If you look online, you’ll get a barrage of different answers, you’ll probably end up more confused than when you started! So hopefully this article with give you the advice you need, and the confidence to do it your way.
The first thing to consider when choosing when to send your wedding invitations is when and where you are getting married. If you are getting married abroad, during the week or on a busy holiday (like New Years’ Even or a bank holiday), so essentially, if you aren’t getting married on a standard Saturday, then it’s best to give a little more notice to make sure as many of your loved ones can join you as possible.
When should you send Save the Dates?
You can consider sending save the dates to those you definitely want to come to the wedding. Save the dates can be a nice little reminder for people of the date, and potentially the place of the wedding so people can prepare. From tea towels to fridge magnets, there’s endless save the dates you can send.
The only problem you can sometimes find with save the dates are you may open up yourself up to a bunch of questions; guests wanting to know more about the time, location and plans. So just be prepared for this!
Save the dates traditionally go out 12 months in advance of the wedding, but it’s your wedding, so it’s okay to send them 9 months to 15 months out from your special day if that’s what you’d like to do.
When should you send Wedding Invitations?
As with everything related to The Wedding Hand, it is your wedding, done your way. So, it is up to you, not the demands of others when to send out invitations (or who to invite for that matter).
If you haven’t done save the dates, it’s better to send a little earlier rather than later, especially if you are getting married abroad, on a holiday or during the week, ideally send 6-9 months out from your wedding day.
If you did send save the dates, then ideally send invitations 4-7 months out from your wedding day.
Another thing to think about is how you’re sending your invites. You could just set up a wedding website and not have invitations at all, use a tool like With Joy and you’ll save on postage and on the paper.
Or you could just send invitations to those closest to you, you can go all out and get extremely beautiful invites and not have the pressure of writing them all out, I highly recommend Studio 70 Six for this, that's where we got our lovely invitations from you can see here.
A final tip here… you do not have to send invitations out in a single batch. Break your guests up into priority groups and send in batches, it will help remove the stress of knowing your final list and make your life easier pulling together the list.
When should you ask for Wedding RSVPs?
Firstly, you need to know when your venue needs to know final numbers. This is likely just a few weeks out from the wedding.
The rest comes down to you.
If you are a couple that want to get everything planned and ready early, you want to know how many tables you need and how many table cards. Then you would benefit from an earlier RSVP date – 2-3 months after your invitations were sent.
If you’re more laid back, then you could push this back to 4-5 months post invite – but do not leave it longer than 6 weeks out from your wedding day. There are some last-minute things that you just don’t need the stress of changing later than that.
Please bear in mind, wedding guests are TERRIBLE at RSVP’ing, terrible may be an understatement. It isn’t that they aren’t attending your wedding, or even if they are debating, they likely just forgot… Give them a deadline, and give yourself a deadline that you’re going to chase towards, so say to them by 1st October, but say to yourself you’re happy with 1st November. It will reduce your stress levels and give you a buffer to ask questions.
Best of luck with wedding invitation sending! 🍀
If you reference this blog, you will have no set-up fees for the Total Wedding Support Package, where you’ll receive an online wedding plan personalised for you, alongside our monthly coaching & planning sessions. 💖✨
Comments