Save the Dates are a fabulous opportunity to be playful and creative, and to really imbue the personality of the bride and groom in the announcement. Even if you plan on sending out a formal wedding invitation — in small caps, on cream paper, with some kind of frilly imagery — there is no hard and fast rule that the Save the Date has to be a visual harbinger of what’s to come. Here are two examples of Save the Dates I did for two sets of friends this spring.
The first (above) was created in a single day. Both the bridge and groom are very outdoorsy, vibrant, and artistic. I wanted to create something lighthearted and unconventional that defied the typical boundaries of a printed 2D announcement. Since they were only sending out an email invitation, I thought a 3D diorama would work nicely. I centered a grapevine wreath inside the back of a painting panel, cut out various images from postcards, magazines, and sticker books, added a few figurines and the essential names and date, and photographed it. Voilà!

The second Save the Date was designed to look like an old-fashioned radiogram. The bride is a freelance radio journalist, and we loved the idea of adopting the look of a broadcasting announcement. After collecting a number of radiogram variations online I appropriated a personalized design, encoding various details of the bride and groom into the format, such as their hometowns and the location of their first date.