How to Send Change the Date Cards Guests Act On
A change the date card exists to correct one line in a guest calendar. Here is the timing, the wording, how to match the first card without repeating it, and the size that keeps the mailing at the postcard rate.
Mail a change the date card to every household that received your save the date, the week the new date is confirmed, with the new date as the largest type and the original date repeated underneath with a line through it. Keep the card at 4.25 by 6 inches or smaller and mail it bare to stay at the USPS postcard rate. Say nothing about why the date moved, add one line promising the invitation, and send that invitation as normal six to eight weeks before the new day.
Quick answer
One card, one job: replace a date in a calendar
Print and mail it the week the new date is signed for, to everyone who got the save the date. Lead with the new date, repeat the old one struck through so guests can match it to the card on their fridge, and promise the invitation in a single line. Nothing else belongs on it: no reason, no RSVP, no venue details. Keep it inside the USPS postcard size window and mailed bare and the whole run stays on the cheapest postage tier, which matters more than the printing on any list over a hundred households.
Send It the Week the New Date Is Signed
The window opens the moment the venue contract for the new date is signed and closes fast. Guests are booking time off and flights against a date that no longer exists, so every week the card sits in a design app is a week somebody books the wrong flight.
Order the print run the same week. Turnaround on a flat card is short enough that the mailing date is set by how quickly your address list is ready, not by the press, which is why it pays to have that list cleaned in advance. Our guide on collecting wedding guest addresses covers the collection sheet most couples wish they had started earlier.
Two calls come before the mail drop. Anyone with a booked flight or a hotel deposit hears it from you directly, the same day, because a card cannot answer their questions about a refund. The wedding party hears it before the general list. Everyone else finds out by mail, which is the point of the card.
There is one case where the card is the wrong move. If the new date is inside eight weeks, the change the date and the invitation would land in the same fortnight, and two mailings that close together just confuse people. Print the invitation with the corrected date and mail that instead. Our note on when to send wedding invitations sets out the standard windows for both a local and a destination guest list.
What to Write, and What to Leave Off
A change the date card has one job: replace a date in a guest calendar. Keep the new date as the largest type on the piece, put the struck original underneath it, and add one line saying the invitation is still to come. Names, city, and the wedding website finish it.
The tone is yours, but the structure holds across all three of the common ones.
| Tone | Opening line | The date line | Closing line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Formal | Our celebration has been moved | Saturday, the third of October, two thousand twenty six, formerly the ninth of May | Invitation to follow |
| Warm | New date, same two people | Sat 10.03.26, not 05.09.26 as printed | Hold the day. The invitation is on its way |
| Short | Change the date | Oct 3, 2026 (was May 9) | Details to come. Keep an eye on the mail |
Leave out the reason. A venue reschedule, a permit delay, or a family circumstance is a conversation, not a printed line, and explaining it on a card invites replies you then have to answer sixty times. Leave out the RSVP too. Reply information belongs on the reply card that ships with the invitation, and asking for it twice produces two lists that never agree. If you want the full reply wording worked out before that stage, we set it out in the RSVP card wording guide.
One more habit worth keeping: proof the date against a calendar, out loud, with a second person. The single most expensive mistake on this card is a day of the week that does not match the date, because it sends the whole run back to press.
Match the Original Suite Without Copying It
Guests recognize your stationery before they read it. Keep the typeface, the ink colors, and the paper the same as the first card so the new one is obviously from you, then change one visible thing so nobody mistakes it for the card already on their fridge.
The cheapest visible change is orientation: if the save the date was landscape, print this one portrait. A reversed color block, a band across the top, or a two color flip of the original layout all do the same work. What fails is a perfect reprint with one date swapped, because a guest glances at it, decides they have seen it, and the new date never lands.
Stock matters more here than on most pieces. If you want guests to write the new date on a calendar while holding the card, or if you plan to hand address the mailing, print on an uncoated or matte stock that takes pen ink. A high gloss coating looks sharp and refuses a ballpoint, and every couple who discovers that at the addressing table discovers it too late. For a card that lives on a refrigerator for months, a heavier caliper survives the handling better than a thin one.
Order the reprint from the same product family you used the first time so the color sits where you expect it. If you are starting the design from scratch, the blank template library has correctly sized layouts with the bleed and safety already drawn, and designing your own save the dates walks through the layout decisions that carry over to this card.
