Invitation questions!

LAM524

Hello my fellow May brides!

Are we all just giddy with excitement! These next 3 months are going to fly by! I have some invite questions! How far in advance are you sending your invites? Our wedding is the week end of Memorial day, and some where along the lines, I read, heard, that I should send them out a bit early but Im not even sure when the "not early" would be! Also, how much time are we to give for our guests to RSVP?

hlvonb

LAM2228 said:

Hello my fellow May brides!

Are we all just giddy with excitement! These next 3 months are going to fly by! I have some invite questions! How far in advance are you sending your invites? Our wedding is the week end of Memorial day, and some where along the lines, I read, heard, that I should send them out a bit early but Im not even sure when the "not early" would be! Also, how much time are we to give for our guests to RSVP?

@LAM2228

Since you're planning a wedding so close to the holiday I would send out the invitations about 3 months in advance but put your RSVP date no more than 2 or 3 weeks out. That gives people time to make plans for traveling if they need to or decide what they're plans are.

sarahsmiles326

I'm getting married memorial day weekend also. I sent save the dates back in October to all our VIP's.

The invitations I'm sending 10 weeks out (march 15th), but I have people in Alaska, Canada and Puerto Rico where mail takes longer, so theirs will go out at the 12 week mark.

My RSVP date is set for 5 weeks out, which allows for: caterer and baker need to know attandence a week out, I need one week to gather any stragglers, and I'm buying a lot of items instead of renting, so that needs time to arrive.

LAM524

Thanks everyone. Ah.... count backwards from the date my venue needs a final head count which is May 9th (I believe). I didnt even think of this! Must be "bride brain fog!"

vmj23

Mine is Memorial Day weekend too! May 23rd   I'm sending my invitations out 3 months in advance and giving a RSVP date of 3 weeks prior (final count due to venue 10 day's prior).

rjamison721

Mine is also Memorial Day weekend! So excited! Did you send out save the dates? I'm planning on sending mine March 24th (2 months or about 9 weeks out), but I did send save the dates back in October, so all of our guests already know the date. I set an RSVP date for May 5th (3 weeks prior), because our final count is due to our venue 1 week prior - I'm allowing 2 weeks to track down stragglers. Hope this helps!

tammym1001

I''m getting married May 17 and I'm sending my invites two months out so March 17. My caterer needs final numbers 3 days ahead so I'm going to set my RSVP date for May 7 to give me a week to track down people who don't RSVP.

LAM524

@rjamison721 I did send STD's back on September 2nd. The reason I did them so early is because our venue is located right before an Island. There are but a few hotels close to the resort (venue) and apparently they fill up fast because of Memorial Day Weekend. Actually, one fills up completely with an AA convention. We just wanted to make sure our OOT guest that couldnt afford to stay at resort had an opportunity to grab a room/get a room at a discounted rate. We are in Florida and that weekend is crazy nuts with all types of boat races and other beach events. It worked! Lots are already booked at the less expensive hotel!

BTW...thanks everyone for your guidance. We ordered invites today with an RSVP of April 12th. Seems early but I have to give venue final headcount by May 5th. I figured that gives me 3 weeks to attack the MIA responders.

bellaluna290

tammym1001 said:

I''m getting married May 17 and I'm sending my invites two months out so March 17. My caterer needs final numbers 3 days ahead so I'm going to set my RSVP date for May 7 to give me a week to track down people who don't RSVP.

Same here!
We need our numbers two days before, but I am setting the RSVP date as 4/28 so I don't drive myself crazy.

Kristen625

I guess I'm the odd one out, my day is May 25. I have quite a few out of town guests which received STD in December as they were also our Christmas cards. I just received my invites in the mail and they are pretty much ready to go however I'm sending them out mid March with an RSVP of May 11. Our venue needs a head count one week prior to the event. I suspect I'll get most invites back pretty quickly though. 

LAM524

Kristen625 said:

I guess I'm the odd one out, my day is May 25. I have quite a few out of town guests which received STD in December as they were also our Christmas cards. I just received my invites in the mail and they are pretty much ready to go however I'm sending them out mid March with an  RSVP of May 11. Our venue needs a head count one week prior to the event. I suspect I'll get most invites back pretty quickly though.

One week out is awesome!! Gives opportunity for more precision! Im worried that I may have guest decline but then change there mind.

majesty318

My date is May 17. We are inviting people in 11 countries! So I actually sent the international ones already (before the postage rates went up - score) in case of delays. The people in Europe got them in 8 days but the people in Mexico & South America have not gotten them yet,

We are sending the US ones around March 10.

RSVP date is April 5 because we are ordering coordinating reception stuff from the same Etsy seller where we got the invites, and she asked for confirmation 5 weeks out.

LAM524

majesty318 said:

My date is May 17. We are inviting people in 11 countries! So I actually sent the international ones already (before the postage rates went up - score) in case of delays. The people in Europe got them in 8 days but the people in Mexico & South America have not gotten them yet,

We are sending the US ones around March 10.

RSVP date is April 5 because we are ordering coordinating reception stuff from the same Etsy seller where we got the invites, and she asked for confirmation 5 weeks out.

WOW! 11 countries! What a very exciting guest list! Has to be very interesting to have relationships with people all around the world! I hope you have a wonderful turn out!

majesty318

LAM2228 my FI is from Mexico and he is the only person from his family here in the US! It is fun but I am stressed wondering who actually is going to come and what special arrangements we have to make for them. I would love if they all come!

tammym1001

bellaluna290 said:

tammym1001 said:

I''m getting married May 17 and I'm sending my invites two months out so March 17. My caterer needs final numbers 3 days ahead so I'm going to set my RSVP date for May 7 to give me a week to track down people who don't RSVP.

