When to send invitations for a holiday weekend & out of town location

Send save the dates at 6-12 months when you get the venue booked. The guest list is finalized before you book the venue. Call up guests on the phone which costs nothing to send the save the date information and has been successfully done for decades without issue.


Then invites are sent at 6-8 weeks standard before the wedding. With replies due at 3-4 weeks before the wedding and plenty of time to contact anyone who didn’t reply the evening of the rsvp due date up to a few days before the final head count is due for catering. If you send the invites before 8 weeks, people lose and forget the information. If they are sent after 6 weeks, people feel like they are 2nd and 5th choice afterthoughts to fill a seat.

I agree that I would send them out a tad earlier knowing that OBX is packed for Memorial Weekend. Maybe 10-12 weeks. But I am in the WW minority, that I would rather send them a little too early than too late!

View Quoted Comment Thanks I ended up mailing them a few days ago. I put the rsvp date by April 15 to give me two weeks to make calls to non rsvp guest. And I figured they would get them this week and that’s 3 months ahead to allow to start booking for the area for places to stay.