Postcard or Envelope, and What Each One Costs to Mail
Most change the date cards should mail bare, as a postcard. Nothing on the card is private, no reply is being requested, and the flat format skips both the envelope and the letter rate. The exception is a suite that is formal throughout, where an unenveloped card would sit oddly next to everything else you are sending.
| Format | Printed size | USPS rate tier | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat card, mailed bare | 3.5 x 5 in up to 4.25 x 6 in | Postcard rate, the cheapest tier | Most weddings. Fastest to address and drop. |
| Larger flat card, mailed bare | Above 4.25 x 6 in, such as 5 x 7 in | First-Class letter rate | You want the design to carry across a room. |
| Card in an envelope | Any size that fits the envelope | Letter rate, plus the envelope cost | Formal suite, or a travel note enclosed. |
| Square or thick card | Square, or over 0.016 in caliper | Letter rate with a nonmachinable surcharge | Only when the shape is the whole idea. |
Read the middle column before you fall in love with a size. A design that grows from 4 by 6 to 5 by 7 moves the entire mailing up a postage tier, and on a two hundred household list that difference outweighs the printing. Save the Date Cards start at $19.77 and Standard Postcards start at $16.48, so on most lists the postage is the number worth optimizing, not the press cost.
If you do go with an envelope, order it printed with the return address rather than hand writing two hundred of them, and check the card sits inside with room to spare. Printed envelopes come in the standard invitation sizes, and the mailing rules that trip people up are collected in our guide to postcard postage, addresses and USPS rules. For a business version of the same problem, change of address postcards follow almost identical rules.
Wally explains change the date cards
New date big, old date struck, invitation still to come
Wally prints one card the week the new date is signed. The new date goes on in the biggest type on the piece, the old date sits underneath with a line through it so guests can match it to the card on their fridge, and one short line tells them the invitation is still coming. No reason, no RSVP, no venue address. He keeps it at 4.25 by 6 inches so the whole run mails at the postcard rate, and he mails one to every household that got the first card, without exception.
Order change the date cards →Specs and pricing
Sizes, stocks and starting prices for the card
Configure the card the way you plan to mail it. Size and stock are the two choices that set both the look and the postage tier, and both are live in the configurator below.
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Print the card, then the rest of the suite
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Where to go next
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Wedding stationery printed to a date you can count on
Common Questions
Your change the date questions, answered
How do you send a change the date card?
Print a card the same size and style family as your original save the date, put the new date at the top in the largest type on the piece, repeat the old date underneath with a line through it, and mail one to every household that received the first card. Send it as soon as the venue contract for the new date is signed, not while you are still negotiating. Most couples mail it as a flat card at the postcard rate, since there is nothing private on it and no reply required.
What do you write on a change the date card?
Four things and nothing else: that the date has moved, the new date, the old date crossed out so guests can match the card to the one on their fridge, and a line telling them the invitation is still coming. Names, city, and your wedding website URL round it out. Skip the explanation. A card that spends three lines apologizing for a venue reschedule reads as heavier news than it is, and guests only need to correct a calendar entry.
Should a change the date card match our original save the date?
Match the typeface, the ink colors, and the stock, then change one visible thing so the two pieces are not mistaken for duplicates. A different card orientation, a reversed color block, or a band of color across the top all work. The failure mode is a card so faithful to the first that a guest glances at the envelope, decides they already have it, and never reads the new date.
Postcard or envelope for a change the date?
Postcard for almost everyone. There is nothing confidential on the card, no reply to protect, and the flat format saves both the envelope and the letter-rate postage. Use an envelope when the wedding is formal enough that the whole suite is enveloped, when you are printing larger than 4.25 by 6 inches anyway, or when you are enclosing a second piece such as a travel note for out-of-town guests.
Do we still send invitations after a change the date card?
Yes. The change the date card corrects a calendar entry. The invitation is the formal request and it carries the details nothing else does: ceremony time, address, dress code, and the RSVP deadline. Send it six to eight weeks before the new date, or around three months out if guests are flying. Order the reply pieces at the same time so the printing and the paper match across the suite.
What if we do not have a new date yet?
Do not print anything. A card that says the wedding is postponed with a date to follow forces a second mailing later and leaves guests holding a booked flight and no information. Call or email the people with travel already booked, put a short note on your wedding website, and wait until the contract is signed. Then print one card that does the whole job.
How much does it cost to print change the date cards?
At 4OVER4.COM a run of Save the Date Cards starts at $19.77 and Standard Postcards start at $16.48, so the printing is usually the smaller half of the bill. Postage is the part that moves: a card within the USPS postcard size window costs less per piece than the same design blown up to 5 by 7 inches, and an envelope adds both the envelope and the letter rate to every household on the list.
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