Help...announcements, Invitations And Save The Dates

[Mandiesue]

Hi,

 

We are planning a destination wedding to the DR in April 2015. We want a small beach wedding with close family and friends. Due to health issues some people (grandparents) won't be joining us.

 

My questions:

 

1. Do we send the Save the Dates to the people that we want to travel to the DR with us? Is it normal to do this about a year in advance?

 

2. Announcements - Can we send these to people that we want to let  know that we are getting married but not necessarily invited to attend. For the announcements we want to include something saying that we are requesting that you do NOT send a gift. We are not looking for gifts but just want to share our happiness with our extended family and make them feel not left out. We do NOT wish to have a AHR either. 

 

3. Invitations: When it is typical to send these out and to whom do they get sent to? Is it to everyone or just the people we expect to travel?

 

Ladies, I appreciate any and all feedback.

[csho]

Hey congratulations! We didn't send out save the dates. We only sent out invitations about a year in advance (mostly to save money) and we had already received our quotes and had to put money down within 90 days. So it made more sense to just send the invites right away.

 

Personally I wouldn't send announcements because I feel like people would think they are getting invited to the wedding and/or they may decide they want to come and ask you about the plans etc and then you'd have to tell them they aren't invited. It could get a bit awkward. But that's just my personal opinion.

We sent our invitations to pretty much everyone we wanted to invite to a regular wedding and then who ever was able to make it, was able to make it. We invited about 120 people and have 38 people coming with us. If you only have specific people you want to invite those are the only people I'd send invitations to.

[talicea7812]

I agree with csho...don't send announcements bc ppl may think that means they are getting invited.

 

I sent out save the dates as soon as we booked the resort and date- which was about 15 months in advance. My motto is the sooner you let ppl know the better. I have attended several destination weddings so once I got the STD I started saving. If you are trying to save money...my TA provided free postcard STD.  Im not sure how common that is but its a bonus.

 

As for invites... We knew several family members couldn't make it due to various health issues.  We sent them invites anyway just as a kind gesture.  We didn't want to hurt anyones feelings if they saw an invitation at another family members house or whatever. You never know what might offend one person.  Plus, for someone like my FI's grandmom...its a keepsake.

[NJBride2014]

I agree with csho...don't send announcements bc ppl may think that means they are getting invited.

 

I sent out save the dates as soon as we booked the resort and date- which was about 15 months in advance. My motto is the sooner you let ppl know the better. I have attended several destination weddings so once I got the STD I started saving. If you are trying to save money...my TA provided free postcard STD.  Im not sure how common that is but its a bonus.

 

As for invites... We knew several family members couldn't make it due to various health issues.  We sent them invites anyway just as a kind gesture.  We didn't want to hurt anyones feelings if they saw an invitation at another family members house or whatever. You never know what might offend one person.  Plus, for someone like my FI's grandmom...its a keepsake.

 

I agree with @@talicea7812 I sent my save the dates 15 months in  advance, as soon as we booked the date and had room rates.  We wanted to give everyone as much information as we could as soon as possible.  We sent our invites at the beginning of this month so 8 months before our wedding but 6 months before the deadline to pay off the rooms.  I don't think you need to do announcements people could confuse them as invites.  Also I would send invites to anyone you would invite to a wedding at home that's what we did.  We knew some of the people were definite no's but we wanted them to feel included and also I'm having a bridal shower so some of those no's would still be invited to that.  I used magnetstreet for my std's and invites they were pretty good with their prices and they always have discount codes.

[nicofio22]

Great advice!  Thanks ladies!

[jackshayne0123]

Yup I also agree with these lovely ladies, STD is always a good thing to send, the sooner the better. We didn't, b/c we didn't have time, we were engaged in February, announced in May that it would be a destination wedding in January, so invites and travel info went out ASAP. I wouldn't send a wedding announcement either, it could be confused as an invite, and also it kind of rubs it in the face of people that it's just an announcement, and they aren't invited. And even if you say please no gifts, an announcement like that kind of still implies "but we still want presents". Just my opinion. You're better off not sending. If you wanted to do an engagement announcement, you could put it in your local newspaper? (do people still do that?)

[ashheather08]

Yes, STD's are a great idea. I'm getting married in Aruba in Sept 2015. We just put our deposit down so the first thing I did was design my STD on shutterfly for cheap! They are on their way to me so I can send them out by the end of next week. I say the earlier the better to get people to save for the trip. As far as gifts, I wouldn't say anything. My fiancé and I are on the same boat but countless people have said it's inevitable that people will do something for you whether it's big or small.

 

 

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[BarbaraBusybee]

lots to think on.