diff --git a/lib/dao.js b/lib/dao.js
index f8e4431b..c4236a91 100644
--- a/lib/dao.js
+++ b/lib/dao.js
@@ -931,7 +931,7 @@ DataAccessObject.prototype.save = function (options, callback) {
   var data = inst.toObject(true);
   var modelName = Model.modelName;
 
-  if (!getIdValue(Model, this)) {
+  if (this.isNewRecord()) {
     return Model.create(this, callback);
   }
 
diff --git a/lib/relation-definition.js b/lib/relation-definition.js
index 3a5b7371..143e381b 100644
--- a/lib/relation-definition.js
+++ b/lib/relation-definition.js
@@ -1968,6 +1968,7 @@ EmbedsMany.prototype.prepareEmbeddedInstance = function(inst) {
     var self = this;
     var propertyName = this.definition.keyFrom;
     var modelInstance = this.modelInstance;
+    inst.__persisted = true;
     inst.triggerParent = function(actionName, callback) {
       if (actionName === 'save' || actionName === 'destroy') {
         var embeddedList = self.embeddedList();