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When you start planning your wedding you’ll find there are things that feel like they should be easy, and then somewhere along the way they become weirdly confusing once you actually sit down to do them.
Sending save the dates and wedding invitations is definitely one of them.
Because sure, you know you need to tell people when and where your wedding is. But then you start Googling and suddenly you’re reading that save the dates should go out 4 months before, 6 months before, 8 months before, 12 months before, yesterday, immediately, but also not too early because people will forget. Well, thanks! I think?
The good news is that there is a pretty normal timeline for most weddings. For a local wedding, you’ll usually want to send save the dates around 6 to 8 months before the wedding and invitations around 8 to 10 weeks before. If you’re having a destination wedding, a holiday weekend wedding, or a wedding where most guests are traveling, you’ll want to give people more time.
And yes, your wedding month matters. A lot. A December wedding has to deal with holidays. A July wedding has summer travel. A May wedding can sneak up on people because spring gets packed FAST. If you’re planning a destination wedding, you should send everything earlier. Please. Your guests are trying to book flights before they cost more than your centerpieces.
The quick answer
For a local wedding, send save the dates around 6 to 8 months before your wedding, and send invitations around 8 to 10 weeks before your wedding.
For a destination wedding, holiday weekend wedding, or wedding where most guests are traveling, send save the dates around 8 to 12 months before, and send invitations around 3 to 4 months before.
Your RSVP deadline should usually be about 3 to 4 weeks before the wedding, or whatever date your caterer, venue, or planner needs for final counts. If you have never filled out (or received) a formal RSVP card, our quick walkthrough on how to fill out a wedding RSVP covers the etiquette basics.
Wedding invitation timeline by wedding month
This chart will get you in the right range. If your wedding is at the beginning of the month, send everything on the earlier side. If your wedding is at the end of the month, you have a little more wiggle room.
| Wedding Month | Send Save the Dates | Send Invitations | When RSVPs Should Be Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | May to July of the previous year | Late October to November | December |
| February | June to August of the previous year | November to December | January |
| March | July to September of the previous year | December to January | February |
| April | August to October of the previous year | January to February | March |
| May | September to November of the previous year | February to March | April |
| June | October to December of the previous year | March to April | May |
| July | November to January | April to May | June |
| August | December to February | May to June | July |
| September | January to March | June to July | August |
| October | February to April | July to August | September |
| November | March to May | August to September | October |
| December | April to June | September to October | November |
If you are planning a destination wedding, send your save the dates earlier. Usually 2 to 4 months earlier than the timeline above is a good rule of thumb. If your wedding is over a major holiday weekend, I would also send everything on the earlier side. Your guests might love you very much, but they still need to book flights, ask for time off, figure out hotels, arrange childcare, and decide who is watching the dog.
January weddings
For a January wedding, send save the dates between May and July of the previous year. Invitations should go out in late October or November, with RSVPs due in December.
This is one of those months where you cannot just count backwards and call it a day. January weddings get tangled up with Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year’s, winter break, school schedules, travel prices, and general holiday brain fog.
If guests are traveling, I would send save the dates closer to May or June. December is already chaotic enough without someone realizing they never booked a flight for your January wedding.
February weddings
For a February wedding, send save the dates between June and August of the previous year. Invitations should go out in November or December, with RSVPs due in January.
If your wedding is around Valentine’s Day weekend or Presidents’ Day weekend, send everything on the earlier side. Holiday weekends can be great for weddings because guests may already have a long weekend. They can also be more expensive for flights and hotels. Isn’t that fun?
February weather can also be a thing depending on where you’re getting married. Guests traveling to snowy areas, mountain venues, or warm-weather destinations will appreciate knowing the plan early.
March weddings
For a March wedding, send save the dates between July and September of the previous year. Invitations should go out in December or January, with RSVPs due in February.
March is sneaky. It feels far away, and then all of a sudden it’s January and you’re trying to get invitation addresses from your fiancé’s cousin who “definitely has them somewhere.”
