If you are putting on an important event and you want to make sure as many people are there as can possibly attend, how do you assure that audience from the earliest moment after the original decision has been made?
You ask people to save the date. Really simple when you think about it, isn’t it? Depending on your budget, there is no limit to the type of Save the Date ideas available in today’s marketplace. It follows through on an age-old concept—you want something, you ask for it. You want people to not put anything else on their calendar on the day you intend to have your event, so you just ask them to save the date . . . Save the Date ideas are limited only by your own imagination. If you can think of it, a printer or promotional company can likely create it.
Let’s go through a few different types of events, and what sort of Save the Date ideas would work best for each.
Weddings are the traditional originators of Save the Date promotional items and Save the Date ideas are vast for this venue. Postcards, business-sized cards, traditionally-sized announcement cards, magnets in different sizes, bookmarks, candy mint tins, chocolate candy bar wrappers, and even tee shirts. Again, if you can dream something up, you have created a Save the Date idea and that idea can be implemented with little effort. Remember, people usually want keepsakes from weddings.
What is an anniversary but the extension of the original wedding? And the greater the number of years married, the more significant the accomplishment. The more significant the accomplishment, usually the more lavish a party for the anniversary is likely to be. For example, if a couple has been married three years, that’s wonderful. Rarely, however, is a party held for a couple married just a few years. Usually, anniversary parties are held once a couple has been married in the neighborhood of twenty years or more, and the parties are put on by adult children to celebrate their parents. In this train of thought, it’s not unusual for those adult children to pull out all the stops and go for just about any sort of Save the Date idea that would likewise be introduced for a wedding—all the different sorts of cards and magnets, and even bookmarks, being the most popular. And just like with a wedding, folks enjoy mementoes from anniversary events.
Depending on whose birthday it is and the budget you have available to celebrate it, your Save the Date ideas may be limited or they may be extravagant. Most often, a Save the Date idea for a birthday falls along the lines of the card, or possibly magnets. Something that gravitates toward the actual request to save that date, rather than a memento, is most often the best choice.
Your first baby has been born and soon you will have him christened. This is a special, very special, event and you certainly are going through all sorts of Save the Date ideas so that your dearest friends and family members know to not plan anything else on that important day. After the initial birth announcements have been sent out and received, you’re likely to send everyone a Save the Date note in the form of a well-designed postcard or invitation. Make it bright and cheery and artistic . . . this Save the Date idea, in whatever form, is likely to be kept in your child’s baby book—and he or she will see it for many years to come.
Junior is eighteen, and will soon be leaving high school. You just can’t believe that day is finally almost here. While the actual school ceremony has only so many seats for only the closest family members, you and Junior’s dad want to have a party afterwards, to which not only those close family members will be invited, but also all of Junior’s friends and, of course, yours as well. How to let everyone know the party is on? What sort of Save the Date idea will work best here? Being creative is best when you’re dealing with teenagers, and most welcome your Save the Date ideas in the forms of more unique items—besides cards and postcards, definitely magnets and bookmarks, and candy bar wrappers . . . kids love candy! If you’d like to have a few tee shirts made up, have Junior and maybe his sister wear them around school. You’ll certainly end up with a lot of takers to attend his graduation celebration.
You’ve just moved into a new house and you want to host a blow-out New Year’s Eve party. Plans for celebrations at this time of year are plentiful, and made way ahead of time. You’ll need to ensure your guest list in more than enough time to see that they add your name to their calendar for that night’s party. And with so many options available to celebrate ringing in the New Year, it won’t hurt if you’re imaginative in how you let people know you are putting something together. Save the Date ideas for this event can run the gamut from a well-done Save the Date postcard, to a cut-out in the shape of a champagne glass, to a party favor with your Save the Date information printed on it. Think out of that box. Give it a whirl and come up with something no one else is likely to send out . . . the better your Save the Date idea, the more likely your invitees will be at your new home to wish you a Happy New Year, than at the house down the street.
There are so many different things and events vying for each of our attention spans in today’s world. Whereas in decades past we may have gotten by with a simple announcement, and nothing more, in our current environment we have had to learn how to create excitement, interest, and buy-in. Come up with the best Save the Date ideas, and your date is likely to be the one remembered—above all others!