when to send out STDs

I know my wedding is far off, but I do not know when is appropriate to send STDs. We have tenatively decided May 2009 but still havent picked the particulal day. Our plan is to get married in Cancun and then have a reception back home a few weeks later. Do I send out a STD for both events? If so, are they sent together or separately? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks for the help!!!

I know a lot of girls send them a year or so in advance. It is especially good for your guests, so they can plan their vacation, take time off, start saving money, etc... HTH

i just sent out our STDs today for our November 2008 wedding. So over a year out. Our families both said "hey if you know it, why not tell us?" so we sent them out!

We sent out our STD's in Feb 2006 for Feb 2007 - we wanted to be sure people had enough time to save up to come on the trip!

All of that makes sense! Thanks for the advice. So much to think about!

I started with a website to announce the info. I wanted to do that so people were not shocked by a postcard in the mail & not really know what it was all about. I sent out the website url by email almost a year in advance. I will send out the save the dates sometime around september. I'm waiting until we've taken our engagement pictures because I want to put them on the save the date.

we are having a dilema because we want to send out our STD's around Labor Day so that we can give all of our guests 1 year notice and time to plan but we have yet to book our location!

is it a big deal to send them out with just the date confirmed and no location?

I would wait until you have the location picked out. But the sooner the better in giving people a heads up for your wedding. How much longer do you think for figuring out the location?