Which Save to Date?

I never would have imagined there to be so many Save the Date options out there! Assuming I do not want to take the time to make this a full-on DIY project, and I do not want to spend $200-$800 on them from boutique websites such as The Green Kangaroo, Invitations by Dawn, or Weddingpaperdivas (although I had fun drooling over their designs, and if price were no option I would definitely order from them, the quality looks amazing), this still leaves four good and complicated options.

(1) magnetstreet.com

The average price for 100 Saves from this site is $169 (with free shipping). They have over 500 fully editable options for magnets, making them the option to go to if you have less popular color options (such as mine, as I'm finding out).

However, even Emily Post claims that Save the Dates are the bride's time to have fun with the wedding, and to play around with other colors. She claims that there will be plenty of time to see your wedding colors later on. However, I would at least like to stay in the same color family.

But I digress. Magnetstreet offers users the capability to create just the right shade of pink (or whatever your color may be) for all aspects of the Save (including the background and other decorations). I love this option, as I can make the Save completely ours. Users can also purchase coordinating mailing labels for an extra $20.

But is all this worth the extra cost?

(2) Vistaprint

An ever-popular option for the budget bride, vistaprint offers 100 magnets for $50. However, they do not include envelopes, or labels, users cannot edit the colors (with the exception of the font colors, which is not helpful if they do not coordinate with the background), and the place for the photo only accepts vertical photos, meaning we would need to choose a different photo, or face looking squished.

Vistaprint is out for our Saves, but it seems like a good option for the photoshare business cards. They are fully editable (even allowing users to upload their own design) and many coupons can be found online for 100 free business cards from this site! A definite save!

(3) savethedatemagnet.com

From the title alone, this seems like the obvious choice. For 100 magnets, the cost is $99. The site offers free shipping, the addition of backing cards for only $10, and free envelopes. Another feature which I love is that for an additional $39 they will print your return address on each envelope. Or, if you really want, for an additional $99 they will print all your outgoing addresses as well. However, I just purchased a calligraphy pen and am quite looking forward to writing these out myself.

The downside: these are smaller (business-card sized) and may be difficult for older guests to read. Also, users must use the design they see (no color editing here, folks), and the designs are not editable online, so in order to see your completed design requires a weeks wait for the proof to come.

But I really do love their designs.

(4) 123print.com

These are $95 for 100 magnets (I've seen a 10% off coupon online, bringing the price down to only $86). I was put off by these at first, since all the Saves did not include the phrase "Save the Date". However, just in the past hour, I discovered users can add their own text, in different fonts, colors, and sizes. So, problem solved.

Shipping is $18 (the highest I've seen), and the magnets do not include backing cards or envelopes. However, I discovered that Office Depot offers a set of 100 ivory greeting card envelopes for only $5. Problem #2 solved, and the backing card problem was solved in the previous post.

The only issue I have with this company is that they do not offer users the capability to customize the background colors. However, problem solved again as they have many options in our color family.

I have multiple designs chosen at this point, from each of these websites. Hopefully hubby can help me narrow them down!