Same here!
We need our numbers two days before, but I am setting the RSVP date as 4/28 so I don't drive myself crazy.

I would probably do the same thing except we are only inviting 35 people and I'm 99% sure that everyone is coming so I don't think I will even need to track anyone down. 

FutureMrsN3312

tammym1001 said:

I''m getting married May 17 and I'm sending my invites two months out so March 17. My caterer needs final numbers 3 days ahead so I'm going to set my RSVP date for May 7 to give me a week to track down people who don't RSVP.

Same here!
We need our numbers two days before, but I am setting the RSVP date as 4/28 so I don't drive myself crazy.

May 17th wedding here too. Sending out March 17th. RSVP is April 18. I thought I needed my numbers in on May 3. Turns out my venue doesn't need it till 5 days before the wedding. Whoops. The sample invite was already done so I just left it alone. Wasn't worth the money to change it.

pumpkinsandturkeys

Our wedding is May 24, and we'll likely send the invites in early March, with RSVP April 12th.

We have a long weekend the week before, and sometimes people take off the rest of the week and have a pre-summer vacation. Also, there are basically no hotels (just a few B&Bs) near our venue and a lot of competition for the few accommodations that do exist, so we want our guests to have options available. And we need to finalize a few things a couple of weeks in advance, so that will give us time to check up on any non-responders

dluberts

Update on my invite situation, they were delivered today and im still at work so im going crazy cuz they are sitting on my porch! I plan on sending out mid march, rsvp by april 17th. Im not worried about changing tgeir minds after, if they dont come im going to hsve a greatday anyway. If they decide to come the more the merrier, were having a relatively small rception so numbers arent a huge factor

MrsAitch

My invitations were delivered today too and I can't wait to see them! Our wedding is May 3, RSVP is April 11, and I'm hoping to have them go out on March 3, which probably isn't realistic, but oh well. Before the end of next week I hope!

KittyKaty20

I was a little over-excited, so my RSVP date is March 22 for a May 3 wedding.

However, I have quite a few teachers on the list, and families with school-age children, and Spring Break in a few districts is the week before Easter, so I felt like I was losing a week right before the wedding. Also, I have another bride in the family who has been kind of mum about her wedding details, except that she plans on late April, so I just wanted to know who was coming between the two events.

pumpkinsandturkeys

I just sent in the addresses to be printed on our outer envelopes! I'm suuuuper excited!

dluberts

I started working on addressing mine last night, yhis is gonna be a pain! I do have a question, my response cards have a capital m and a blank space after it, is thiswhere I write mr or ms whatever?

MrsAitch

dluberts said:

I started working on addressing mine last night, yhis is gonna be a pain! I do have a question, my response cards have a capital m and a blank space after it, is thiswhere I write mr or ms whatever?

I just asked this on the invites and paper board--I've decided to leave mine blank and let guests write in Mr and Mrs because if only one of them comes, how will I know which one?

I just started addressing mine Wed night and basically it's all I've done the last two nights. I'm hoping I can finish tonight and move on to inner envelopes and assembly this weekend.

dluberts

Well mine has 3 questions on it, one says will be honored to attend, the next says number attending, the 3rd rowsays will not be attending. Nothing is male or female oriented for my guests so that part wont matter so much for me. I guess ill start writing their names on them or at least mr and mrs so and so

MrsAitch

I mean what if Mr. Smith can come and his wife can't? Their RSVP will look like this

M__r. and Mrs. Smith___

__x___ accept with pleasure
__1___ number of guests attending

But how will you know which one of them is attending? Do you see what I mean?

dluberts

I do but I dont see why it wouldmatter which one is.Its stil just a head count for the caterer, it wont end up changing anything except for number of people coming. My other thought was if I didnt put in theirnames, what if they forget to put in their names when it gets mailed back? Then I wouldnt know who sent it back at all

MrsAitch

For seating chart purposes. You could always call them and check though if this happens. I'm going to write a unique number on the back of the each card, and add it to my guest list spreadsheet in case they forget.

I was thinking about writing names in too, and started this thread about it if you want more ideas http://forums.theknot.com/discussion/1012619/writing-guest-names-on-rsvp-cards#latest

Not that writing names in is wrong or anything--I just hadn't even thought about how I would deal with the seating chart and so on if not every single person invited on one invitation was able to attend and I would have no way of knowing which one of them was actually coming for the seating chart.

dluberts

Oh I didnt think of that, but im not doing a seating chart. So for you it makes sense, me it wouldnt matter.

garnetandgold60

I have about 75 out of 118 invitations addressed, stamped, sealed and ready to be sent! When I told my FI he was like "Oh, cool."

So I sent him about 10 pictures of the process...return address and stamp on rsvp envelope, reference number on back of rsvp card, invitation...all put into inner envelope with people's name written, put that into outer envelope, address it, stamp it, etc.....and picture of the massive stack of envelopes...

He was suitably impressed then. Hallelujah!

klburke88

On the back of each RSVP card, I wrote a number in small print that corresponds to each guest. I received a few RSVP's back that didn't say who they were from, but I was able to match it up using the number on the back. Also, I have a few Mr. & Mrs. Burke's, and I wasn't sure if that was my parents, my brother, my uncle, my grandparents or what! The numbering really came in handy. 

dluberts

I put initials on the back of the envelope for the duplicate last names to avoid that problem