rsvp - what is too soon?

You have to let the venue know your final head count over a year in advance?

Most people don't know their schedules a year in advance and life happens and things come up so they might have to cancel. Destination weddings usually send a Save the Date a year in advance (which I know you are not doing) so that guests can book flights, then invitations are send 3-ish months in advance.

Also having tiered invitations is rude to the 2nd tier people.

Apologizes for the error! It's March 20, 2021.

Thanks for you advice. We're not doing save the dates. I'm just doing invites. Since the US would need more time because its international, this is the only thing making it a "tier". The Australian guests are local so they don't need a heads up as far in advanced.

We can have 130 guests. If one sends out 100 US invites, and only 40 people can come. I would like to extend those 60 invites to my fiance's friends and family.

I agree with Kelly 3 months before would be ideal. That way you can send local invites 2 months before with an RSVP date 1 month before, enough time to track down non responses.

Is there a reason you aren't doing save the dates? A destination wedding like this is generally the main reason to send them. 6 months before the wedding is too soon in my opinion. I wouldn't send invitations any earlier than three months in advance, with the RSVP date a week before you need the final count.

1. It's not eco-friendly; 2. The save the date would need to have all the information for people to book flights / accommodation, the same as an invitation.

It's recommended to book international flights 5-6 months in advanced for the best price. If flights are booked 3 months, prices will probably start going up. In our case flights to Hobart are about $1200, a closer timeline could go up to $2000.

I think people will know pretty soon after receiving the invitation if they can make it, given the expense of flights and accommodation and the time off needed (about 1.5 weeks)

Would end of November be a more ideal deadline?

Agree about doing STDs for your American guests, even if you just send them an email or other online format. You need to give them a heads up, ASAP. My sister has lived in AU for 40+ years, and generally, travel takes a lot of planning and budgeting. However, that doesn't mean you should send invitations a year in advance and ask for an RSVP 6 months in advance. I don't think that is going to work very well. People aren't really going to know, so they'll either tell you what they think you want to hear or ignore the invitation altogether. Even for an international wedding, invitations should go out no more than 12 weeks before the wedding and the RSVP date should be 7-10 days before the date numbers are due to the vendors/venue. An online RSVP format could work very well for you, so you won't be waiting for snail mail cards and paying crazy postage. Good luck!

1. I'm sure you could purchase bio-degradable save the dates. Or even send electronic ones.

2. The save the date could just have a link to your wedding website with all the information you listed. I think your argument of flights being more expensive closer to your date would be all the more reason to provide your guests with all the necessary information up to a year in advance. Also, 6 months isn't a lot of time to save that kind of money for travel.

Even if people know if they can financially afford to come to your wedding, no one knows their schedule 6 months from now. A lot can change in half a year, that's why RSVP dates are supposed to be as close to the wedding as possible based on when your final counts are due. Otherwise, you'll have people RSVPing "no" who couldn't commit to something that far out or RSVPing "yes" and having to back out at the last minute because thngs changed. Just offering advice to make things easier for your guests and yourself (to have an accurate count)