When should I send Invitations?

[B&G]

I'd be pretty irritated with the resort!

 

Since the general rule of thumb is to give your guests at least 6 weeks to respond to your invitation, and you want to get them in before January 18th...Given the holiday season that will be taking place while people have your invitations in-hand, I would send them out in November with an RSVP date of sometime the first week of January. That gives people more than enough time to figure things out and book their trips!

[Heidi]

We're getting married a week or 2 before you. We have decided to mail out our invites in September asking for a RSVP by November 1. Our families are both procrastinators, so we figure we'll get SOME of them my December! haha! BUt we also wanted to get them out there before the holidays.

[Spazz]

Our situations sound very similar. I sent my STDs with a cut-off of August 15 for the "special discounted rate" and got 60+ people booked. I wanted to wait til 3 months before to send the invitations, but my TA told me she needs to know definitely how many are coming by the end of January. This seems REALLY early for a May wedding. I think guests are going to think I'm nuts sending out invites 6 months before the wedding, don't you? But I guess this is how it has to be done...

 

If I were you, I'd send them out before the holiday rush, so it doesn't get put to the side during the holidays.

[foxytv]

hhhmmm... All good points, ladies!

 

Lizzy -- that does seem early. My TA says they just need a final head count and guest list of names 60-days prior. I'd have her ask the resort for a 60-day deadline instead...

 

 

Perhaps I should try to send them out earlier than October (late September) and ask for RSVP's in late November. That way we'd have the holiday season to harrass people for an answer at family functions and then 1/2 a month to track people down that still haben't RSVP'd??

 

Geez, I just don't know how I can get all that done by the end of September...

 

Do you think it's a bad idea to ask for the RSVP's between Thanksgiving and Christmas?

[MikkiStreak]

I think I'd send them at the beginning of October and ask to have them back before Thanksgiving. I wouldn't go with the timeframe of Thanksgiving-Christmas for them because at work, most people are crazy busy because companies are trying to finish billable projects by the end of the year, as well as trying to get budgets in place for the upcoming year. Outside of work, the time is spent with shopping, and weekends are filled with company parties, family parties, church parties, etc... It would be much too easy to have the RSVP get lost in the shuffle. Plus, I think it would be harder to do follow-up phone calls and actually get your call returned.

 

I'd ask to have RSVP back before Thanksgiving, and then after the New Year, maybe do some phone calls to follow-up from those people who haven't sent them back in.

 

Also, I'd argue the hell out of the resort wanting final head count 60 days prior---- even for local weddings, most hotels/resorts/facilities don't ask for head count until 30 days prior...

[starchild]

I think our std rsvp deadline was something like December 10 or so. It was just the std, not the formal invite, but we gave them like 3 months to rsvp. About 90 days after sending the std magnet we sent a remember to rsvp postcard that helped some people kick into gear. The holidays are a busy time, but in our case, the people who seriously planned on going complied with our timeframe. We had some stragglers who said yes all along and either booked really close to the wedding or didn't end up coming. I think this was my least favorite part of the wedding process....I hope it works out for you guys with as little stress as possible.

[foxytv]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikkiStreak I think I'd send them at the beginning of October and ask to have them back before Thanksgiving. I wouldn't go with the timeframe of Thanksgiving-Christmas for them because at work, most people are crazy busy because companies are trying to finish billable projects by the end of the year, as well as trying to get budgets in place for the upcoming year. Outside of work, the time is spent with shopping, and weekends are filled with company parties, family parties, church parties, etc... It would be much too easy to have the RSVP get lost in the shuffle. Plus, I think it would be harder to do follow-up phone calls and actually get your call returned. I'd ask to have RSVP back before Thanksgiving, and then after the New Year, maybe do some phone calls to follow-up from those people who haven't sent them back in. Also, I'd argue the hell out of the resort wanting final head count 60 days prior---- even for local weddings, most hotels/resorts/facilities don't ask for head count until 30 days prior...

Quote:

Originally Posted by starchild I think our std rsvp deadline was something like December 10 or so. It was just the std, not the formal invite, but we gave them like 3 months to rsvp. About 90 days after sending the std magnet we sent a remember to rsvp postcard that helped some people kick into gear. The holidays are a busy time, but in our case, the people who seriously planned on going complied with our timeframe. We had some stragglers who said yes all along and either booked really close to the wedding or didn't end up coming. I think this was my least favorite part of the wedding process....I hope it works out for you guys with as little stress as possible.

Thanks ladies! I think I might ask for RSVP's by late November.

The more I get feedback from you ladies, the more it seems that the ones who haven't put down their deposits will either not come at all (regardless of if they say they are) or book VERY last minute. I guess all we can do is tell them we have to give the resort some #'s ... so no guarantees they can take part in all of the activities if they don't RSVP in time.

One other thing is ... we would like to do our reception on a yacht that picks us up at the resort ... but they need a deposit ... something we can't give w/o a head count ... because the boat has a maximum capacity and if everyone who SAYS they are coming actually does, we can't all fit on the boat...


aaarrrggghhh....

[starchild]

Oh yeah I've been there too with your boat situation except ours was a villa. Originally we were planning for a wedding in PV at a villa, the 2 homes we loved had strict capacity limits. If everyone we invited said yes, if even half said yes and brought a guest, we would have exceeded the limit. It was very hard to sort out the yes's from the maybes so we ended up at Las Caletas where you can have as few or many guests as you want. It worked and I loved my LC wedding, but we only had 35 guests in the end so we could have done the villa. Go figure!

[Leticia]

ok, so even though in my mind i have been planning things for over a year, my original wedding plan fell apart (long story, scammer travel agent) now we have decided to start fresh and have pick a whole new place to get married. i'm trying to decide between two resorts ( to be done by the end of the week) but now i am worried i won't have enough time to send std's or i think it maybe pointless to do it so close to sending out invites. i want to get married the last week of May/08. what do you guys think? should i do both still?

[edna]

you can probably skip the std if you start communicating your decisions and plans to friends and family and probably using a wedding web page as kind of stds in the informal way...