Enough time for destination wedding?

SavvyMac

My fiance and I want the wedding to be in Atlanta, Georgia and have been working on picking venues for the past few weeks now (we got engaged in June but I went out of the country right after, so that slowed planning down a bit). We are just trying to figure out which venue we want at this point. We've narrowed it down to 2 places and hope to have a choice made by this week.  

The date we originally picked for the wedding was June 20, 2015.  So we are shooting for a date around there, no earlier than May I'd think.  Assuming we make a choice this week, is that enough time for our guests to prepare for an out of town wedding or would it be better to push the date off to either the fall of 2015 or spring of 2016?

If it matters, the dates we were looking at the venues aren't ideal but they're around the time we were looking at.  Additionally,  if we push for spring 2015 we probably won't get the photographer we liked since he's booking up really fast. However, I don't particularly want a fall wedding and I don't want to wait till spring 2016 but I will if it's the right thing to do.  If you have any advice I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you!

kimberly0315

I think if you let people know in the next month June 2015 would be fine.  For me, that would be plenty of notice.  But other people might want more time.  

FSUFanatic

Better be, lol. We just set our date this last week and we are having a destination wedding at the end of March 2015. Good luck!

princessleia22

Before my destination wedding, I was told that ideally STD's should go out 8-12 months prior to wedding date. So, you should be perfectly fine with doing June 2015 wedding.  STD's should be sent by at least by October or November.  But sooner is better to allow guests as much time as possible to save money, make plans, and book travel arrangements. 

 

We booked our destination wedding about 11 months in advance and sent our STD's at about 10 months. And we had a cruise ship wedding, so people had to save money and book a cruise & travel plans. Our STD's included brief info for booking (itinerary & travel agent) and address for our wedding website, which we continuously updated as new information came available and used to provide detailed info about everything. We also did a private group facebook page, since most of our guests are on there, to quickly update people if new info came available. We still had people wait until last minute to book hotels & airfare hoping for better last minute deals, though.  

 

Our official invites went out about 3.5 months prior to wedding, because we needed to provide final guest list to venue 5 weeks before wedding.  But, if there's no need to do them that early, you could go with typical timing for sending out invites (about 2 months prior).  If you provide them with the necessary trip & booking info early (either on STD's, website, or other method), there's no need to send the invite early.

SavvyMac

Ok great. You helped put me at ease.  

weddingcactus

Save the Dates can be sent for a destination wedding 8-12 months out, as a previous poster mentioned. May or June 2015 would be just fine. We just sent out our STDs for a Hawaii wedding for June 2015 and I think Atlanta is a much easier trip for a guest to plan. As soon as you have the venue booked and the date set in stone, get those STDs printed and send them out. Keep in mind that printing can take a while. (I was surprised that some would take several weeks just to print.)

laquanharris

Yes, @weddingcactus STD's take a long time to print!!!  I am getting married in May 2015 (destination wedding  in Punta Cana) I originally planned for STD's to go out in May but do to unforeseen events, they are not going out to my guest until the end of August. OMG... Well its nice to see that I'm not to far off the "usual' time line.....

WinstonsGirl

Depends on where your guests are coming from, but you've got almost a years notice, so just let people know ASAP when you set the date. Just so you know, we told people over a year in advance, and over half still didn't make the trip due to family, work or financials. It will all depend on each individuals situation.

Jsparrow10

We just ordered our STDs Monday, and we should get them this Monday. I received an email today saying they have been shipped. I recommend magnetstreet.com they send you 3 free samples of your choice, you can personalize one and get it mailed for $5 then if you order from them it's a $5 credit off your order. I'll let you know how they turn out!