RSVP for Wedding Invites, Wedding in between two major holidays

RaeBerler

Our wedding is December 8th of this year, and we are ordering and mailing save the dates and just trying to get everything in order. FMIL and my grandmother are trying to determine when the appropriate time to mail and request RSVP's would be in this case.

Thanksgiving is the week before the wedding and Christmas is two weeks after, naturally we want to give as much notice as possible with STD's so those will be out no later than March 1st. FH and I live out of state where our wedding will be taking place and so does about 40% of our guest list as we both attended colleges out of state and our families are all over the United States.

Would mailing invites October 1st with an RSVP of November 1st be acceptable, thus giving me 2 to 3 weeks to track down anyone who doesn't respond without infringing on anyones thanksgiving celebrations?

I am posting and running to go grocery shopping but will be back shortly! =D

mica178

Personally, I think a RSVP deadline of 11/8 would be fine and still give you 1-2 weeks to contact the nonresponders.

GeauxTigers17

We got married December 17, 2011. Our RSVP date was December 5th. It worked out fine. You might want another week, but I think if you make your RSVP date 5 weeks prior, you'll have a lot of people who either don't know if they can come yet and just don't respond, or who will RSVP yes and then no-show. We had an excellent response rate with that date (and we did not have a high decline rate - only about 20% on a guest list of 550, which is pretty typical for our circle). 

jessicabessica

I think that RSVP date is a little early.  It may be hard for people to commit to traveling and attending that far in advance.  When does your caterer and/or venue need a final headcount by?  I would make the RSVP date a week in advance of their deadline to give yourself time to track down people that haven't RSVP-ed.  

RaeBerler

Thank you Our caterer would love to have Numbers on December 1st, giving them a week to ensure all necessary food is ordered and arrives. I'll stick with having all invites addressed by October 1st and I'll mail them out on the 5th and ask for an RSVP date of November 17th. My FMIL and grandmother just weren't sure if the 6 to 8 weeks applied since it was smack in the middle of the holiday season and how the RSVP date should be handled.