How early is too early?

[hlpkaixin3344]

So what do you think is too early to send invites for a September 6 wedding? My FI suggested we send the invitations out early instead of STD''s. We still have to figure out everybody''s addresses. In light of the postage increase on May 12, should I send it off early and forgo sending STD''s or send the STD ASAP and send the invites in June or July?

In the grand scheme of things, the postage isn''t the expensive part, it''s the STD''s and invites, but any savings is welcomed.

 

[violet02]

The general rule is you send invitations 2mo''s before the wedding I believe. My wedding is in Oct. and I am hoping to send them in July... that way I can give my A list a month to reply before I hit up my B list in August which hits the two month mark. Also my wedding is a partial destination wedding so a bit earlier is supposed to be okay.

This is what my planner told me when I tried to jump the gun on sending them out:
I think that May/June is way too soon to send out the invites. Almost everyone will tell you 6 to 8 weeks. For destination weddings I say 8 to 10 weeks. And when you have a B list I say 10 to 12 weeks. The problem with sending the too early is that some people will forget, etc.

I''m just about to send my Save the Dates out. Since it''s a ''destination-ish'' wedding about 8-9 mo out for those is probably okay otherwise I think it''s like 6 months or so when people send them out.

 

[Independent Gal]

Just to keep things in perspective, the increase on a 1st class stamp will be 1 penny. So say you have funny shaped envelopes and the increase is... 2 pennies. And say you have 200 guests. You have now spent an extra 4 dollars.

So I think it's probably not worth it to factor in the postage increase! Even if the increase is 5 cents (highly unlikely) with 200 guests you're still looking at 10 bucks. So if it were me, I'd just eat out once less and send the invitations out at the recommended time.

Personally, I think STD's are part of the wedding industry hype machine that makes you feel like you just MUST do x or y. But really, they are nice but not necessary on a tight budget. So you can save money by NOT sending out formal STD's at all. Personally, I have never received one. Usually a friend just e-mails or calls and says 'oh, by the way, we set a date... mark it on your calendar!' That is absolutely fine to do. STD's are a new thing. And definitely not required. So if you want to save money, just nix them and work that phone / e-mail instead.

That said, we did send our invites out pretty early (3 months) partly because serious and expensive international travel will be involved for some, which means time to price check flights and renew passports. Our invitation list is small enough that no one is going to 'forget'. (110 guests in all, between 3 families...so, more like a 70 person wedding for people with more rational families.)

But if the wedding is only a drive away for most of your guests, I'd hold off a little longer. I did get one complaint from a cousin about the early invites 'How am I supposed to know what's going on all the way in April?' she said. but she's 87, so she gets to say what she likes! But it did remind me that other people were 'thinking' that, potentially, even if only she was saying it.

Hope that helps!

 

[misysu2]

I sent my invites out 4 and 5 months early because my guests were actually asking for them, saying, "How can we make our plans if we don''t have our invites?"

Also, just use the forever stamp on your invites. Then you can send them whenever you want.

 

[hopefulheidi]

Our wedding is October 11, 2008 (Columbus day weekend coincidentally) and our venue is a minimum 45 minute drive for my relation and about a 3.5 hour drive for Nate''s relation. In a way it''s somewhere between a local wedding and a destination wedding since we''re hoping a lot of our guests will chose to make a weekend of the event and enjoy the beautiful wine country in the fall. Although we''ve got plenty of hotel rooms blocked, if our guests wish to stay elsewhere they''ll need to make reservations ASAP. In addition, we were engaged in front of Nate''s entire family so there have been a lot of questions to his parents about our plans.

To get the ball rolling, I ordered our Save the Dates in January and they finally arrived a couple of weeks ago. After addressing what seemed like a million envelopes we finally got them out in the mail. My family received theirs on Monday and Nate''s family should be getting theirs any day now. I thought there was no harm in getting the Save the Dates out early just to give everyone a head''s up.

I''m not sure exactly when we''ll be sending our invites but I''m going to try to send them a bit earlier than most as they will have a 4 day transit from us to our families and back down to us again for the RSVPs. I''m a little worried that people will forget about responding if I send them out too early, but I also know I need to build some transit time in. Since we''re thinking a number of people will be booking hotel rooms, we''d expect them to know if they''re attending earlier than some people might normally so in this case I think we''ll be ok asking them to RSVP about a week after the rooms are released from their block. I know there is a risk that people will forget to send their RSVPs if they get their invitations really early, but at least we''ll have more time to get a hold of them on the phone and force them to tell us if they''re attending or not

~Heidi

 

[Gypsy]

WAY too early. WAY. I''m planning on sending mine early for my September 21st wedding. But I''m talking July 1st instead of the 20th of July. That''s it. Just a couple of weeks early. And I''m sending out STDs now. (IF THEY EVER GET ME THE FREAKING ADDRESSES!... sorry small frustrations).

 

[anchor31]

Hm, I''m sorry I can''t help, because I''m not sure about that either. We''ve sent STDs and I was thinking on sending the invitations 12 weeks in advance to give people 8 weeks to reply and then have 4 weeks to call the people who haven''t responded, get my numbers to the florist and caterer, etc. But from what I understand of the responses to this thread, it''s kind of early, especially since we''ve sent notices beforehand. Decisions, decisions...