When to send wedding invitations
Send too early and people forget; too late and they have booked something else. The timings below are the ones the wedding industry has settled on, and they hold whether the invitation is printed or digital — the paper was never the slow part.
Save the date: six to twelve months ahead
A save the date has one job: stop the date being taken. Send it as soon as the venue is booked, six to twelve months out. It needs the date, the town and the words "invitation to follow" — nothing else, because nothing else is decided yet.
Send them only to people who are definitely invited. A save the date is a commitment; taking it back afterwards is the most awkward conversation in wedding planning.
The invitation: six to eight weeks ahead
For a wedding where most guests are local, six to eight weeks is right. Earlier and it sits in a drawer; later and you are competing with plans already made.
Stretch it to three months when guests need flights or a hotel, when it falls near Christmas or a bank holiday weekend, or when a large part of the list is travelling from abroad. If you sent save the dates, this is the moment the full details arrive — venue, times, dress code, and how to reply.
- Local wedding: 6–8 weeks
- Guests travelling or peak season: 3 months
- Abroad: 4–6 months, ideally after a save the date
Set the RSVP deadline three to four weeks before
Your caterer will want final numbers roughly two weeks out. Set the guest-facing deadline three to four weeks before the wedding and you have a buffer for the people who always reply late — and there are always some.
Put the date on the invitation in words rather than leaving it open. "Please let us know by 14 August" gets answered; "please let us know as soon as you can" does not.
Chase once, kindly, and then telephone
A week after the deadline, send one short message to the people who have not replied. Most replies arrive within a day of a nudge, because the invitation was seen and then the moment passed.
For anyone still silent a week later, ring them. It feels like a fuss and it is not: an unanswered invitation is usually a phone that lost a message, not a person avoiding you.
Frequently asked
Is it too late to send invitations four weeks before?
It is tight but workable for a local wedding. Say plainly that the date is close and ask for a reply within the week; people respond to a clear deadline more readily than to an apology.
Do we need save the dates at all?
Only if the date is far off, the season is busy, or guests are travelling. For a wedding six months away with a local guest list, one well-timed invitation does the job.