RSVP: Respond By Date?...

[MissBubbles205]

First let me say... Congrats!! You are getting married on my birthday.. )
 

Thanks for the tips and advice.. I'll talk with my Fiance tonight and tell him we need to get our engagement pictures done! this way we can send out Save the Dates.. 

 

How does this Sound?

Save the Dates: 12 Months (May 2012)

Invites: 8 Months (September 29, 2012)

RSVP Respond by Date: 4 Months (January 29, 2013)  - this gives them 8 months from the date they officially know the location and date to save up and plan, etc.  If they book their rooms I'm sure my TA will tell me.

 

Or should I adjust the time lines?

 

 

What's everyone else doing?

STD:

Invites:

RSVP by:

Wedding Day:
 

Originally Posted by Branya2012 

I personally think that sending invitations that far in advance seems a bit excessive. That leaves a very long time between the invitations going out and the RSVP date, and even between the invitations and the wedding, for people that may change their minds and want to come. Having said that, when we sent out our Save the Dates (18 months in advance) we knew where we were going, the date of the wedding and the week that we were asking people to come for the wedding (if they want to come for a week). For people to save money and know the time they have to book off of work, that should be enough in advance for those that are seriously considering coming to the wedding.

 

I think if you want to know who is going more than 3 months in advance of the wedding, make the RSVP date 6 months ahead, but just remember that maybe not everyone will be able to commit at that time. I think that regular ettiquette is out the window, so to speak, with DWs, but try to keep in mind what is practical for people ahead of what we ideally want (to know who the heck is coming so we can prepare!). For us, our payment deadline to book with our group is 3.5ish months ahead of the wedding, so that made a really great RSVP date for us.

 

As for a guest count for the resort, we had to book a minimum to book as a group, so we gathered our close family that is definitely coming and had them pay their deposits last fall (more than a year in advance) and we paid the rest of the deposits to meet the minimum, which is money that will count towards our trip at the end of the day. We don't think there will be a problem getting the minimum number of guests, but it seemed like a lot to ask for everyone to book/deposit over a year before the trip/wedding. We tried to think of it in terms of how far in advance you would usually book a vacation, and around 6 month seems reasonable, IMO!

 

Hopefully you get it sorted out!!

 

[ChocoTaco7568]

STD: NA -This wasn't a justifiable expense for our guestlist of +/- 25.  We communicate regualalry with those we are inviting and everyone is well aware that May 2013 is when we're getting married

 

Invites:  Will be sent sometime in July of 2012 (10 months prior to wedding date)

 

RSVP by: January 15, 2013 -  50% of the total reservation cost is due at this time, and we would be responsible for cost for any rooms in our block that haven't been reserved by guest. We will not pay this, so our RSVP date coincides with the date when we will cancel any rooms in our block that guests have not reserved.

 

Wedding Day: May 18, 2013 - The 6th year anniversary of our first date... Can't wait!

 

Originally Posted by MissBubbles205 

First let me say... Congrats!! You are getting married on my birthday.. )
 

Thanks for the tips and advice.. I'll talk with my Fiance tonight and tell him we need to get our engagement pictures done! this way we can send out Save the Dates.. 

 

How does this Sound?

Save the Dates: 12 Months (May 2012)

Invites: 8 Months (September 29, 2012)

RSVP Respond by Date: 4 Months (January 29, 2013)  - this gives them 8 months from the date they officially know the location and date to save up and plan, etc.  If they book their rooms I'm sure my TA will tell me.

 

Or should I adjust the time lines?

 

 

What's everyone else doing?

STD:

Invites:

RSVP by:

Wedding Day:
 

 

 

[Branya2012]

Thanks! It is a great day!

 

As for not knowing who is coming and all that...I think we've all been there! I'd love to start putting together OOT bags and stuff, and decide how many tables to have, etc, but we have to wait!!  In the meantime, there is nothing to stop you from spreading news by word of mouth for people to start saving asap!!

Sounds very fitting to send the Save the Dates out a year before the wedding! This is our list:

 

STD: August 2011 (16 months in advance)

Invites: Hopefully April/May 2012 (8 months in advance)

RSVP by: September 21, 2012 (which is when full payment is due if booking with our wedding travel agent)

Wedding Day: December 5, 2012 (YAY!!)

 

 

Originally Posted by MissBubbles205 

First let me say... Congrats!! You are getting married on my birthday.. )
 

Thanks for the tips and advice.. I'll talk with my Fiance tonight and tell him we need to get our engagement pictures done! this way we can send out Save the Dates.. 

 

How does this Sound?

Save the Dates: 12 Months (May 2012)

Invites: 8 Months (September 29, 2012)

RSVP Respond by Date: 4 Months (January 29, 2013)  - this gives them 8 months from the date they officially know the location and date to save up and plan, etc.  If they book their rooms I'm sure my TA will tell me.

 

Or should I adjust the time lines?

 

 

What's everyone else doing?

STD:

Invites:

RSVP by:

Wedding Day:
 

 

 

[MissBubbles205]

I think I will follow you then! I'll get mine out by July and my respond date says Jan 15th. ) Great guess on my part.. lol..  I'll get my TA to confirm with the resort if our times frames to cancel is the same. I may have to bump mine up a couple weeks though.

 

Aww.. Thats awesome!!..
 

Originally Posted by ChocoTaco7568 

STD: NA -This wasn't a justifiable expense for our guestlist of +/- 25.  We communicate regualalry with those we are inviting and everyone is well aware that May 2013 is when we're getting married

 

Invites:  Will be sent sometime in July of 2012 (10 months prior to wedding date)

 

RSVP by: January 15, 2013 -  50% of the total reservation cost is due at this time, and we would be responsible for cost for any rooms in our block that haven't been reserved by guest. We will not pay this, so our RSVP date coincides with the date when we will cancel any rooms in our block that guests have not reserved.