If your wedding falls near spring break, send save the dates closer to July or August. Families may be coordinating school breaks, childcare, and travel. Guests who work in education, healthcare, or anything with limited PTO will need more notice.
April weddings
For an April wedding, send save the dates between August and October of the previous year. Invitations should go out in January or February, with RSVPs due in March.
April is one of those lovely wedding months where everyone is coming out of winter hibernation and pretending they’re not overwhelmed. It is also a popular month for spring travel, Easter timing, Passover timing, school breaks, and outdoor wedding weather backup plans.
If your April wedding is outdoors, use your insert card or wedding website to be very clear about attire, terrain, parking, and weather. You do not need to cram all of that onto the actual invitation, though. We’ll get to that.
May weddings
For a May wedding, send save the dates between September and November of the previous year. Invitations should go out in February or March, with RSVPs due in April.
May is gorgeous. May is also busy. Graduations, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day weekend, school events, spring trips, and the beginning of wedding season all start colliding.
If you’re getting married over Memorial Day weekend, send save the dates closer to September. People make holiday weekend plans early, and you do not want to be the wedding that shows up after everyone already booked a beach house. If your guests will need hotel rooms, our breakdown on whether to pay for guests’ hotel rooms covers the etiquette on holiday-weekend room blocks too.
June weddings
For a June wedding, send save the dates between October and December of the previous year. Invitations should go out in March or April, with RSVPs due in May.
June is classic wedding season for a reason. The weather is usually nice, the days are long, and everybody is already in a “sure, let’s go somewhere” mood.
Because June is popular, guests may be invited to multiple weddings, graduations, showers, and family trips. Your save the date is less about giving them every single detail and more about getting your wedding on their calendar before the month fills up.
July weddings
For a July wedding, send save the dates between November and January. Invitations should go out in April or May, with RSVPs due in June.
For July weddings, summer travel is the big thing. People book vacations. Families plan around school breaks. Flights get expensive. Hotels fill up in beach towns, lake towns, mountain towns, and basically anywhere people like to be when it’s hot.
If your July wedding is over Fourth of July weekend, send save the dates closer to November. If you have a hotel block, get that information on your wedding website before the save the dates go out. Our guide on the 5 things every wedding website needs covers what to include so guests can plan around the holiday.
August weddings
For an August wedding, send save the dates between December and February. Invitations should go out in May or June, with RSVPs due in July.
August is tricky because guests may be squeezing in end-of-summer trips, back-to-school schedules, college move-ins, or family travel before fall starts.
If your wedding is in a hot-weather location, be kind to your guests and give them the practical details early. If your ceremony is outdoors, on grass, on a beach, or in a spot with very little shade, people need to know before they show up in the wrong shoes and start quietly resenting you.
September weddings
For a September wedding, send save the dates between January and March. Invitations should go out in June or July, with RSVPs due in August.
September is one of the best wedding months, in my opinion. It feels like summer, but slightly less sweaty and chaotic. That said, Labor Day weekend, back-to-school schedules, and fall travel can complicate things.
For a Labor Day weekend wedding, send save the dates closer to January. Guests often make long-weekend plans early, and hotel rates can jump.
October weddings
For an October wedding, send save the dates between February and April. Invitations should go out in July or August, with RSVPs due in September.
October has become a HUGE wedding month. The weather is great in a lot of places, fall colors are happening, and everyone wants that crisp autumn vibe.
The downside is that October weekends book up quickly. Guests may have other weddings, fall festivals, school events, Halloween plans, or travel. If your wedding is in a popular fall destination, send save the dates earlier and include hotel information as soon as possible. If you’re still looking for save the date inspiration, our roundup of 18 impossibly cute save the dates has fall-leaning designs.
November weddings
For a November wedding, send save the dates between March and May. Invitations should go out in August or September, with RSVPs due in October.
November weddings are beautiful, but Thanksgiving changes the math.
If you’re getting married the weekend before, after, or of Thanksgiving, send save the dates closer to March. People may already be planning family trips, PTO, flights, and hotel stays. Some guests may also ask whether they can bring their entire extended family because “we’ll all be in town anyway.” Be ready. Our guide on wedding plus one etiquette has the scripts for handling that conversation gracefully.
