Our wedding is October 23rd, 2021 and I just had a question on when to send out invites and request RSVP's back by.
Some background, my Fiance and I live in Utah. I am originally from Southern California and my Fiance is originally from upstate NY. We have decided to have our wedding in NYC. It's a 4 hour drive from where majority of his family & friends from NY live and about a 6 hour flight for my family & friends in CA, only a small handful of guests live close to the city. Since pretty much everyone invited will have to make travel plans either by flying or driving, I want to send out invites by the end of this month/early next month so everyone has all the info and can plan their trip. Especially since a lot of friends/family that I've spoken to are excited to use our wedding as an opportunity to take a vacation after this last crazy year and most want to come to the city for 3-7 days.
Currently our guest list is at 145, but I honestly have no idea how many people will actually be able to attend considering everything over the last year. I need to have a pretty definite guest count about 1 month before to give to the caterer, florist and venue. I know the typical rule is to request RSVP's back 4 weeks before the wedding, but since that's the date I need to have my guest count by, is it bad to request them 6-8 weeks before? I just want to make sure I give everyone plenty of time to plan their trip and get good prices on flights and such, but I'm just not sure how early is to early to request RSVP's back.