When should wedding invitations be sent out?
The short answer is six to eight weeks before the day. The useful answer depends on where people have to travel from and how long you need the final numbers — both are below.
How far in advance do you send wedding invitations?
Most couples send wedding invitations six to eight weeks before the wedding, with the RSVP deadline three to four weeks before. Save-the-dates go out much earlier — usually six to twelve months ahead — and their whole job is to protect the date while the invitation is still being designed. These are conventions rather than rules: a destination wedding needs longer, and a short engagement compresses everything.
The timeline, month by month
Five moments. If you only get two of them right, make them the save-the-date and the RSVP deadline.
- 12–6 months before
Save-the-dates
Send as soon as the date and venue are locked. They do not need the full details — a date, a city and your names is enough to make people hold the weekend.
- 8–6 weeks before
The invitations
The main send. Six to eight weeks gives guests time to book travel without giving them so long that the reply slips their mind entirely.
- 4–3 weeks before
The RSVP deadline
Print a specific date, not "as soon as possible". Set it about a week before your caterer needs numbers, because the last replies always arrive late.
- 3–2 weeks before
Chase the missing replies
Expect to chase roughly a fifth of your list. A short message to each person works better than a group post, which everyone assumes is meant for someone else.
- 2–1 weeks before
Final numbers and details
Confirm the headcount, then send the practical note — timings, parking, dress code, and the link or QR code guests will use on the day.
Four situations that change the timing
Each of these pushes the send date earlier, never later.
A destination wedding
Send invitations about three months ahead, and save-the-dates as early as you can manage. Guests are booking flights and time off, not just a Saturday.
A date in the holiday season
December and the weeks around major holidays fill up early. Add a few weeks to everything and expect a slower reply rate regardless.
A short engagement
Under four months, skip the save-the-date entirely and send the invitation as soon as it exists. Two separate mailings would arrive almost together anyway.
A lot of guests travelling internationally
Work backwards from visa and flight-booking timelines rather than from etiquette. Three to four months is the usual floor.
Getting the replies back
Three things that reliably improve the reply rate.
Give a date, not a request
"Please reply by 4 May" gets answered. "Please reply as soon as possible" gets postponed, then forgotten.
Make replying take under a minute
Every extra step costs replies. If someone has to find a stamp, expect the reply to arrive a fortnight late or not at all.
Build in a buffer
Set your deadline about a week before you actually need the number. The buffer is not pessimism, it is the normal shape of how replies arrive.
One more thing to decide before you print
If you are planning to collect photos from your guests, the QR code or link goes on something printed — a table card, the back of the menu, a sign at the entrance. It is much easier to decide that now, while things are still going to the printer, than to improvise a sign the week before.
How guests share their photosWedding invitation timing — FAQ
Six to eight weeks before the wedding for most weddings, with the RSVP deadline three to four weeks before the day. Send earlier — around three months — if guests are travelling internationally or it is a destination wedding.
Six to twelve months ahead, as soon as the date and venue are confirmed. They exist to protect the weekend, so they can go out long before the invitation design is finished.
No. Eight weeks is the early end of the normal range and is a good choice if many guests have to travel. Much beyond three months and people tend to set it aside and forget to reply.
Three to four weeks before the wedding, and about a week before your caterer or venue needs final numbers. That buffer absorbs the replies that always come in late.
For a short engagement, no — one clear mailing is better than two that arrive close together. For anything over about six months, the save-the-date is what stops people booking something else.
Your guests get the whole album — and can download it.
- Photos, videos and voice messages, all on one page.
- Guests open the link and download whatever they want.
- Public, or behind a password — you decide.
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Sorted the invitations? The photos are the next thing to plan
One QR code on the tables and your guests upload from their own phones — no app, no accounts, and the pictures are in your album before the evening ends.