December weddings
For a December wedding, send save the dates between April and June. Invitations should go out in September or October, with RSVPs due in November.
December weddings can be gorgeous. They can also compete with holiday parties, work events, school performances, family travel, expensive flights, and general December madness.
Do not wait too long. If you’re getting married in December, especially near Christmas or New Year’s Eve, guests need early notice. If your wedding is black tie, destination, or in a resort area, send save the dates closer to April.
When to send save the dates for a destination wedding
Destination weddings need more time, especially if guests have to book flights, hotels, rental cars, childcare, pet sitters, or passports.
For most destination weddings, send save the dates 8 to 12 months before the wedding. You may want to send them even earlier if the wedding requires international travel, expensive flights, a multi-day hotel stay, or a holiday weekend.
Your save the date does not need to include every single detail. In fact, it shouldn’t. It should include your names, wedding date, general location, wedding website, and a “formal invitation to follow” note.
Your wedding website can do the heavy lifting. That is where you can put hotel blocks, airport information, transportation notes, dress code, welcome party details, and anything else guests need to start planning. Our destination wedding packing list is a great link to drop on the website for guests who have never traveled for a wedding before.
When to send wedding invitations for a destination wedding
For a destination wedding, send invitations around 3 to 4 months before the wedding.
The biggest mistake is sending destination wedding invitations so late that guests feel like they are scrambling. Even if you already sent save the dates, the invitation is what gives people the full event details, RSVP deadline, dress code direction, transportation info, and weekend schedule.
Destination weddings also tend to have more moving parts. There may be welcome drinks, group shuttles, resort room blocks, airport transfers, beach ceremony logistics, and the cousin who suddenly realizes his passport expired in 2019. Give people time.
A few small things that make mailing easier
Mailing day is when most of the timeline pressure shows up at once. A couple of small purchases save you hours and keep the whole assembly-line process from getting chaotic.
First, a digital postal scale. USPS bumped first-class stamps to $0.78 in July 2025, and most full invitation suites (with reception card, RSVP card, and a vellum overlay) tip into the two-ounce tier at $1.07 per piece. Weighing your fully-assembled suite at home before assembly day means you order Forever stamps in the right denomination once and skip the line at the post office at 7 p.m. on a Wednesday.
Accuteck Gold 86-lb Digital Postal Scale
The #1 pick for weighing wedding invitation suites at home. Reads to 0.1 oz, switches between ounces and grams, and tells you exactly which postage tier your suite falls into so you can order Forever stamps once and move on with your life.
Second, a personalized self-inking return address stamp. Hand-writing your return address on every save the date, invitation, RSVP return envelope, and thank-you card is one of those tasks that takes way longer than it sounds like it should. A custom stamp saves you about four hours over the whole stationery cycle, and you’ll reuse it for years of holiday cards.
Personalized Self-Inking Return Address Stamp
The #1 pick for the back of every envelope. Self-inks for thousands of impressions, comes in seven pad colors, and replaces the four hours you’d spend handwriting return addresses on save the dates, invitations, RSVP envelopes, and thank-you notes.
And if you would rather skip the by-hand recipient addressing entirely, we love Minted for the design library and the free recipient-addressing they include on most invitation orders. You upload your guest list spreadsheet and Minted prints the addresses directly onto the outer envelopes in the same font as your suite. It is one of the easiest ways to skip the calligrapher line item entirely.
Can you send invitations too early?
Yes. I know that feels annoying because every wedding planning timeline is also telling you not to send them too late.
But invitations are not save the dates. Invitations are for final details and actual RSVPs. If you send them too early, guests may forget to respond, lose the invitation, give you an answer before they actually know their schedule, or ask 400 follow-up questions because the details are still changing.
I would give guests a little more room than the old-school 6 to 8 week window, especially if they are traveling. But I would not send formal invitations a year early just because you want to cross them off your list. Save the dates are the heads-up. Invitations are the real thing.
