When to send invites/how to pick rsvp date

[Deleted User]

Just curious...how soon should invites be sent out? I've seen 2-3 months on different checklists. Is that accurate?

Also, how do you choose the date you need RSVP's back? A month before? 2 weeks before?

Thanks!

cemetreesc

any of my relatives are coming from maine so i am sending invites about 3 months in advance. if most people are local i would say 2 months. i believe RSVP request is 1 month before

sdose13

Don't forget: people will not respond in time. Seriously. So whatever date your caterer gives you as a drop-dead, take into account that you'll end up contacting 40-50 percent of your guests. I needed to know numbers for several reasons. First, food and cake. Then, I rented my own tables and chairs, which meant I needed to know for those purposes, which meant I needed to know numbers of centerpieces and linens. So, at least a month before your wedding date.

ECOlson

Etiquette says to send out invitations 6-8 weeks before the wedding date.  Do what works best for you, but know that if you send them really early people have more chances to lose the invite, and if you send them too late they might not have enough notice to take it off of work.  As far as the RSVP date, there's no hard and fast rule.  See when your caterer, anyone you're renting items from, and any other number-sensitive vendor wants the final numbers and then go a week (or more) before that.  From what I've heard you WILL need to call/email people that haven't responded, so make sure you have plenty of time to do that before sending in your final number. 

deregniern

Everyone has given you great advice.  For our 9/24 wedding we sent them out about mid July.  We had an RSVP date of 9/1/11 and like pp said, we were tracking down quite a few people.  Our guest list was pretty small so it was manageable, but still annoying.  I would say if you caterer says they need final counts 2 weeks before, set your RSVP date a month out.