help - need advice on stds and invites!!

Avelyad · February 25, 2011

Hi Ladies (and guys if youre out there!)

I was looking for a bit of advice on stds and invites:

1. how far in advance did you send out stds?

2. should we send stds and invites to everyone we would invite if we were to have the wedding at home, even though we know many (most) won't be able to make the trip?

3. I was thinking of just a postcard std then dyi message bottle invites, sent in boxes with add'l info. What should I include with the invite? I don't want to go too crazy as I expect that most people will not make it and plan on sending brochures when people book.

any advise for lowering the cost?

Thanks in advance!!

tris · February 25, 2011

Hey ! I know that everyone does it a bit differently, but here's how we did it.

We sent out postcard style STD's about 10 months in advance. Before this we had already spoken to our core group who we knew would be coming and had planned out travel. We've been together for almost 9 years and everyone knew we'd be doing a DW so it wasn't a surprise.

We sent out our invites 3 months before. It was mostly a formality as our whole group was booked already. We sent them to everyone who we had sent a STD to, with the exception of those who showed no interest in coming. I didn't want to rub it in their face so to speak. I also went all out with our invites and they were quite expensive to make... I know most girls sent invites to everyone despite them attending or not, but in our situation this is what worked.

We're kind of lucky when it comes to costs... I'm a graphic designer by trade so all the design was covered, and printing was cheap. Invites can be expensive and shopping around is a great idea. Even checking out places like etsy you can find great original designs. If you want to go message in a bottle expect to pay a lot more for shipping.

For our invites we included the actual invite, a RSVP, a travel info sheet, an accomodations sheet & an events sheet. It made sense because we did pocketfold invites. Again, most of it was a formality as we've spoken to all of our guests and they have a good idea

Good luck

Donie Jordan · February 25, 2011

We sent out passport save the dates one year in advance. I wanted to give people plenty of time to save money and book their flights, etc. To be honest, people are still waiting til the last minute and prices have gone up quite a bit, so I can't say that it really mattered but at least no one can say that I didn't try.

Our invites will be sent 3 months in advance with an RSVP 2 months in advance. We are sending invites to everyone, but that's only because we partially DIYed to save some money. I see no problem with only sending invites to guests that you know are coming - the main purpose of the invite for us anyway was for them to pick their meal choice anyway.

Keep in mind that the message in a bottle invites can be expensive to ship if you are trying to save money. The cheapest route, postage wise, is a standard invitation - not a square one which costs extra. For us - we included lots of info on the save the date, then on the invite the only trip info we included was a card with travel and accommodations which had our contact info for questions and our wedding website. We figured that by the time invites came out people would mostly be booked anyway. Then, we'll send out a brochure with airport details, what to pack, etc that will go out a month before to those that booked.

Another thing we did was supplement the save the date and invite with free postcards from vistaprint. We sent a standard postcard letting people know fights were posted online and giving them our group discount code, and we sent a large postcard with some activities in Cabo to give people an idea of what they could do and get them excited about the trip.

Good Luck!