Sending out invites 6 months prior

What you describe is exactly the reason to send out a Save the Date. I would reconsider your thoughts on that. I do think an invite so early would be hard for guests to commit/respond to - - leading to a lower response rate by your RSVP date.

I would send Save the Dates for people to prepare then wedding invitations 6-8 weeks prior.

Agree with others....this is why STDs exist. So people know to clear their calendars on that day and know that something will be coming for travel arrangements.

People WILL forget/lose the invite and RSVP card and you'll have a mess.

My STDs were super cheap from vistaprint. They don't have to be anything fancy.

We sent our invites in late January for our October wedding with an RSVP date of March 1st. We are doing a DW and people need time to get off work and save up to come out and book flights and hotels and all of that. I'm sure it's against some etiquette rules in the imaginary etiquette wedding book somewhere but I really didn't care. I don't see the point of STDs. They are basically invitations. Why do both? I think 6 months is fine.

I did mine 6-7 months early (destination wedding - hotel required it), and the responses are definitely slow. If the hotel didn't require it I would probably hold off. How many people will be traveling? It might make more sense to just personally reach out to those people if it's just a handful. You can definitely send them early, as long as your okay with tracking them down later in the process lol. I also recommend if you do send them early to still have the RSVP date close to the event.

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We had a similar timeline. Hotel rooms had to be booked by June 5th for our Oct 19th wedding so we had to send early. How many invites did you send and how quickly did people reply? We sent about 130 invites, and I've received about a third back so far (one month till deadline).

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We only sent around 12 invites and so far we are still waiting on 3 I believe formally. We know that some of them won't know until closer due to health reasons and 1 has already said they will come but never sent back the RSVP

I'm a huge fan of save the dates! From both sides. I love getting them: especially in a large family where it's confirming a rumor that someone's engaged or letting you know that you're invited so you don't say something silly when you see them implying you're invited when you might not be. Sending them has a draw, too! Less formal than invitations you can do postcards or get them done as magnets, they can have an engagement photo on them or give a sneak peak of what's to come.

I'm just curious because I didn't get to that point yet, but will you already have picked out what you're serving in order to include it on the RSVPs early enough to send invitations out 6 months in advance? Or are you doing buffet or something? Our food tasting is scheduled 6 months before the wedding so I wouldn't be able to send invitations out that early even if I wanted to.

We have many family and friends that have jobs that require 6 months notice for vacation time, as well as many retired family members that like to book cruises and other vacations well in advance so we sent Save the Dates. I truly feel that they were necessary after getting feedback from family. I recommend sending them around 10 months early because guests that have to put in their vacation requests 6 months early often start thinking about their vacation plans well before that.

I know you guys aren't into the idea but you can truly find them for an affordable price, Vistaprint runs sales fairly often that will save you a ton!! You don't have to send them to every guest, just the ones you're 100% sure about inviting that would need to know the date

Thanks everyone ! I figured it was way in advance but Thought maybe it was okay.
I did decide on getting some vista print postcards made for save the dates, would that work?

We are having a May 27 wedding. We sent out our invitations in late January because we feel similarly about people needing more time.

We only had to chase a few at the end and we were told people appreciated the extra notice.

I got save the dates from Vistaprint for $30 (70 STDs). It's worth it for OOT/OOS guests! If you send out invites that early, you will have a ton of no shows.

I'm doing the same! Save the Dates a year ahead, Invitations 5 months ahead. I don't think people will forget.

My wedding is in six months and I'm freaking out about not having sent out invites yet. I would say 60% of our guests are from out of state. Shouldn't we give notice now? Save the dates seem unnecessary since we already know the invite details.

I've been invited to two out of state weddings and received the invites almost a year in advance, I like that we were given time to plan.

If you're looking to save money- I totally recommend gotprint.com 😊

I know you said you aren’t into sending save the dates but that’s what they are for. If cost is the issue you can find them for $1.00 a card during sales. You just don’t want people to sort of forget if you send out invites that early

Our wedding is in October. We sent STD at the end of March. Invites are scheduled to go out last week of May, RSVP have been requested by Mid- to late July. This is why: 1) I consulted with VIP guests regarding that RSVP date before printing, packaging and sealing the invites- concerns were not raised until a few weeks ago. It would take a lot of time, effort, and money to change it now. 2) My work schedule will be incredibly hectic with anticipated patient influx in June and July- double the standard at least [wedding planning comes 2nd to patient care and provider fatigue]. Plus, I will be out of the state for 1 week in August, which is also when I have to meet individually with ALL the vendors and venue, AND Caterer requires final head count by September 1. There are only 4 weeks in a month- there will also be dress fittings and heaven only knows what else. I am not trying to add that type of unnecessary stress to myself by requesting RSVP return In August, which is why invites go out so early. Two weeks won't make that much difference in my mind as far as whether guests decide if they are coming or not, and they are close family/friends who can contact us if they need extra time due to their schedule. 3) the majority of our guests are out of town, and will need the accommodations card in advance, as we are getting married in a small town with other weddings occurring that weekend and limited hotels. We were only able to reserve a very small number of rooms due to the events in the area that weekend so reservations need to be made WAY in advance. If it makes since for your and your FH, because you have specific reasons, do it. RSVP by a certain date is not a novel concept, it is something guest expect.