Save the Dates vs. Invitations

johannaandcraig2014

My fiance and I are planning on getting married in July 2014. We are working on setting the exact date, as well as narrowing down venues for the ceremony and reception. We will be visiting Vegas in October and plan to make our final decision then. Since all of our guests will have to travel for the wedding, we want to make sure that we give them plenty of notice so they can begin saving and making arrangements. I was planning on sending out invitations in October or early November with the details. However, my best friend/MOH suggested that I send out save the dates then instead. She said that people may lose the invitation if it is sent out too early and that save the date magnets would be easier for now. I got to thinking that she may be right, since most venues do not require a final total until closer to the wedding and I don't think people will want to RSVP 8 months in advance. If I do save the dates, I will put on there that the wedding will be in Las Vegas so that my guests know. My MOH said she would make the save the dates for me; I am glad because wedding planning has just begun and is already starting to stress me out!  Any advice or opinions? Thanks!

Valeriecruz82

Most people do the save the dates 10-12 months before the date and the invites anywhere between 4-6 months before. I sent my STDs 12 months before and plan on sending out my invites 5 months before and will give my guests 2 months to respond. I think the beginning stages in my planning were the most stressful in my opinion. Once everything starts getting booked and you start paying deposits everything else will fall into place. Congratulations

missmo14

We did save the dates at 12 months too. We will be doing invitations at 6 months out to avoid the Christmas/Holiday period. Most of our guests really appreciated the save the dates because they got heaps of time to plan, arrange leave and get excited about the Vegas wedding.

Wedding planning can be really up and down. Luckily everyone around here is so helpful and supportive. I would be so lost without this board!

vegasgroom

I agree, you don't want to send invites too early because you can't expect someone to decide if they're able to come or not that early, so that would mean giving a super long rsvp time and that means misplaced and forgotten invites; an all around mess.  I'd send STD's in the next few months, or, if you don't want to deal with STD's, just send invites perhaps at the five month mark and give people eight or ten weeks to respond.

wrigleyville

vegasgroom said:

I agree, you don't want to send invites too early because you can't expect someone to decide if they're able to come or not that early, so that would mean giving a super long rsvp time and that means misplaced and forgotten invites; an all around mess.  I'd send STD's in the next few months, or, if you don't want to deal with STD's, just send invites perhaps at the five month mark and give people eight or ten weeks to respond.

VG nailed it.

We sent out STDs with poker chip magnets that had the date and our names on them. That way, if they didn't want a card cluttering up their fridge for an entire year, they could just keep the little poker chip. We got a lot of compliments on them. We probably could have sent just the poker chips, but I know some family members wanted new pictures of us.

Our wedding is at the end of October, so we sent STDs before Thanksgiving so they wouldn't get tossed in with the Christmas card piles. Our other idea was to send them in late January, but we have family members who are nurses and have to submit their vacation time for an entire year. January would have been too late for them.

mbenoit03

thats exactly what we did; STD magnets!! i felt it was perfect cus i was afraid of guests misplacing the invites if mailed too soon. we were engaged for 10 months, we decided on Vegas within one week, and announced it at our engagement party, sent STD's 7 months early and invite's 4.5 months early. 

RabbitinTulle

Our wedding is on March 26 2014. Our save the dates plus a small sized magnet were sent out at the end of May 2013 (10 months out). We'll send the invitations in Oct 2013 (5 months out). and RSVP Dec 1 just so we avoid the Christmas season. That'll also give the guests at least 3 months to look at hotels/flights.

seniorprincesslnhs

Since we had such a limited budget for ours, I decided to do just invites and I mailed them early July (We get married early April), so a whole 9 months before the wedding, but the RSVP on the invite gives them until December 1st to decide. We also did it to most people we know are coming and I plan to send a second round if we still have space sometime in September/October so that is only 5-6 months out. However, I did do a double sided invite that is flat and the back has our names, the date and location and a lil inscription, so they could throw it on the fridge as a reminder.

annathy03

I've always heard 6-12 months for STDs and 6-8 weeks for invites, but I feel like that's for local weddings.  When the majority of your guests need to fly I think 9-12 months is good for STDs but invites should probably be earlier than normal, at least 3 months.  I agree now would be too early for you to send invites (people will lose them), but letting them know to mark their calendars and request vacation time if they need to this early with a save the date would be perfect.

Also, Wrigleyville how did I not know you were getting married in Vegas?  I see you on the E board all the time and had never picked up on that.  And where did you get those poker chips?  FI and I are getting ready to sign our venue contract and will need to send STDs soon ourselves.