First of all Welcome! And congrats on your engagement! Once we narrowed down our resort we emailed (or you can call) the wedding coordinator for that specific resort and asked for a list of available dates in the certain week we wanted to be there. From there we chose our date. After we had our wedding date confirmed with the resort we sent out Save the dates(STD). On there we listed only the month, January, and year, 2012, rather then a specific week as we were unsure of flight schedules at that time. You could send out STDs as soon as you know the resort and the date. That way you will have an idea of who will be coming and who wont be. Then, closer to your wedding date, send our your formal invitations with all the details about the resort, wedding location, wedding time, ect. You can include the information for your get together after the wedding, or you could send them seperate. The group coming for our wedding are all flying together on the same flight and staying for a week. I wanted to all arrive on the same date. They will all fly home after the first week and we are staying for a second week.We arrive on a Monday, get married on the Friday, and then everyone else goes home on the Monday. Good luck with everything!!