When Do Wedding Invitations Go Out?

Wedding invitation etiquette sets a specific mailing timeline, but it may differ in several definite instances.

The timeline may shift depending on the wedding destination, guest residence, save-the-dates, and RSVP deadline.

Mailing your wedding invites at the right time is crucial both for you and your guests. Sending them out too early can cause equally serious issues as sending them out late.

Six to Eight Weeks Before The Wedding

A wedding planning timeline can be complex, but wedding invitations are an exception. The best time to send wedding invitations is pretty definite, although there may be exceptions.

As a rule of thumb, your guests should receive the invites six to eight weeks before the big day.

Therefore, depending on your location and whether you mail the invites first-class or not, you need to send them out seven to ten weeks in advance.

Estimating how long postal workers will take to deliver your invites isn’t easy. For this reason, most couples send their invites first-class with forever stamps to facilitate tracking and faster delivery.

Why Six To Eight Weeks, Though?

“But why six to eight weeks?”; “Can I send my wedding invitations early or late?” you may ask. Six to eight weeks or one and a half to two months is the right time to send wedding invites for multiple reasons.

Firstly, when you mail the invites, you should already finalize all major wedding-related decisions, including the venue, dress code, theme, and menu.

Once the invites go out, you can’t make changes unless for a valid reason, like vendor bankruptcy or illness.

By sending your invitations early, you lose planning flexibility. In the event of changes, you would have to call each guest individually to inform them.

Secondly, the wedding invitation timeline is closely tied with the RSVP timeline. The wedding RSVP deadline is typically three to four weeks before the big day.

If your guests receive the invites six to eight weeks in advance, they have two to five weeks to respond. Some couples think that if they send the invites early, they will also receive the RSVPs early, which would help in wedding planning.

However, that’s a mistake. Suppose your wedding is in May, but you send the invites in January. Your guests are unlikely to know their May schedule and will postpone the response until they are sure about their plans.

Furthermore, the longer your invites lie in your guests’ office drawers or mail piles, the higher are odds of them losing the envelopes.

Frankly, they aren’t to be blamed because every adult has a lot to care about apart from someone else’s wedding.

On the other hand, if you send the invites late, your guests may already have plans for your wedding date, and clearing out the calendar may be difficult.

You may also not receive the RSVPs on time, which would prevent you from finalizing the guest list. Most vendors request the final guest count at least four weeks before the event.

Sometimes, invites get lost in transit. Sometimes, the guests forget to mail their RSVPs. You should allow enough time for such circumstances.

When To Send Invites For a Destination Wedding

Sending the invites six to eight weeks in advance is a general recommendation for domestic weddings. However, the wedding invitation mailing timeline differs for destination weddings.

Destination wedding planning is challenging not solely for the couple. The guests must also put in immense effort to attend a wedding out of state or overseas. They have to take leave off work, book flights and clear their schedules.

Arranging a trip to your wedding destination may take significantly more time than eight weeks. Many employers require employees to file for leave months in advance, and some of your guests may have to save money for the travel.

Depending on how far from home you host the wedding, the flight and accommodation prices, and celebration duration, the destination wedding invitation mailing timeline ranges from three to six months before the big day.

If your guests must travel to the other end of the globe, you may need to send the invites even earlier than six months prior.

Generally, the farther your wedding destination is from your and your guests’ home state, the earlier you should send the invites. The same applies to destinations with expensive accommodations and airfares or for lengthy celebrations.

Considering your guests’ residence is vital in determining when to send destination wedding invitations. Suppose you host a wedding in Hawaii. You and most of your guests live in Maryland.

However, some of your guests live in central Europe. You may need to give a heads-up to your European guests earlier because the distance is greater and airfares are pricier.

When To Send Invites To International Guests

Defining when to send wedding invitations to international guests may seem tricky, but it actually isn’t. Stick with the destination wedding invitation mailing timeline, but only for the guests living abroad.

Simply put, if some of your guests live overseas, you need to send the invites in two rounds.

Your international guests should receive the invites three to six months in advance, and your local guests six to eight weeks before the wedding.

Several months is typically sufficient to take time off work, save up money, buy plane tickets, and book accommodation.

Don’t forget to consider the international mailing times. USPS provides global shipping to over 180 countries, but the delivery speed differs depending on the destination and service type.

For example, Global Express Guaranteed shipping only takes 1-3 days, Priority Mail International – 3-5 days, and First-Class Mail International delivery times vary by location. Some shipments may take over three weeks to arrive at the destination.

Evaluate the mailing costs and delivery times to find the optimal international wedding invite mailing option.

Do You Have Save-the-Dates?

Save-the-dates or the lack of such may also affect when to mail wedding invites. As a rule of thumb, six to nine months in advance is the right time to send save-the-dates for a domestic wedding to local guests.

However, the save-the-date timeline isn’t as strict as the invitation timeline. You can send your save-the-dates earlier if you’ve chosen the exact event date and town a year in advance.

Never send save-the-dates until you finalize the guest list. You can invite additional guests if you find an extra budget or someone declines the invitation. However, you can’t uninvite someone from your wedding.

Save-the-dates aren’t mandatory, but your guests will appreciate the heads-up. Save-the-dates help your friends and family plan their schedules and allow them to save more money for gifs, traveling, and other expenses.

Six to eight weeks prior is an estimation for invitations following save-the-dates. If you decide to refrain from save-the-dates, you may need to send the invitations a couple of weeks earlier because your guests have no clue about the event.

Sometimes, the couple doesn’t know the exact wedding date or location until several months before the event.

Generally, sending save-the-dates five to three months before the wedding only to send official invites a month later is unnecessary.

If you’re throwing a destination affair, send your save-the-dates nine to 18 months before the big day. Overall, it’s never too early to send destination save-the-dates, so order them as soon as you pick the date and venue.

Your guests certainly won’t complain about extra time to take time off, book flights, and reserve accommodation.

RSVP Timeline

When to send formal wedding invitations largely depends on the RSVP timeline. Most couples set their RSVP deadline three to four weeks before the event, but it may differ based on your vendor requirements.

Some vendors may request the final guest count six weeks prior to the event and others only a week in advance. Consulting with your vendors before setting the RSVP deadline is critical.

The truth is that RSVP may not be necessary at all for very small, casual weddings. In this case, the couple may send the invitations slightly later, about a month before the big day, because the guests don’t need to mail the response.

The primary question here is how long to give guests to RSVP. Ideally, your guests should have about four weeks to RSVP. However, two to three weeks is sufficient for digital RSVPs.

Four weeks is plenty of time to decide whether your guests can attend, fill in the response cards, and mail them.

If you skip the mailing and give your guests alternative RSVP options, two to three weeks is long enough to figure out one’s schedule.

You may be confused about how this relates to the invitation timeline, but the answer is straightforward. Add up your RSVP deadline and response time to determine the best time to send your wedding invitations.

For instance, if the deadline is three weeks prior to the wedding and the response time is four weeks, send the invites seven or eight weeks in advance.