A groom e-mails his friend in early 2007 and says, "I'm getting married! The wedding is July 6th - save-the-date." So the friend marks July 6th on the calendar and books his flight for the big day.

He arrives for the wedding and the groom says, "What are you doing here? The wedding is July 6th of 2008! Not 2007."

You may think I made this up to set up the reason for this post, but this is a real story. It happened to a man who lives in Toronto and flew to England for his friend’s 2008 wedding.

So what is the lesson here? If you are sending a save-the-date, whether by mail, e-mail (Evite has some great templates) or over the phone, it is important to include the full date: month – day – year, as well as city and state (and country if your wedding is abroad).

This poor guy spent over $1000 flying across the ocean to go to his friend’s wedding and if he decides to return next year for the real thing, he’ll probably have to shell out the same if not more money to actually attend it. If you sent out your save-the-dates or are about to, make sure everyone saves the real date for your wedding - remember what your teacher said about assuming!