Your Wedding Stationery Timeline Explained
There are many opinions about timelines telling you when to send your wedding invitations. Some timelines seem so short, you can’t image organizing a wedding in such a small amount of time. While others seem so long you’re left thinking, do I really need to do things quite that early? Speaking from personal experience, here is the suggested timeline at Zimmerman Design Studio.
12 months or more before the wedding- reach out to a stationer
If you decide to work with a stationery designer (which I highly recommend, just my very biased opinion), contact them very early in the wedding planning process. A good rule of thumb is at least a year in advance. You can start discussing your vision and most importantly, you will reserve a place on their calendar. Because invitations are completed months before your wedding day, hiring your stationer early is paramount, especially if you’ve admired someone’s work for a long time.
When to send the Save the Date
Your save-the-date invitations inform your guests of exactly that- to save your date. The earlier they can plan for your wedding, the more likely your guests will be able to attend. But how early is too early and if you’re planning a wedding in a shorter time frame should you even bother?
If you have a more traditional timeline, the save-the-date invitations should be sent 8-10 months before your wedding day.
If you have a destination wedding, consider sending them up to 12 months in advance so your guests can make travel arrangements.
Consider if your guests will be traveling. Your wedding venue may be local to you, but if the majority of your guests are out of town, this could be considered a destination wedding for them.
If you’re dealing with a shorter timeline, sending a save-the-date invitation is still a good choice to let your guests know that you are getting married and they should expect a formal invitation soon. An evite might be a more appropriate option as it can be delivered to your guests more quickly.
When to Send the Main Invitations
Semi-Custom Wedding Invitation
It’s important to not send your invitations too early and risk your guests forgetting to respond or forgetting about your wedding day entirely. At the same time, you don’t want to send them too late and you are left scrambling to collect responses and make last-minute arrangements. And of course, there is the post office to consider. Due to circumstances out of your control, mail sometimes gets delayed or even lost.
Consider mailing invitations 12-16 weeks before your wedding day. This gives your guests time to receive your invitations and respond in a timely manner.
How to decide your RSVP date
There are many opinions about setting your rsvp date. Some say two weeks before your wedding day, and some say up to eight weeks. Consider collecting your RSVPs between 4-8 weeks before your big day if your wedding is local and 6-8 weeks if you have a destination wedding.
By giving yourself more of a buffer between your wedding day and the response date, you give yourself more time to track down any guests who haven’t responded. Your caterer will also need to have a final head count. They will ask for this much closer to your wedding day, but having your final number ready will remove some of the stress from the planning process. And of course, if you are creating a seating chart, this gives you time to arrange it. If you’re hiring a stationer for your day-of details, they will need time to create your items. Those beautiful details you’ve been pinning for the last months take time to come into existence. As the saying says, all great things take time.
How to Handle Day of Details
If you’ve been working with a designer from your save-the-dates, they might also be able to handle your day-of details as well. In doing so, you’ll have one cohesive look for your wedding. Likely, you can plan your entire wedding vision from the start so your stationer will have an idea of what you envision your wedding day to look like. You’ll also have already reserved a spot on their calendar and won’t have to deal with finding a stationer at the last minute.
However, there are some things to consider. All great things take time, so it’s important to take into consideration how long it takes for your designer to create everything. They will give you a timeline to follow, and it will depend on the complexity of the items you’re requesting. If your stationer isn’t local to your wedding, shipping needs to be taken into consideration. Shipping can sometimes take up to one or two weeks and you don’t want to be scrambling at the last minute, praying that your item arrives in time for your big day.
Day-Of Stationery
Planning a wedding is such an exciting, but stressful time of life. Hopefully, gaining more clarity on the timeline of your stationery items, it can remove some of the confusion and stress from the planning process. Because planning a wedding should be fun, not a chore.
