Question about timing for STD, invites and RSVP

[starrysim]

We're about to book our wedding date for November 2011, and are planning on sending STD's in January.  I'd love to have RSVP's by about June, for planning purposes, but does that mean I should send out formal invites by the spring?  Or is it too ambitious to have guests make up their minds by the summer?  Or can we request RSVP on the STD cards, before the formal invites are even sent out?  How does the timeline typically work for most DW's?  thanks for any input

[schmizer]

Most people I have talked to request a tentative RSVP on the STD's.  I think this is what we will do...

[june11bride]

Personally I wish I had set up some sort of tentative RSVP with my save the dates because I sent them out about 4 months ago (so 10 months before my wedding) and I haven't spoke to anyone I sent them to and therefore have no idea who is coming (most of my family is from the US, Im in Canada). Even if you don't have them send back RSVPs and maybe have them email you or something, it will help you out a lot. I'm busy ordering OOT bag stuff with no idea who is thinking of coming! You could also word it to say that this is by no means a contract stating they wil 100% come becuase it is far away, but maybe just to get an idea of the count, and you can then weed out the people who will for whatever reason definitely not be coming!!

I am sending my actual invites out in January, RSVP by March, and wedding in June.

[jszy10]

I actually did my std's and invites differently than most.  We sent out our STD's as just an announcement about when/where we were getting married with "invitation to follow" and sent out our Passport Invites about 10 months in advance.  We included RSVP postcards with our passport invites and are not sending anything else besides a "pre-trip brochure".  We do only have a small group going (17 so far), so that may not work for someone with a big group.  I honestly think that DW's are non-traditional as it is, so I don't think you need to follow normal protocol.

[starrysim]

Thanks so much for the suggestions.  I'm leaning towards sending STD's in January, with the URL of our wedding website.  I'd like to include tons of info and an RSVP form on the website.  Hopefully that will get people thinking and planning, and maybe some will RSVP early. Then I'd send formal invites in the early summer, and ask for firm RSVP by June - the short turn-around should be ok because they will have had tons of time to think about it. I just think it's kind of pointless to send invites if the RSVP was requested with the STD's.  Anyway, thanks for the discussion!