When to Send Invitations & When to Set the rsvp Deadline

I think June 29th is a perfect rsvp date for an August 1st wedding. My rsvps were due September 6th and my wedding is October 6th. You are doing just fine!

Our wedding is September 19, 2020 and I have sent out my “Save the Dates”. I wanted to make sure everyone had them early as we live in VA & are getting married in upstate NY. Most people will have to travel for the wedding- 6-8hr drive or 1.5hr flight and 30-45min drive from airport.

Invites will go out March-ish. I think. 6mo in advance seems good.

Our StD’s were Shutterfly magnets. And let me tell you if you get that type- MAKE SURE BOTH SIDES ARE COVERED BY THICKER INDEX CARDS!- that way they don’t get stuck in mailbox/truck! And weigh them at post office, take them fully assembled and have them weigh 4-12 to get correct postage.

The conventional wisdom is STDs 6-8 months in advance, invitations 8-10 weeks prior, and the RSVP date 7-10 days before the final numbers are due. Realize that sending invitations and setting the RSVP date too early may likely backfire and result in fewer people returning it at all (they receive the invite months in advance and think, "that's not till the middle of summer, I'll deal with it later," and then lose the invite/forget about it) or be uncertain about their plans (e.g., won't know if they can get time off work until a couple weeks before the wedding) so whatever answer they give you might be wrong and you have last minute changes or worse, no shows. Include your wedding website with the accommodations info on it on your STDs. Guests who need accommodations can look there and see the deadlines. For an August 1 wedding, I wouldn't send your invitation out until June 1st, with an RSVP date between July 10-15. (You can include a details card with the accommodation info, if you think you need to.) That will give you 7-12 days to follow up, which is plenty of time. I know it's exciting and you want to get invitations in the mail, but read old posts and you'll realize that sending invites too early will not ensure that your guests respond when you want them to and it will likely make you MORE frustrated and potentially a nag as far as guests are concerned. Daughter's wedding was in mid-January. Her invites went out Thanksgiving, RSVPs were due Christmas (~ 3 weeks prior to wedding). Even in the middle of "holiday mail" everything worked out perfectly. (And, more than a third of the guests were traveling cross county or internationally. People figure stuff out.) Good luck!

I think the rsvp date of June 29th is fine— you’ll want a little time after that to follow up with people you haven’t heard back from before your numbers are due.
March, however, is WAY too early to send the invitations out— it’s too far in advance for people to know if they can necessarily come hey, so they’ll put them aside and they’ll get lost or forgotten or people will lose track of the rsvp date and forget to reply by then. I wouldn’t send them anytime before May, and mid-late May even better. You’re doing save the dates so everyone will already have the date and the info they need if they do have to make travel plans, so you don’t need to stress trying to send invites extra early.

We sent invites out 3 months out, then the RSVP date 40 days out (10 days before we needed our final headcount for our vendors).