When to send your wedding invitations

The short version

• 12 to 9 months before: save the dates, if you are sending them.
• 6 to 4 months before: invitations posted.
• 3 months before: RSVP deadline.
• 6 to 4 weeks before: final numbers to the venue, on-the-day stationery printed.

Commission your stationery four to six months before you want to post the invitations. For most couples that means starting a conversation about nine to twelve months before the wedding.

Save the dates

Send them if a meaningful number of guests will need to book travel or time off, if you are marrying abroad, or if your date falls near a bank holiday or in peak summer. Skip them if you are inviting a small local group and the invitation itself will go out early anyway.

A save the date needs three things: the names, the date, and the location at city level. It should not carry the ceremony time, the dress code or the gift list, because all of those are still likely to change.

Only send one to people you are definitely inviting. It is functionally an invitation, and taking it back is not possible.

Invitations

Post them six to eight weeks before your RSVP deadline. That gives guests time to check dates, arrange childcare and reply without you chasing.

For a destination wedding, or one where a significant proportion of guests are flying, add three to four months to everything above. People need to book flights before they can commit to anything.

The RSVP deadline

Set it about three months before the wedding, then set it two weeks earlier than you actually need it. Some people will always reply late, and building the slack in is easier than chasing.

Your venue will want final numbers a few weeks after that, and your on-the-day stationery depends on the same information, which is why place cards and seating plans are the last things printed.

Working backwards to the commission

Design and proofing take longer than couples expect, and printing takes exactly as long as it takes. A semi-bespoke collection runs about four to six weeks from approved wording to delivery. A bespoke suite runs eight to ten weeks from the first conversation.

Add a fortnight for addressing and assembly if we are doing it, and a few days for the post.

What actually delays things

Almost never the printing. It is nearly always one of two things: wording that is not final, usually a parents names line or a ceremony time still being negotiated between families, and guest addresses arriving in pieces.

If you can settle both before you approve the design, everything after that is predictable.

One thing worth doing early

Ask for samples before you commit to a design. Foil and blind deboss both photograph badly, and the most common regret we hear is from couples who chose a finish from a screen.