save the dates, invitations, timing AGGGH !

[kymish]

this is long winded cause ive never been a straight to the point kind of person lol

 

So my FI and i have finally put a rough date in stone. it will be october 2013. now we want to give as much time to family to attend the wedding as possible. we talked to ama travel and they advised us to book / pay for trip 4 to 6 months in advance. 

my question is what do i do about dates ? its technically a renewal of vows ceramony since we will be signing the offical marriage license here in canada on the 3rd. so do i send out a save the date with the rough date of when we would like to travel since my actual wedding date wont be booked till 6 months before? obviously i dont care bout the actual resort date they have available for me. 

also i am making everything myself so its not a big money issue or anything. its more of a timing / stress problem lol.

 

would it make sense to send out rsvp with the save the dates that way im not mailing out / making 100 invitations when probably only 5 ppl plan to come ?

 

i had seen someone on here send out save the dates a year in advance with rsvp and then only mailed invitations to the ppl who sent the rsvps back?

sounded like a good idea to me but i was jsut concerned as i dont really have a set date until 6 months before. we just are very sure of the 2 weeks we are going. 

any advise you lovely ladies can give me i would really apperciate as we had to post pone the wedding once before (do to family emergencies)

 

i also should mention that i have 1 ppl on my side attending my best friend! and his guest list is at about 50 family members with the hopes of just maybe parents and his sister coming. (family isnt all that close)

[Cherina]

I am doing things backwards... I very detailed invite a year in advance, then follow ups to time lines and dates, to keep guests on track and stress free. Its not traditional but it made since, I wanted a call to action and for my people it is not real until there is a firm date and an invite save the dates are discarded. (yeah its annoying), but to them if they have to travel details are essential to get things moving, because my grandmother need and requires them and if she doesn't move no one else will.

 

I say set a date asap, because especially when deal ling with the holiday season time off work may need to be put in really soon for next year.

 

good luck