Invitations panic!

ledoog

Hello ladies, When we booked our venue (in late fall). The wedding planner we were assigned told me " as long as you have your dress, don't stress about the rest, plenty of time after the new year so relax and enjoy your holidays". So I did! We are getting married on May 2nd and now I am panicking! So, tell me when you're all planning on sending out your invites? Also, how long before the wedding to you request an RSVP? Thanks! Amy

floridabride44

May 2nd is my date too!

We ordered invitations right after New Year's, and they will arrive tomorrow. So pumped. But we aren't mailing them for awhile!! 

We made our RSVP date April 10th, so we're planning on mailing them around March 20th. That'll give people a little over 2 weeks to fill them out and mail back. Want to give them enough time, but not send them so soon that people get them and think "oh I have plenty of time to deal with this" and then forget. 

yogabride19

I am getting married on May 16th and was thinking of making my rsvp date May 1st. Is 2 and weeks enough to get the seating charts down and everything?

As for invitations I got my design online from www.weddingchicks.com. Its completely free! All I need to do is print them out which I am planning to do this month and address them in february which would give me plenty of time before I send them out. 

ledoog

Great info ladies thank you!

glitter2015

yogabride19 said:

I am getting married on May 16th and was thinking of making my rsvp date May 1st. Is 2 and weeks enough to get the seating charts down and everything?

As for invitations I got my design online from www.weddingchicks.com. Its completely free! All I need to do is print them out which I am planning to do this month and address them in february which would give me plenty of time before I send them out. 

I am May 16th as well!  :-)  I also have a May 1st RSVP date, our venue only needs 1 week for a final head count.  So let's hope that works because I already have my invites, I used Media Plus Birchcraft Click here for website I had a great experience with them and love the invites.  We had them in hand just 2 days after approving the proof, I was shocked!

megangagliardi1

I'm getting married on May 24th and will be sending my invites out mid March for an RSVP date of 5/1. I'm hoping people start replying quickly so we can get a better count and estimate for our budget. I got mine from Wedding Paper Divas during their Cyber Monday sale, so already have the invites.

yogablossom

I'm getting married May 23rd and I'll be sending mine out in March as well. Our lady who is doing our invitations said our RSVP date should be the 30th of April. Her hint with that (and I love this idea!) is that thirtieth spelled out sometimes looks like thirteenth and people should get our RSVPs back to us faster. We'll see! haha!

lmcooper86

I need to double check when my venue needs the head count by, but our wedding is May 9 and we are planning on sending invites early in March. We've technically purchased them, but haven't finished finalizing. Don't stress, you have time, but you should maybe start looking at invites.

kvruns

March here too for a May 29 wedding.  I didn't realize we had to give our venue the headcount almost a month ahead (although they seem to be VERY flexible so it probably doesn't matter) so I think the RSVP date is like Mid April figuring we would have 1-2 weeks to chase people down to get the final count

sames52915

@kvruns we are May 29th too!! I'm not sure when we need the final head count, but I definitely want to send them out in March. I want to be able to get as many responses back as possible, as soon as possible. I guess once I find out when the venue needs a final count I can figure out the RSVP date, but I'm assuming end of April

kvruns

@sames52915 I wanted to order our invitations during a cyber Monday sale so we sat down at did it, silly me forgot that meant we had to finalize a ceremony time and figure out when headcounts were due, etc. I wish I would have waited a little longer to order them just to give me more time to make sure the details were right but hey it was 40% off

melo2013

My wedding is May 16th and it is about 2 hours away from where we all live. Our venue needs the final count 2 weeks ahead...I put April 16th on the RSVP as that is the deadline for the room block. I was thinking about sending them out end of Feb. so people have time and notice to book their rooms. Is this to early?

brittanykaylachandler

My wedding date is May 1st and we're planning on sending them out the first week of March with the RSVP date by March 23. This way I have about a week to call people who I didn't get an RSVP from before I tell my reception venue and caterer a final number! 

jltobe23

Omg I just realized my rsvp cards don't have a date to rsvp by. What am I going to do ???? I royally screwed this up and now I'm panicking.

swimchick713

My wedding date is May 2nd. We got the invitations printed today (had them designed on Etsy and printed them ourselves on nice paper) and will be mailing them out in about a week. Our date to RSVP by is April 2nd, a full month ahead of time. I know that they say you only need to ask for 2 weeks ahead of time, but that doesn't give you much time to track down all the people who forget to respond or get lost in the mail, which happens frequently I hear. So I gave it a whole month. 

bakersck

My venue included invitations, so I've had mine since November.  I don't plan to mail them out until March and have an RSVP date of April 8 (1 month before the wedding) This way, if people don't RSVP by then I can get in contact with them.  My venue requires a final count 10 days before the wedding

ajisailove

Oh thank goodness, I thought I was behind! I was planning on ordering them this Saturday (the 24th) and send them out in February with April 12th as the RSVP date. My wedding coordinator suggested I get RSVPs 6 weeks beforehand so I won't stress, but they can wait till as late as a week before. Honestly, these are all just formalities...my FI and I come from cultures where weddings are spread through word-of-mouth. So much easier! After reading everyone's responses, I'll probably send mine out in March and give them a month

mrssursely

My wedding is 5/30, invites will be going out 4/4 (8 weeks out), with and RSVP date of 5/16 (2 weeks out). My venue/caterer doesn't need an exact head count until a week out so I'll have a week to follow up on any missing RSVPs.

