date, the destination and the website address. Change the names and the tone, and keep those three.

Classic

Emily Reyes & Jonathan Wright
are getting married in the Algarve, Portugal
on 12 June 2027
Details to follow · aisle.wedding/emilyandjonathan

Warm and destination-led

Save the date · We're getting married in Mallorca.
12 June 2027 · Cap Rocat
Flights, rooms, and everything else at aisle.wedding/em-jon

Formal

Please save the date
for the wedding of
Emily Reyes and Jonathan Wright
12 June 2027 · Lake Como, Italy
Formal invitation to follow · aisle.wedding/emilyandjonathan

Venue not booked yet

Save the date · June 2027
Emily & Jonathan · somewhere in Tuscany
Exact date and venue to follow in the spring · aisle.wedding/em-jon

Wedding weekend

Save the weekend · 11–13 June 2027
Emily & Jonathan · The Amalfi Coast
Three nights, with welcome dinner, ceremony, and farewell lunch · aisle.wedding/em-jon

Boarding pass

Passenger: you · Destination: Santorini, Greece
Departure: 12 June 2027
Purpose of trip: the wedding of Emily & Jonathan
Check in at aisle.wedding/em-jon

Text or email

Save the date: we're getting married in the Algarve, Portugal, on 12 June 2027. Invitation to follow. Flights and places to stay are at aisle.wedding/em-jon.

A boarding pass, a passport page or a postcard from the place are layouts that suit a destination card, and the same lines work on each. When you get to the invitation, the wedding invitation wording tool drafts it for you.

"Formal invitation to follow" tells guests that the save the date is not the invitation. WeddingWire recommends it so that guests do not take the card for the actual invitation. It asks them to keep the date free and says a separate invitation, with the venue, the times and a way to reply, will arrive later.

Match the line to what you will send. If the invitation will be an email or a page on your website, "invitation to follow" or "details to follow" is more accurate than "formal". On a destination save the date, put the website address on the same line, so a guest who wants to look at flights tonight has somewhere to go.

What the invitation should say, and when it should go out, is in the destination wedding invitations guide.

For a destination wedding, send a digital save the date to everyone and add printed cards where they will be valued. A digital save the date (also called an electronic save the date) is an email, a message or an online card.

Etiquette advice accepts digital and still leans to paper. The Emily Post Institute calls email "a great way" to send an informal save the date notice, though it still prefers a printed invitation. Debrett's says a dedicated card arriving by post is likely to have more impact, and WeddingWire still calls printed best for a formal wedding.

Print is worth its cost when a good part of your guest list is older or less comfortable online, or when you want the card as a keepsake. To do both, send the digital version to everyone first, then a printed card to grandparents and older guests, both inside the 8 to 12 months.

Send one to every guest you are certain to invite, and to nobody else. The Emily Post Institute's rule is that any guest who receives a save the date must receive a wedding invitation. A destination wedding raises the stakes, because guests start pricing flights and asking for time off as soon as it arrives.

• No B-list. If some guests will be invited only once others decline, leave them off the save the date and include them in the invitation round.
• Name exactly who is invited. Address the envelope or the email to both partners when a partner is invited, and to one person when not. Debrett's keeps guests' names off the card itself, so the envelope or the greeting does this work.
• Guests who live at the destination get the same card. They do not need the travel notice, but they benefit from the early date like everyone else.
• Tell the people closest to you first. Debrett's notes that key guests can be invited informally as soon as the date is set. A call or a message does it.

Settle the list before you design anything. The wedding guest list template has columns for each address, email and phone number, and one for the save the date.

Do not print an exact date until the venue contract is signed. Zola's advice is to have the venue secured for your date before you order save the dates, because the alternative is sending a correction to every guest.

What you can send earlier is a month and a country. "June 2027, somewhere in Tuscany" lets guests keep the month clear while you finish choosing. Add the website address and a line saying when the exact date and venue will follow. Once the venue is booked, update the website and put the exact date on the formal invitation.

If you are still choosing between countries, wait. A save the date with no place on it gives guests nothing to plan around.