When to Send Wedding Invitations (And Save the Dates)
The standard timings for save the dates, invitations and RSVP deadlines, and how they shift for destination weddings.
By AI Invites
July 1, 2026
Wedding timings are one of the few areas where the conventional advice is genuinely useful, because it is built around how far ahead people can commit.
The standard timeline
Save the date: 8 to 12 months before. Its only job is getting the date into diaries before anything else claims it. It needs the names, the date and a rough location. Nothing else.
Invitation: 8 to 12 weeks before. This carries the full details: venue, times, dress code, RSVP method and deadline.
RSVP deadline: 3 to 4 weeks before. You need final numbers for the caterer, and you need time to chase the people who miss it.
Final numbers to the venue: 1 to 2 weeks before. Check the exact requirement when you book, since it varies.
Destination weddings
Everything moves earlier, because guests are booking flights and time off:
- Save the date: 12 months, minimum
- Invitation: 4 to 5 months
- RSVP deadline: 8 to 10 weeks
Send travel and accommodation information with the save the date rather than the invitation. Guests need it to decide, and by the time the formal invitation arrives many will already have booked.
Save the dates are where video works best
A save the date has one job: make the date memorable enough to survive in someone's head until the real invitation arrives eight months later.
A static card gets glanced at and forgotten. A short video gets watched, and more importantly it gets forwarded around the family group chat, which handles the relatives whose contact details you do not have.
Because it is only announcing a date, it can also be made long before any of the actual details are settled.
Who gets a save the date
Only people who are definitely invited. A save the date is a commitment, and removing someone afterwards is considerably more awkward than not sending it.
If you are unsure about a group, leave them off and invite them properly later.
Practical notes
- Everyone who gets a save the date gets an invitation, even if they already said they are coming
- Send to households, not individuals, and make clear who is included
- Digital for reach, printed for a short list is now the common approach, and it costs a fraction of a full print run
- Build in a buffer. Assume the RSVP deadline will be missed by roughly a fifth of your guests, because it will be
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