When should I send Invitations?

I am in the exact same boat and have decided to send the invites in the next couple of weeks. I want to give everyone enough notice to book with the group rate before it expires in October.

I think I am going to do the same. I will send off the invitation with a letter about the booking details. If they choose not to put a deposit down by Aug that will be there loss if the price goes up. They can always talk with the TA at a later date but I want to give them that option even if sending out invites 7 mo in advance seems crazy!

I have a wedding website, and sent out STDs and multiple emails with the important information, so everyone had all of the travel information from there.

Maybe its better to send invitation 2-3 weeks before the event, but 1 month over is not suitable because the receiver may forgot the date and may dump the invitation and forget the wedding date.

I'm getting married in Oct 2011 and was thinking about sending STD in Oct 2010 and formal invite April 2011. Some people have to request vacation this year for next year. Do you think it's too early?

Great thread. I'm trying to figure out the same things myself. I appreciate that it's a big decision for our guests, but sometimes I wish they would just make up their minds already . . .

OMG I am SOO glad this thread is here! It SUCKS having to get the deposit in so early and this has been the cause of SO much stress with planning. We are April 2011 but they wanted our entire group booked, ALL money in by December 31st. We weren't planning to send our invites out until Jan or February but after seeing this I think we should! Especially with the holidays right there!! Ahh! What do we do??

We didn't do STD's so we sent out our invites very very early. For a February 2011 wedding we sent them out in July 2010. When I went to the travel agent to work out group discounts they wanted everyones deposit by August 1st which is just crazy so we decided against the travel agent and are just letting people find the best deal. Early Bird catches the worm