Creating wedding event via Facebook and invitations

If I received a FB invite for a wedding, I’d think I was an after thought or not worth the cost of an invitation. I’d probably decline. FB invites, IMO, are for college parties.

⬆️ What she said

Honestly, I never get good response rates with facebook event invites. It's never an accurate head count, probably because it's a very casual form of invite. I think you'd be better off spending the postage.

View Quoted Comment Our friends that did it this way are far from “college parties”. They’re very free spirited and loving people. I feel like if someone decides to skip a wedding it’s because they’re not close to the groom or bride, not because they didn’t like they invitation. Thanks for you input though, maybe you could give me some recommendations or tips?

My recommendation would be to send physical invitations to the people you want at your wedding, and to not invite anyone you don’t want to attend your wedding.

View Quoted Comment So do I just message everyone via Facebook individually and ask for their address? I really have no idea where to start lol

I would avoid the FB event idea.

Collecting RSVPs early and then sending out invitations isn't how this works. You're supposed to get the addresses of the people you want there, send then an invitation 6-8 weeks before the wedding, and collect RSVPs after everyone receives their formal invitation in the mail. You just need to bite the bullet and start collecting addresses of those on your guest list. The good news is, you said this is one of the only things you need to do and you have until July to do it.

It's really hard to say months in advance whether you can go to someone's wedding. Sure, OOT guests tend to know a little earlier because they have to book plane tickets, and mailing them STDs tend to help guests who need to travel make the advance plans necessary to attend. Local guests, however, don't have to lock down travel monhs in advance. They might just need to see if their schedule is clear and secure a babysitter, and it's unrealistic to expect them to know before they get their invitation 6-8 weeks before your wedding whether or not they'll be able to commit to coming.

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I agree. Plus, the older generation may not understand why you're doing it this way. If you don't have someone's address, then contact them individually and mail them a physical invitation. Your FH and respective families can help gather addresses. Create an excel spreadsheet with these guests and their addresses so when it's time to send the invitations you can send the spreadsheet to a printer to print the envelopes for you, or do it yourself.

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I haven't gotten to that point myself, but I've heard that postable.com is a good place to go. You get a link that you can send to everyone and they just put their info in for you.

Yeah, definitely don't do a FB event invite. It's very casual and informal and not everyone will respond to it. The only time I have seen this done is for LDS wedding receptions -- which, most of the time, are just receiving lines in someone's backyard where literally everyone the couples knows is invited to come by, bring a gift, grab an appetizer, and say hi to the bride and groom. Due to the premise I understand why they make FB event invites instead, but it's always seemed tacky and gift-grabby to me.

Acquire all of the addresses of the people you'd like to invite (whether it's through a text message, a FB message, your family, your friends, etc.) and then send all of those people a physical invitation.

View Quoted Comment I forgot to mention that our wedding is Labor Day weekend so we were really wanting to notify everyone about the wedding date months in advance. Then send out official wedding invites a few weeks before the actual wedding.

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That's what Save the Dates are for. This is the perfect example of when you should send out STDs - for weddings held on holiday weekends.

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This is when STDs are useful, because then people can make plans around your wedding. These also should be sent in the mail, though some people say email is ok too. But if you send them a STD, they also should receive a physical invitation.

I would send individual messages to those who you do not have addresses for then send invitations out. At this point you could go ahead and send STD’s out to notify people of your holiday weekend wedding. I have to agree with others who have said that a Facebook invite feels cheap and extremely casual.

The wedding is on Labor Day weekend and we are sending out save the dates later this month. They have a picture of us,our wedding date and city, and then our wedding website so they can see more details. It's Harley Davison 115th anniversary so our city is going to be very packed and people need to book accommodations soon. I will say that we are sending these to only family, bridal party, and close friends. Saved money on STDs and stamps but most importantly, they are the people who we cant imagine getting married without. Everyone on our list is important but for example, my parents friends we rarely talk to, don't need to save the date per se. My parents agree since STDs are a newer thing. There's also a few people my FH is debating about so we are waiting it out. Everyone will get invites about 8 weeks out.

Personally don’t think this is a good idea. I use the knot to collect addresses. They have a link you can copy and send to your guest. The guest fills out the form and you just click one button. It was super easy way of collecting addresses and being organized.

View Quoted Comment Omg that sounds great I’m going to do this as well! So glad you replied thank you l!

View Quoted Comment Awesome I’ll do that as well, sounds helpful. Thank you!

What did you end up doing? I too want to do paperless invitations and cannot decide best plan of action. We are not formal people at all and paper invites are out of the question except for a few older people.