Timing of wedding invitations

We're working similarly to you. Need to give numbers 6 weeks before, two weeks to chase people after the deadline and round to the closest end of the month (we figured the last day of X month us easier to remember!). We have an early May wedding and out day invites will go out in the first couple of weeks of January. I want to give 6 weeks so we can prompt halfway too and possibly do some sly bumping of evening guests if we need to!

Evening invites will probably go out a bit later since there's just a hot buffet in the evening so I don't need exact figures by the 6 week mark for that.

This is all assuming I can choose some invitations of course!

We were lucky and had to give final numbers 2 weeks before. What we did, 21st May was send out invites 21st Jan, rsvp 21st March. We were still chasing people nearly 3 weeks later and about 5/6 about dietary requirements.

Don't forget not just caterer numbers you need but also you'll need to start things like table plan, etc which may take some time depending on family politics so to have the rsvp earlier than needed for extra time is a good idea.

Our wedding was 16th July and food choices/final numbers were due by 16th June. We sent our invitations out in the first half of April, with an RSVP date of 16th May. That gave us a month to chase anyone who missed the deadline, so we weren't having a mad rush to get final numbers to the venue.

Your dates sound fine to me, you've made sure to allow for having to chase late responses, which in my opinion is the main thing

To be honest I think whenever you send them people still say it’s too early! We are going to start getting the save the dates ready and send now so people who we don’t see very often so they don’t book their holiday that week. We are 29th June 2018. We will send out the invites in January 2018 so there is plenty of time to chase people. Try and get the invites in paper form too as it gives you something to show those who say “No we told you we can’t come” and you have already paid for their food.

I was thinking about sending a mini schedule with the proper invites such as arrive at 12.30 for the ceremony at 1pm, food served at 4pm or whatever it will be, so that way they won’t be expecting food straight away and complain they are hungry. There was also a post on here recently where guests were arriving after the bride as they said she would be late, she then had to wait for them, then they were looking in the car when they did arrive so they could see her first!

Thank you for your replies everyone! I think I need to bring things forward a bit and allow more time for chasing late responses! I've heard some horror stories about people not replying, or replying yes then not turning up (or vice versa!) or adding extra names to the RSVP (!!) I can't see any of our friends and family pulling anything like that, but better safe than sorry perhaps!

This is a great idea Mizzi. I know it's trendy these days to have a big sign up with timings on somewhere at the reception venue, but I like this idea better. If I was a guest it would be nice to know what to expect, especially re what time food is going to be available, lol!

OMG, that last bit about people peeking into the bride's car! ? I'd be feeling like an animal at the zoo!!

We get married mid-June, & I'm going to aim to get invites out by the end of Jan. We need to confirm numbers to caterers something silly like 6 weeks before, & overnight accommodation in the area is at a premium so I'd like to give people hotel details etc sooner rather than later so if they need to stay over somewhere nearby they've got more chance of getting booked in somewhere.

As we're DIYing stuff like table plans & stuff too, it gives us a bit more time to get those sorts of things done as far as possible!

Our RSVP date was about five weeks before the wedding (our venue seem pretty flexible and the numbers can be confirmed quite late on). We were planning to send the invitations out six weeks before the RSVP date but they came earlier than expected so we sent them out around seven to eight weeks in advance. Everyone contacted us in some method by the RSVP date except one couple who we chased up the following day and got their reply then. We had sent our Save the dates earlier in the year so we felt no need to send invitations earlier than we did.