When did you send your invites?

Heya, for us we sent out ours quite early compared to some (I like to be organised and also if you get the RSVPs early enough you can sort out your seating plans etc - one less hassle of sorting things out nearer to the date).

Ours went out the middle of March 2011 and we get married in October 2011 and we had an RSVP date of 1st May 2011. We got them all back and no one thought this was early.

We spent the Easter weekend stuffing envelopes & sending day invites out for our October wedding. We have an RSVP date of June 1st, and we'll make a start on the evening invitations after that.

For June next year I'd suggest sending them out first thing in the new year - if you do it before there's a chance people will dump the invite with Xmas cards, or forget to RSVP because of the festivities. Put a date of 1st March for RSVPs, that then gives you a few weeks to chase if needed.

My wedding invites are all out now for our August wedding, and went out 2ish weeks ago. OHs however are still sitting on our bedside table.

Our RSVP is 30 June as I am not planning on chasing RSVPs.

We get married Oct 22nd (same as Judeclarke) and we're sending ours out this week with rsvp date of 1st August. The evening invites will be going out to guests in another 6 weeks. I don't feel the need to send them just yet (Plus I haven't finished making eve invites!!)

We sent ours out last week and they all started arriving with people on Saturday!!! We had an RSVP of the 18th July so that gives us a month to get all the hotel and table plans and stuff drawn up!! I dont hope I have to many to chase up as I enclosed RSVP cards and stamped self addressed envelopes!!! xx

We wrote ours last week and are in the process of sending them out now for our wedding on 3rd September. Our RSVP date is end July to give me time to chase. Our venue doesn't need final figures until 2 weeks before though x

You'll probably find as many answers as you do replies, because stuff tradition, it actually depends on your day more than anything.

We sent our invites out in October 2010 rsvp March 2011 for our September 2011 wedding. Some say that's far too early - but as the majority of our guests will have a 2 hour plus drive each way to our chosen venue, in some cases requiring overnight accommodation, and in a few cases needing to book flights and/or time off work, we wanted to give as much notice as we could to give everyone the best chance of attending, including saving up if it was going to be an expensive trip for them (or figuring out staying with relatives etc). You also need to factor in whether people may need to arrange childcare, particularly if you want a 'child free wedding'.

We did think about 'save the date' cards but figured out that we were only going to be sending them out perhaps 3-4 months earlier than we felt was necessary anyway, and the fact that postage was going to cost about £30 (again) it just seemed a waste of time.

So far, almost everyone who has declined are the people we would have expected not to come anyway (age, distance a problem, etc) and many of our positives have commented how organised we are and how useful it was to have such advance notice.

After the RSVP date, and a few weeks to chase people, we're now down to two responses outstanding, one who isn't sure due to family illness and the other because they're waiting for an operation date, both of which are acceptable reasons for not replying and as long as we know we can factor them in at a later date without having to worry too much about massively increasing numbers at the last minute.

In April we sent out a little "thanks for replying, here's an update" letter to everyone who came, and in early August we'll be sending out another letter, to all the positives with final details and reminders, and to all those who declined to ask if they'd like us to send them a copy of our wedding DVD when it's available (it's going to be sent automatically to the positives).

All this is of course very easy due to a custom written Access database I put together that handles all our invitations and responses.

I think the tradition of "6-8 weeks before the wedding" stems from the old days where the parents invited people and handled the responses, with little else to worry about by that stage, whereas now often the couple organise everything themselves when you have all the last minute dress fittings, hair trials etc to worry about chasing people is the last thing you need to add to the pressure.

Personally, at 6-8 weeks notice, the chances of us both being free to accept an invitation is slim, although of course it may well be that whatever is there can be rearranged which of course may well inconvenience other people.

If your wedding is mostly to people local to the venue, and they already know about it by word of mouth then maybe 3 months is ok but if it's a distance and involves people needing to arrange travel and accommodation then I'd say 6-8 months is far more realistic.

After all, people don't need to know the details except where and when, and given that most of us have these booked up a year or more in advance, I don't see any reason to "hold back" in getting them out.

We are June 2012 too and are taking our Australian guests invites over in August and then sending the UK STD in October UK followed by invites in Jan/Feb with RSVP by end of April. I feel if we send them too early people may RSVP to attend and then something may happen and they can no longer attend but don't bother to inform us which is as annoying as a non RSVP.

We sent ours about 6 months before. That's earlier than many people, but nearly everybody is having to travel some distance to the wedding, so we gave them as much notice as possible.

Hey Lil Miss

I am getting married 2nd June 2012 and will be sending my invites out at the end of January next year with an RSVP of End of March so i can give the hotel final numbers for food and rooms ?

We're getting married end of August and I'm currently trying to collate addresses to get them out by the end of May.

MOH seems to have added a few names to her list of addresses along with comments such as 'these people probably won't come but you should send them an invite anyway'

Uhhh, no ?

Yesterday! We get married 1st October and RSVP date is 1st July.

We are getting married on the 8th June 2012 and we will send ours out in about September/October time as its a friday so people will need to get time off work. Plus a lot of guests will be traveling from miles away so will need to book hotels/save up.

We also aren't sending out Save The Dates to save costs so thats why we are doing it so early.

Bx

Well the etiquette of sending them out 6 weeks before is now more like the exception to the rule!

As everyone else has said it really depends on you! When we were deciding on when to send invites we factored in that most of our guests would have a hefty journey to get to the venue, we had quite a few overseas guests, we need to have a pretty good idea of numbers by the middle of July before we pay our 50% food and drink deposit and mainly that I am just a organizational control freak who likes to have everything done with plenty of time to spare!!

So we sent out invites to our 10th September wedding at the beginning of May with an RSVP date of 25th June so allow a bit of chasing space before we have to give numbers.

This is my fear too Jo. I want people to have time to book it in their diaries as I know June can be busy for weddings but not so soon they forget about it. Think will go with getting invites in JJan and sending at the end of Jan

Im glad you brought this up, i have been panicking about when to send out invites. We are getting married 28/04/2012. There seems to be alot of conflicting advice on this subject.....

any further advice on when to send mine!!!!

I sent ours out at the end of March with a rsvp date of beginning of May for our July 2nd wedding and i still had to chase a few people