Stds or Invitations

Some people are skipping the STD. But I think it’s gives people time to get what they need to get in order. But I guess if you send the invitations out early enough you can forgo them. I would however stick to the tradition.

This is my feeling on this, not everyone will agree. A formal invitation is required. Always. But STDs are optional. You seem to have time for both, if you want to do both. A lot of people skip the STD to save money. STDs are most important when you're having a destination wedding, or when you happen to have a lot of guests who will have to travel to attend. In those situations, it's nice to give guests more notice to plan travel, save up to go, request time off work, etc.

The formal invitation doesn't have to be fancy or expensive, if you are looking to save money. But that's where you invite guests to your event, with the full details (time, date, location), including nearby hotels where they might stay, maps/directions, your wedding website, etc.

People do digital invites nowadays too. You can do the online RSVP, or the traditional card, or both. It's all up to you! These forums are full of recommendations for the best bargains for invitations, STDs, and other paper products.

I think both are necessary. The Save the Date acts as a "heads up" for people well in advance so if they want to attend, they can make sure that they don't plan on anything else. The invitation (sent out much closer to your wedding date) allows guests to commit to the date and reminds them that they NEED to RSVP. The issue with only sending one or the other is you either don't give people enough time to plan and save the date, or you give them too much time to RSVP and they don't pay attention and you have to do a lot of pickup work afterwards.

STDs are completely voluntary, but are a nice gesture for guests who have to travel far. We ended up only sending them to our guests who live out of state or our VIPs (we sent 40 STDs vs the 93 invitations we're sending). You'll still need to send out invitations 6-8 weeks before the wedding (up to 12 weeks if it's a destination wedding). Most people will not be able to give you an accurate response 4-6 months in advance of the wedding. You'll end up having to either contact a tremendous amount of people who have forgotten to RSVP or will likely have a lot of inaccurate numbers (people may say yes 6 months out and then come to find out they're unavailable). Both will result in a headache.

I would skip save the dates altogether

If you’re only going to send one, it should be the invitation because people would be confused by just a save the date.
Invitations can look very similar to what you typically see as a save the date, but typically have more information like an RSVP by date.
Our invitations will tell everyone to RSVP online, which helps us cut down on mailing costs.

I am not a fan of STDs. The invitation can go out 6-8 weeks before the wedding. Even for out of town guests, that's plenty of time to get the best rates on airline fares and hotels. Only your VIPs are likely to save up to go, request time off work several months in advance, etc. And your VIPs probably already know when your wedding is, because they are the people you communicate with regularly. So STDs don't have much of an up side.

And the down side of STDs is that they require you to commit to a guest list way too early. If you decide you want a more intimate wedding, or a friendship drifts apart, etc., you still have to invite someone to whom you have sent an STD. So even online STDs can cost you a lot if they cause you to invite even one couple whom you wouldn't have invited if you were making the decision closer to the wedding.

We are definitely just doing a formal invite! Saves money and we have a shorter engagement so as soon as we do our engagement photos this spring it’s time to send out invites!

You 100% need to send an invitation. No one will know to rsvp to a save the date. You don’t need to send save the dates though, that’s definitely optional.
Also, it doesn’t make sense to send invitations out 4-6 months before the wedding. People won’t know their plans 6 months out and your invitations will get lost of forgotten. Invitations go out 6-8 weeks advance, you could extend it a little longer but not by an additional 4 months!

Save the dates are not necessary! In my opinion, I think it is really just sending the same thing 2 times in a row and can be a waste of money! We are just sending our invites out towards the end of April, so about 3-3.5 months in advance! I think 3-3.5 is enough time for people to make their decision.

You need to send actual invitations closer to the event or people won't RSVP. Many people don't plan that far out and will look at the STD and stay I don't know if I can come or not and then not RSVP. STD are optional, but invitations 2ish months before are not optional. It will be a huge head ache for you if you skip these.