Response dates

[NABUMBAH]

When was your response date for your invites ?

 

ie 4 weeks, 6 weeks or 8 weeks prior

 

thanks

[TammyWright]

i asked for it 6 weeks prior knowing the flakes were going to go over that deadline...really i wanted a good sense of how many people were going by the 4 week prior mark.

[NABUMBAH]

thanks Tammy. I was thinking about giving myself 8 weeks, but 6 weeks may work. I would really like to have a count asap!

[deleted]

I totally forgot to put this on my invites -- oops!!! I had like 10 people look over them too, and not one of us noticed.

 

The only reason that 8 weeks might be a bit early is because some people really just might not know that far ahead of time if they can go. I know we are all Type A planners, but some people do not plan 2 months ahead. Even if you give people up until 4 weeks officially to tell you, you will have a pretty good idea of your list 6 or 8 weeks out. No matter the date you choose, there will be stragglers.

 

Either way, encourage people to buy their plane tix early!

[NATASHA]

We were engaged in March, had our engagement party in May, went to Cabo the next week, picked a date and location, and sent e-vites to everyone with information about flights and the hotel. Our group (all 65) got back to us in 3 weeks and our wedding is in November.

 

We put it out there early so people could ensure that they could get flights at a reasonable rate and have the flight schedule that they wanted (the flights from SO CA to Cabo get booked up early). Also, it gave our group time to plan this as their vacation (relative to budget and time off work).

 

I didn't even think about waiting (I guess we should have), but I would have had no idea how to plan the budget without knowing the count. To give you an idea, only two couples opted not to come and my FI thought we would only have 35 people! Wow - we would have been WAY off of budget if we went with his numbers!

[KARLA]

Our RSVP date was 6 weeks before the wedding, knowing that most people would send it out after that. And we were right! Just remember that most people will not send them by that date, so plan accordingly.

[Sarah]

I just sent out my Save the Dates hoping to get some sort of a response off of those so we will pretty much know how many are going once we get around to the real invitations. I plan to give people 6 or 8 weeks, since I know some will put the STD aside not think about it again until they get our real invite then freak out trying to figure out how to get there...

[MARIAELM]

Ok, I'm super anal. I asked for the responses back 12 weeks before our wedding. I figured that we'd already sent STD's a year in advance. Most people knew if they were planning on taking vacation time, buying plane tickets, etc. 3 months before our wedding. Of course, we had stragglers. We didn't get a true guest list estimate until mid September. Since the RSVP date had passed, the stragglers felt guilty. I'd say it worked out for us.

[KARLA]

I'm still getting RSVPs in the mail. They are all for "Not attending", but seriously... I think at this point if I got a "Attending" RSVPs in the mail, I'd faint!

[A10CalGal]

So, I sent out STD's 9 months in advance of our wedding. On the STD's I printed out wedding website where I have onlinve RSVP-ing enabled. I was hoping I'd get some idea through that function (or people just calling me) to figure out how many we will have. Well, my friends all let me know, but my damn family for the most part hasn't even bothered to call & say "yes, we'll come" or "we won't be able to make it." It almost makes me wonder whether they received the STD's...they did. So, I plan to make my RSVP by date 8 weeks prior to our wedding date. I pray that my 35-40 # I've been estimating everything on is at least close to right.