My parents weren't into the idea of Save-The-Date cards, but I wanted to have the typical experience, so I needed to make my own to fulfill that idea. This is too simple, and all fun. Hope you get some ideas of your own!

(Even though I trapped you into another Alien Instructable, I made sure to mix some sweets in here so that you aren't too grossed out!) My PredAlien came from a mall, from a cart that sold toys. Amazingly, they had this thing for around $20 and I fell in love with it. These Alien-type toys usually go for up to $100 each. Totally lucked out. So you have this cool, detailed toy that was never meant to play with, because it's too fancy...what do you do with it? -- Answer - DRESS it up. Celebrate it. Haha.

All you need for this instructable is an imagination, some cool props and a camera.

The candy words are via Madmoo on Fiverr :) <--- here is a link to her stuff. Wow, I love the colors.

Step 1: Think About Your Message.

You want your guests to save the date. You kinda want to convey the message of your love and the theme of your wedding. Granted, we didn't have an AVPR themed wedding, although it would have been sweet...

Basically, you want to find something that expresses who you are and your union. Maybe if you have a Star Wars Wedding, you could pose a couple action figures, dressed up, standing in the grass under some sunlight. That would be awesome. Maybe you want to just send the fancy message...so you can get some stones and paint letters on them and spell your message out. Or even buy the image from someone else and then send out... www.Fiverr.com is a great place for personalized photography. One seller actually does the stones that I'm talking about.

The decision is up to you, if you love to create, maybe you'd like to do your own. Or if you want to leave the work to someone else, there's a great outlet for that now. And believe me...I took on way too many projects for our wedding! :D

Step 2: Execution!

Now it's time to pick the perfect setting, the poses, the way you relay the message and put it all together. Make sure that your camera is focused on the details and ready to rock. Take lots of photos and make sure to get every angle, that way you don't have to go at it again for that perfect shot.

Then you can print as-is or have someone edit it for you. Everyone probably has a friend who uses photoshop these days. If you don't know anyone, you can find me on Fiverr - KristyLynn, and I'll edit it for you. :) Just get your image looking perfect, elegant and ready to send out!

Step 3: Printing!

Here is where you spend the "big bucks". Get the digital prints printed. Just choose one photo, or maybe even more than one version and send them out to everyone that you want to announce your wedding to. I would go with Costco's photo center because it's probably less than 40 cents a print and they have a very quick turnaround time. They can even let you select a thin black or white border to have on your image.

Or you can spend extra money and put your image into one of their templates that lets you add design under or around the photo so that you don't need your text in your chosen photo. It's up to you, the options are endless. Just make sure to be creative and have fun with it.

Step 4: Mailing!

Now you can buy blank 4x6 cards and slip the photo prints in there, or you can just put the photo into an envelope and send it as a direct statement. There are no rules because it's all up to you and how you want to do it. Mine weren't fancy because it was just a simple thing that I wanted to do for myself. I wanted the full-spectrum of a wedding, without the full DEBT. :)

I'd love to see something like this in the mail to announce someone's wedding. I would love to get a photo of two legos getting married, all to find out that a nerd couple that we know - would be getting hitched. Or maybe even pets or my little ponies. I don't care. I love to see things out of the norm. And I really love that people aren't buying into the corporate expectations of what should be purchased in order to announce a wedding.

Hope that you enjoyed the instructable and perhaps, you'll take another viewpoint on the whole idea of "Save The Dates". <3