 

Wedding Day: May 18, 2013 - The 6th year anniversary of our first date... Can't wait!

 

 

 

[MissBubbles205]

I always get ahead of myself and want to get things done right away.. I've already bought my OOT bags and tons of goodies to go in them.  

I just get wayy too excited for all of this.. Not to mention the big move after the wedding.. <-- I think I try to forget about this with the wedding planning, bc I hate to move away from my parents. (

 

But I've only told a few friends and my mom the date.. So I will def start telling everyone! ) Idk why I was trying to keep it some kind of secret!..

 

your time line seems to be the same as ChocoTaco... I'm def going to follow yalls timelines.. Mine did seem a bit overkill.

 

Originally Posted by Branya2012 

Thanks! It is a great day!

 

As for not knowing who is coming and all that...I think we've all been there! I'd love to start putting together OOT bags and stuff, and decide how many tables to have, etc, but we have to wait!!  In the meantime, there is nothing to stop you from spreading news by word of mouth for people to start saving asap!!

Sounds very fitting to send the Save the Dates out a year before the wedding! This is our list:

 

STD: August 2011 (16 months in advance)

Invites: Hopefully April/May 2012 (8 months in advance)

RSVP by: September 21, 2012 (which is when full payment is due if booking with our wedding travel agent)

Wedding Day: December 5, 2012 (YAY!!)

 

 

 

 

[shan0487]

We got engaged on Christmas Day, 2011.  We put down our deposit with the travel agent at the beginning of Feb.  We sent our our STD's at the beginning of Feb, so a little less than 10 months in advance.

 

The hotel deposit through our Travel agent was due Feb 25th.  So everyone had 3 1/2 weeks to put down their $50 deposit.  So I already know who has placed their deposit and technically who RSVP'ed. 

 

What's everyone else doing?

STD: Feb 5, 2012 (little less than 10 months in advance)

Invites: Not sure yet- I am going to make my invitations (boarding pass) invitations to everyone who has placed their deposit and I know is coming and probably send out around July Or August (3 or 4 months in advance). For everyone else that I know is not coming I am going to make invitations on Vistaprint and send those out about 2 months in advance.

RSVP by: I don't think I am going to have one- I will know who is coming and who isn't based on who booked with our TA or otherwise they will tell us they booked.  Our final payment is due October 5 (less than 2 months before) so I guess I will know my FINAL headcount by then.  I don't think anyone would book a trip less than 2 months before! (Or I hope not anyways!)

Wedding Day: November 23, 2012 Our 7 1/2 year anniversary!

[ChocoTaco7568]

Definitely double check your reservations terms with your TA.  Setting the RSVP for the 50% second deposit just seemed logical for us.  We actually have until 03/03/13 to cancel rooms in our block without penalty and this was our original RSVP date.  The Fi and I go back and forth on this one; we have a couple of friends who are notorious last minute planners. But we didn't want to wait that long to receive RSVPs since it would only give us 10 week to finalize our plans and I hate being rushed. And we want to delive/mail our pre-travel brochures and OOT goodies 6-8 week prior to our wedding (we don't want to deal with the hassle of bringing all the OOT contents to the resort).

Originally Posted by MissBubbles205 

I think I will follow you then! I'll get mine out by July and my respond date says Jan 15th. ) Great guess on my part.. lol..  I'll get my TA to confirm with the resort if our times frames to cancel is the same. I may have to bump mine up a couple weeks though.

 

Aww.. Thats awesome!!..
 

 

 

[Peach]

Was this one directed at me?

We have been getting constant feedback from our friends and family, and we have a pretty good idea who will and will not be coming. We know, for example, that, barring some tragedy, his parents will be there. We also have a pretty good idea of some friends who say "count us in!" but we would put money on them not coming when it comes down to it.

The only thing is, we will be going with a fairly small group, and we are not sure about some VIPs. We don't know about my brothers or parents (again, we would bet they are, but they hate planning things in advance). Also, my bm is now trying to get pregnant, so, though she swears we will be there, we can guess she will not be (sucks, but understandable). 

So, though we do not have it written in stone, I guess this was my long ranty way of saying that we are guessing, but we think we have a fairly decent idea.

 

 

Originally Posted by MissBubbles205 

I wanted to, but we haven't had our engagement pics done yet.. (I wanted to do picture Save the Date cards or big magnets.)

 

I am creating our Passport Invitations so it will have all the information they need on those.  and then I will do brochures for the resort in their OOT bags.

 

The resort is saying they need our guest count now so they we can book the resort for group rates and block out a group of rooms. (but I don't want to block to many and not enough)...

 

Seems like you have a great idea for STD's and Invites though!  do you pretty much know who will be coming already?

 

[Kristy28]

We sent our STDs out a little less than 2 years in advance. We wanted to give everyone time to save up and a lot of people let us know if they were coming or not. We did get a lot of of maybes but we had a rough idea of how many people. We are going to send our actual invites out 6 months in advance and ask for RSVPs 3 months in advance.

[JayKay]

We were married in January of this year.  We send out our STDs about a year in advance (In January 2011).  They were just generic stating we were getting married in Jamaica in January 2012.  We then send out invitations in about May and asked for RSVPs by at least the end of October.  We had all our RSVPs before that as our closing date for our group booking was the 15th of October so we basically knew who was and wasnt coming.  I think the timeline is a bit more flexible with destination weddings, but that being said you do what to leave enough time for you to complete those last minute things and have a final guest count (although dont rely on that, we had people tell us two days before we were leaving that they were going to be there)