When did you start collecting addresses?

We've been collecting them throughout the whole process, well I have been anyway. FH just got a big chunk on his side. I think it all depends on whether or not your guests might move and whether or not you want to spend big chunks of time asking people or spread it out.

Start early. We started about 10-11 months out and didn't get them finalized until the summer. It is tedious and more difficult than anticipated. Give yourself plenty of time.

I agree that you should start early, as long as you are sure you won't remove anyone from your guest list. We officially decided to cut our list like the day after my FH asked for a few addresses, so he deflected by saying something about getting our Christmas card list ready early. Awkward!

We started a couple months ago - haven't been doing it much, but I just started addressing our Save the Dates and people have already moved since we got them. It is going to be a headache so I'd say definitely start getting them from people who aren't moving anytime soon to make it easier on yourself down the line.

Collecting addresses was, at least for me, the most surprisingly stressful part of the process. Start as early as you can, and keep them in an organized place. Make sure you ask about people who might plan on moving, and get the their new addresses when you can. Also double check the spelling of every single name. All of them. I had mixed up Cheryl/Sheryl, Linda/Lynda, and the last name of an entire family. I know it's not a big deal, but I was embarrassed.

I started by asking the last person in my family to get married to send me there address list, that got me about half of my side of the GL. Then I asked my mom and stepmom for any addresses they had. After that I was still in need of about 10 addresses. As far as FH he had his grandma get the addresses. We started about 2 months into the engagement. Still not done, its been 8 months.

Immediately! I figured it didn't need to be put off. We had a pretty easy time getting them, surprisingly and out of about 110 total that we collected, only one changed by the time we had to send the info to the invitation designer for printing. So, not too bad!

I started as soon as we were engaged (January). Was still collecting and updating up until a week ago. It's very tedious, start early.

No harm in starting early. I have just a few more that I'm missing. Luckily I already had most since I do Christmas cards every year.

Definitely start early, especially if you have to rely on others to get the addresses. I had to remind FH and my parents multiple times.

Start the guest list now and add to it as you go. Its easier to do it little by little, than to have the STD's in hand and then try and hunt down addresses.

@Ashlei, if possible try to ask both sets of parents for addresses rather than going to individual people. I've heard some people on here say they got excited and asked tons of people for addresses and then realized they asked way too many people... but rude to ask for address and then not send an invite! We started with both parents Christmas List Addresses and made our list from that. Then we added our friends and when we had the final list of names, THEN we asked for remaining addresses we didn't have. That way we knew our guest list was certain before hinting to people they were invited by asking addresses. You could start this process now, and then ask remaining addresses in March prior to when you send them out.

You can never start too early. like others have mentioned just be aware of people moving and potentially cutting your guest list later on. We had a few guests we didn't send STD's to just in case we needed to take them off the list; they just got an invite later on.

I asked my parents, FH and FHs nana for their list of addresses in May or June. I didn't have all of the addresses until August right before we sent STDs out. Some people were moving when I was planning on sending them out, so we sent them two weeks earlier than I wanted to for that reason. I would say to start early especially if you don't have a guest list fully figured out yet. Make sure people know to tell you if they are moving.

Given that the holidays are coming up and your wedding isn't until next year, I would ask for them and send holiday cards out. It's easy to justify asking for addresses and then immediately send cards, and you don't run into some of the guest list issues described here. If you wait until after the new year, you'll have to be more rigid in asking because people will know it's for the wedding.

I started in August for my list of 125. FH's side is done, but I have friends and family that are always moving around. Hope to be done before Christmas. The movers will probably just get invites when they go out.

I did not start until about a month before sending the save the dates out. our guest list was changing quite frequently so i did not want to risk asking someone that ultimately would not be on the guest list.

We started expanding upon our Christmas card list for my son's HS Grad party last May. We then realized that many of those people will be invited to the wedding. We edited that list, and just keep adding.. It's never too early, address collecting can be a pain in the side!

We've already started, STDs will go out in February. Start early, it's a surprisingly difficult task.

Wouldn't hurt to start now. We are sending out Save the Dates just after Christmas, and I am going to start asking for addresses this weekend.