response card etiquette

aliwush3

The response cards I made up have a date to respond by. My mother wants to know if there is a way to say they should respond ASAP(instead of a specific date) as we are sending them out rather early since we did not do a Save the Date and would like to get the invites to out of town guests as soon as possible.(We planned our wedding in 5 months which was a little late for a Save the Date). Any thoughts on this?Thanks!

Avion22

Why do you need RSVPs early?  You should set your RSVP date about one week before you need to get your final headcount to your venue/caterers (usually one-two weeks before the wedding).   This way if you don't get responses from some people (or they get lost in the mail) then you have time to call people before you have to get your headcount in.   

aragx6

I would send them at the normal time -- 6-8 weeks. There's nothing in your situation that is unique, and you're likely to just have more calls to make once the RSVP date has passed. STDs were unheard a decade ago -- just because you didn't send them doesn't mean you need to do anything differently.

LTBs suggestion to let OOT VIP guests know via phone anytime. That should do the trick.