Wedding How far in advance should DW invites be sent?

[Shoopy]

Ay the best friend

She decides last September that her wedding will be in November 2008 in the Keys. She did no planning then decided last month it will be in March 2009. Now she''s back to November.

We''re almost in September and she hasn''t sent out invites (mainly because she doesn''t have the venue yet). Is 2 months enough of a notice? She has a few guests that live in Florida (Keys about 4 hours away) but the rest live in California, Oregon, and throughout the northeast.

Also, any tips on how to pull off a DW in 3 months will be appreciated!

Thanks

 

[violet02]

Well my wedding is somewhat destination since all of our family and family friends as well as a lot of FI''s friends have to fly to CA... the wedding is even a couple of hours from where we live. Anyways I sent my invites out mid-July for an October 4th wedding. I had published hotel info in May though and people had already starting booking (the people that got STDs in the mail in March). Peopld have until 8/25 to RSVP. My planner and I figured out 2 1/2 to 3 mos was good. If it was something like mexico or hawaii i''d have sent the invites at 3mo''s for sure. 2 months might be doable if people knew in advance and had already started booking their trips or taking the time off work etc.

 

[meresal]

If Nov 08, then she should have mailed them at the end of last year or at least the beginning of this year, the save the date that is, with hotel info and a travel agent. People have to be able to schedule their time off, and I hope she's ok with some people not coming because of this exact problem. Many people plan their vaca at the very beginning of the year, and save extra days for the end of year holidays.

(ahem, personal experience, BFF decided while I was in NYC, that after her engagement in July 08 that she's doing destination wedding in Nov... 3 months away... I'm now having to take unpaid time off so that I can still go home for Christmas, and district manager is not all that pleased)

If she goes with March of 09, then I would suggest getting them out as soon as possible.


ETA: With destination weddings, I think that the invites are more of a formality at the end. It's the STD's that are really important, with all the planning info.

ETAA: With 2-3 months of planning, I would find a resort that has packages. Probably finding a travel agent would save you ALOT of time.

 

[neatfreak]

They should be sent out ASAP. Just make sure she realizes that at this late of a date it is very possible that many people won't be able to make it. If she's ok with that then she can proceed, if not, she should do March and get the STD's out ASAP. Then again, it IS in the US, which makes it much more like a regular wedding travel wise, and people do send those invites out only 2 months ahead of time.

But if she's going to do this she needs to do it ASAP.


We had a DW of sorts in San Francisco (most people needed to travel, some from So Cal some from the East Coast) and we sent out save the dates like 4-5 months ahead of time and the invites 1.5 months before. Worked out fine for us. But then again we had a VERY small wedding.

 

[JerseyGrl81]

I am having a destination wedding next August and I already sent the Save the Dates out last month. We sent them out early so that people could plan their vacation around it and save their vacation days from work for it. Your friend''s guests may have trouble getting off work for her wedding because they might have used up all their vacation days for 2008 already. If she could push it off until sometime next year that would probably get her a bigger turn out. I think that 6 months would be the least time someone should give for a DW if they are planning on inviting others to join them.