Invites Dates

Invitations are usually sent 6-8 weeks before the wedding, but since so many of your guests are traveling, I would send the invites somewhere between 8-12 weeks ahead of time, so that everyone can make their travel plans!

It's perfectly acceptable to make phone calls as your Save the Dates. Photos and magnets on the fridge are not necessary when everyone uses their phone calendar (or at least I do!). For a destination wedding, I'd send out invites 8- 12 weeks ahead of date listing a couple options for accommodations. You can also create a wedding website with travel information. Best wishes.

We sent save the dates a year early because everyone was traveling so they had a heads up. Then we sent our invites 12 weeks before hand to give people plenty of time for travel and hotel. Since you don’t want to send save the dates you could start now just telling people via phone, word of mouth etc because even 12 weeks ahead of time isn’t a lot if they had no idea this was coming at all

Have you considered digital save the dates? That way they still have enough time to make plans. As for the timeline for invitations they typically go out 8-6 weeks in advance.

My actual coordinator from the venue told me to send out invites for out of town guests 3 months in advance. I love the idea of digital save the dates. I think you can do them on this website. I purchased a website for $20. So I can send things digitally and make changes easily.

I sent my save the date to our out-of-town guest 6 months in advance. More than half of our guests are out of town and we wanted to ensure they had enough time to pay for travel and stay.

We did our save the dates by phone. There's an app called textgram x that I use and it's free. I also sent my dinner rehearsal invites that way.

As far as save the dates, the magnets and postcards are a new trend. For generations past, people would announce at 6 months ahead via word of mouth and phone call that doesn’t cost anything, so the lack of money issue is solved. The information was spread via “family telephone tree” after that so that even if you didn’t have someone’s phone number, they would still get the information from their parent or aunt/uncle. But because the trend in this century/decade has shifted to magnets, postcards and evites that have a reputation to let lost in the spam folder, couples are inexplicably told “don’t call anyone to send save the dates because that is the height of rude”. If it wasn’t rude or inconvenient for generations, it can’t become so out of the blue because someone has decided they don’t like the idea.


There is a traditional timeline for invitations for a reason. They are sent 6-8 weeks standard before the wedding. If they are sent before 8 weeks, people lose and forget the information and they think you are looking for seat fillers. If they are sent after 6 weeks, people still think you are looking for seat fillers and would prefer to not be invited in that case. Rsvp due dates are 4 weeks before the wedding with a buffer of a week so you can track down any stragglers who didn’t reply. Tally the number that arrive on the afternoon of the due date and start immediately calling. Do not hang up until you get a yes or no. Also, 4 weeks is when many people are able to confirm their work schedules.