Destination wedding - no save the dates and just invites?

Sending an invite a year in advance isn’t such a great idea and is an etiquette faux pas. I would do it the traditional way— send a save the date notice about 6 months in advance and then invites about 1 - 2 months in advance. This is my opinion, but it truly is your decision.

People are likely to lose the invitations in that time, and many won't have an idea of if they can get time off until closer til the actual date. I would send a save the date when you book the venue, and then if you still want to send things out early you could send the invitations closer to 3-4 months out (this is what we did because our final numbers were due 1.5 months out). The save the date doesnt need to be anything particularly special. We had special ones made for family and super close friends and then created a cool email version of the same thing for those that we couldn't afford to send the super fancy STD to.

I would definitely lose the invitation if it were sent out that early and/or completely forget about your wedding.

I would follow the traditional timeframe. Send save the dates out 6 - 8 months out and invitations 2 - 3 months out.

Putting aside the fact that traditional etiquette would not put "proper" and "destination wedding" in the same category, invitations are not supposed to go out earlier than the typical 6-8 week timeframe, regardless of location. There are several reasons for that. As noted, people will lose anything sent that far ahead. In addition, people have no idea about possible conflicts that far ahead and since an invitation carries with it the obligation to reply asap it makes no sense to send that early. Lastly, a caterer is a caterer. There is no great need to know final numbers any earlier than when a wedding is local.

Save the dates or other forms of communication such as an email, letters, personal contact etc. can convey any needed info ahead of time.

ETA Likewise you can put a link to the wedding website on a save the date, text, letter or email.