When to send invites

Mid- to late August is fine. Conventional wisdom (which generally works quite well...) says 6-8 weeks prior to the wedding. If you send them out the third week in August, that's a little over 8 weeks till the wedding, and 5 full weeks before the RSVP on October 1. Just because you might send them out earlier, that does nothing to get people to RSVP earlier; it mostly just creates more headaches for you. If people get them too early they'll look at it and think, "that's not till late October, I don't have to respond for a long time," and they will likely set the invitation aside and forget about it. Or, if they respond super early, it increases the odds that their response may change, which doesn't help you at all. If people are going to need hotel accommodations, they are probably aware of the block deadline or are finding their own accommodations. I know as the bride & groom it would be awesome to know your final numbers as early as possible, but that's just not feasible, and based on tons of posts on the topic, isn't likely to work anyway.

If I received an invitation between April-June for a wedding in October, with a response date of 10/1, I'd wonder why it was sent 4-6 months early?