Invite timeline?

If you wanted to send them early, I would send them 8-12 weeks before the wedding, though wouldn't send them sooner than that. If Save The Dates are sent, then I would send invites at the normal 6-8 weeks ahead of time, since people should already be aware of the date.

With out of town and a holiday weekend I would go for that 10-12 week range. However if Save the Dates are sent then the 6-8 week is still acceptable since guests will already have the date.

On or around March 15.

Save The Dates are meant to address exactly the issues you point out, so I would reconsider omitting that step. Even electronic save the dates are a great option if the couple is looking to keep expenses lower.

In this particular situation, I would definitely not omit save the dates. STDs are meant to go out quite early in order to “claim” that date and for guests to add the event to their calendars right away. I think you are correct that the next year (or maybe even 2) is going to be crazy with weddings due to the numerous pandemic reschedules- Which makes save the dates even more important than ever. I would suggest sending STDs within the next month, then sending invites at the usual time. Sending invitations really early and excluding STDs can easily backfire because guests may have already reserved their date for another wedding that sent out STDs, and invitations sent too early are oftentimes misplaced and forgotten about (which means a lot of work for the couple trying to track down people who have not RSVP’ed).

We are sending ours out 3 months early- though 100% of our wedding guests are coming from out of town.
Most people will tell you about six weeks, but you know your guests well!

We're getting married 9/2/22, the Friday before Labor Day, we have some out of towners but I would say 99% of the guest list is local.

We sent STD's a year out as we knew of a handful of weddings already for next year and also recognized it was a holiday weekend that people tend to go away for so we wanted to get on peoples radars.

I definitely wouldn't omit STD's in this scenario.

Send save the dates now if you haven’t already. Then send invites at the standard 8 weeks with replies due 3-4 weeks. Allow a buffer of a week between the rsvp due date and the date the caterer needs the final headcount to allow time to track down anyone who has not yet replied.



You start in the evening of the due date contacting stragglers. If they don’t give you a response during the call, count them as a no.

Save the dates sent 8-6 months out to claim your date before guests book it for something else (especially with it being a holiday weekend) and invites 8-6 weeks in advance so invites aren’t lost by guests or forgotten about because they were sent too early. RSVP deadline set 3-2 weeks before your wedding date.

I think you should reconsider save the dates, you can get them electronically on etsy and pay only a few dollars literally and that way especially for out of town guests they will get an early heads up for saving money for their travel expenses. It's also easy to send to all your guests then I would send formal invites at the proper timeline.