Knottie40043618

My wedding is 5/30 as well. We are doing our food tasting on 2/7 and will order invites right after that. We need head count 2 weeks ahead as well so thinking RSVP will be 5/8 to be able to hunt people down if they don't send them back

JCbride2015

ajisailove said:

Oh thank goodness, I thought I was behind! I was planning on ordering them this Saturday (the 24th) and send them out in February with April 12th as the RSVP date. My wedding coordinator suggested I get RSVPs 6 weeks beforehand so I won't stress, but they can wait till as late as a week before. Honestly, these are all just formalities...my FI and I come from cultures where weddings are spread through word-of-mouth. So much easier! After reading everyone's responses, I'll probably send mine out in March and give them a month

When is your wedding? February seems really early for a May wedding. As in, this is a serious etiquette problem.

mikenberger

ajisailove said:

Oh thank goodness, I thought I was behind! I was planning on ordering them this Saturday (the 24th) and send them out in February with April 12th as the RSVP date. My wedding coordinator suggested I get RSVPs 6 weeks beforehand so I won't stress, but they can wait till as late as a week before. Honestly, these are all just formalities...my FI and I come from cultures where weddings are spread through word-of-mouth. So much easier! After reading everyone's responses, I'll probably send mine out in March and give them a month

Your wedding coordinator is wrong wrong totally wrong. You don't need your RSVPs as early as 6 weeks. Is it nice to have it taken care of? Sure But if you need them as late as one week prior to the wedding, have your RSVP one week before that. Then you can track down people for the next few days and then get a more appropriate head count to the people that need them. My wedding is 5/1: Invites out in early March, RSVP mid April, one week to be a basketcase and track down people... then the wedding. 

emster86

Ordered my invitations shortly after Christmas as they were having wonderful sales. I've had them sitting in the closet for a while now. I'm also getting married May 2, 2015. I plan on mailing them out in the beginning of March and we asked for RSVP either for April 1 or 2, just so we have a month to hash out the logistics. Hope that helps?

alechiat

Mine is the 23rd also! I just sent mine last week due to out of country and out of state guests!

MegIAm

After reading this thread, I'm a bit nervous I sent mine out too early! Guests started receiving them today and our date is Sun. 5/17. Majority of my list is (maybe) coming from the west coast, so I wanted to give ample time for hotels and flights. Now I'm worried I sent them too soon! =(

jltobe23

@MegIAm I wouldn't stress about it because you already sent them.  You have a lot more things to focus on for the big day.  At least now you may get your rsvp's early and you give yourself more time to contact people who don't send them back in time. 

SpringBride216

@MegIAm if it makes you feel any better, I sent ours out today and our wedding is two weeks after yours! Our wedding is a destination wedding for all guests AND our room blocks at the hotels expire 6-8 weeks before the wedding, so I thought it best to send them earlier, rather than later. 

MegIAm

Thank you @JessGuess23 and @SpringBride216! I actually just sent my sister an email about the "little details" we need to get cracking on. We received our first two RSVP's yesterday!! 100 days to go!

ajisailove

JCbride2015 said:

Oh thank goodness, I thought I was behind! I was planning on ordering them this Saturday (the 24th) and send them out in February with April 12th as the RSVP date. My wedding coordinator suggested I get RSVPs 6 weeks beforehand so I won't stress, but they can wait till as late as a week before. Honestly, these are all just formalities...my FI and I come from cultures where weddings are spread through word-of-mouth. So much easier! After reading everyone's responses, I'll probably send mine out in March and give them a month

When is your wedding? February seems really early for a May wedding. As in, this is a serious etiquette problem.

May 24th, I already changed my mind and I'm going to send them out in March. As far as etiquette, like I said, all of our guests have already confirmed verbally that they're coming since our cultures don't really do wedding invitations.

mikenberger said:

ajisailove said:

Oh thank goodness, I thought I was behind! I was planning on ordering them this Saturday (the 24th) and send them out in February with April 12th as the RSVP date. My wedding coordinator suggested I get RSVPs 6 weeks beforehand so I won't stress, but they can wait till as late as a week before. Honestly, these are all just formalities...my FI and I come from cultures where weddings are spread through word-of-mouth. So much easier! After reading everyone's responses, I'll probably send mine out in March and give them a month

Your wedding coordinator is wrong wrong totally wrong. You don't need your RSVPs as early as 6 weeks. Is it nice to have it taken care of? Sure But if you need them as late as one week prior to the wedding, have your RSVP one week before that. Then you can track down people for the next few days and then get a more appropriate head count to the people that need them. My wedding is 5/1: Invites out in early March, RSVP mid April, one week to be a basketcase and track down people... then the wedding. 

I think another reason why they want it at 6 weeks beforehand is because they have different reception rooms depending on the number of people, so this way they can assign me one based on the numbers. Of course, they said it can change up to 1 week before the wedding, so I'm not worried.

SpringBride216

@MegIAm - that's so exciting you've gotten two back already! I'm about to start compulsively checking the mailbox soon.

JCbride2015

I am still waiting on my samples I ordered like three weeks ago.  >:-[  I know they don't need to go out super soon but I'm getting worried.

jltobe23

@JCbride2015 Where did you order your samples from?