STD vs. Early Invitation?

[Queenie77]

We are trying to figure out the best plan of attack for our invitations. Our wedding is in Nuevo Vallarta on May 16th next year. We originally planned to do STDs, but now as we have more information about booking with our travel agent and resort, we are thinking that it makes little sense to do a STD without the booking info. Not everyone we are inviting is computer savvy, so we have always planned to mail booking and resort info for those who won't be using our website for info.

 

So now my question is, should we just go ahead and do an actual invitation with all the booking info and a letter enclosed? It seems early, but it would be a waste of postage to send out a STD without additional info that people need... and an STD with the booking info feels much more like an invite than a simple STD. We are doing boarding pass invites/STDs - we don't want to do a formal standard invitation. So, we are thinking about doing invites now with all the info needed to book the trip, and then a follow-up letter after the holidays reminding people that those who plan to go need to book their rooms soon, with an AHR-STD enclosed with that letter.

 

We are inviting everyone to both the ceremony in Mexico (because people we thought wouldn't go, now want to go... so why not ask everyone) and also the AHR... so we are talking about 250+ invites. I don't want to keep bleeding money over unnecessary postage. With this approach, we are already looking at 3 mailings for all those people: 1) Invites for the ceremony; 2) Reminder letter for the ceremony + AHR STDs, and 3) AHR Invites. One issue is that we don't have the AHR date set, and won't for several more weeks. We could do the AHR invite with the reminder letter instead of an STD, but since the AHR won't be until June/July and the reminders go out in January, it seems too far out for an invite.

 

Sorry if this sounds confusing, but I don't know how else to word it. Just wanted to get other people's thoughts on the proper way to handle it and I would happily welcome suggestions on how to condense it more efficiently. Thanks in advance!

[Kristy!]

Just send the invitations. I sent mine out in July and I'm getting married a week after you.

[Oscar_Ernie]

Hmm...I'd been pondering this very same question, especially since we're getting such an early start. I'm interested to here what the other gals have to say about this!=)

[bumbles]

Maybe just do an invitation w/ ceremony info since you have all the details. How about a postcard later on that will serve as both a reminder for making reservations and will have the AHR info? Postage will be less for postcards.

[Queenie77]

Thanks so much! I really like the postcard idea too! ;-)

[Sloan]

Im getting married in April '09. We sent our invitations the first week of August with a reply date of September 15th. We enclosed an info sheet that had our TA's info, the dates and prices of our wedding trip. People had to book before September 15th to get the good group rate and need to be all paid up at the end of October. So we didnt bother with STD's. I dont care if it's not proper etiquette to send invites that early. Not much I ever do is proper etiquette... lol.