What should go on the actual wedding invitation?
This is where couples tend to overstuff. I get it! You have a lot to tell people. But the actual invitation is not the place for every detail.
In my Smart Wedding Planner interview with etiquette expert Lizzie Post, she explained that the invitation itself should stay focused on the event. As she put it, “It should really just be who’s hosting, who’s getting married, and where is it happening, and if this is for reception and ceremony, and keep it to that.”
Everything else can go on an insert card or your wedding website. Dress code, transportation, hotel blocks, registry, parking, weekend events, shuttle times, and whether the ceremony is on grass can all live somewhere helpful that is not crammed under your venue address in 7-point font. If you’re stuck on the wording itself, our wedding invitation wording generator drafts the body copy in about 30 seconds.
Lizzie also had a great line about enclosures and inserts: “The wedding website, you could even put that on a little insert. That’s the thing, enclosures and inserts cover all this other stuff. That’s the beauty of enclosures and inserts.”
Please put those details in the insert. Do not make the invitation work that hard.
Should you do online RSVPs?
Yes, you can absolutely do online RSVPs, especially if that makes your life easier.
Online RSVPs can make tracking guests much easier, especially if you are managing meal choices, plus ones, song requests, shuttle needs, or multiple events. Our walkthrough on online wedding RSVPs covers the platforms most couples use. Just make sure the website is easy to use, the RSVP deadline is clear, and older guests who may not be comfortable online have another way to respond.
Because yes, someone’s uncle will call your mom instead. You can just accept it now.
Can you skip save the dates?
You can skip save the dates in certain situations, but most weddings benefit from them.
If you are having a very short engagement, a small local wedding, or a casual celebration with guests who already know the date, you may be able to skip save the dates and send invitations earlier.
For most weddings, save the dates are helpful because they give guests time to request time off, book travel, save money, arrange childcare, and avoid making other plans.
This is VERY important: only send save the dates to people who are definitely on your guest list. Once someone gets a save the date, they should get an invitation.
Do not send save the dates to your “maybe” list unless you enjoy extremely awkward conversations.
What if your guest list is not final yet?
You should wait.
I know. You want to get things moving. You want to order the cute cards. You want the engagement photo where you both look weirdly relaxed and glowing to have a purpose.
But if your guest list is still in flux, do not send save the dates yet. Our walkthrough on the easiest way to figure out your guest list can help you lock the list down before you order anything.
Save the dates are not casual. They are basically saying, “You are invited to our wedding, and a formal invitation is coming.” If your venue capacity, budget, or family politics are still shifting, hold off until the list is firm.
This is also why wedding planning can feel so dramatic. A tiny postcard suddenly has social consequences. Fun!
What if you are planning a wedding on a shorter timeline?
If your wedding is less than six months away, skip the normal save the date timeline and move faster.
For a local wedding happening in 4 to 6 months, you can send save the dates immediately, then send invitations around 8 to 10 weeks before.
For a wedding happening in less than 3 months, you can probably skip save the dates and send invitations right away.
For a destination wedding on a short timeline, contact VIP guests personally before sending anything. A quick text or call can help you find out whether your must-have people can realistically make it before you commit to printed materials, hotel blocks, or room counts.
A few timing mistakes to avoid
Do not send save the dates before your guest list is final.
Do not include RSVP cards with your save the dates because save the dates are not for RSVPs.
Do not wait until 6 weeks before a destination wedding to send invitations.
Do not send invitations a year early because you are excited and want to cross it off your list.
Do not forget to include your wedding website on the save the date if guests need hotel or travel information.
Do not make your RSVP deadline the same week your final headcount is due. Give yourself a buffer for chasing people down because you WILL be chasing people down. Our piece on wedding RSVP mistakes that drive brides crazy covers what to do when the cousin who lives down the street still hasn’t replied at 10 days out.
The easiest way to think about it
Save the dates help guests hold the date on their calendars. Invitations give them the details they need to attend. RSVPs give you the final count you need for your venue, caterer, seating chart, and every other last-minute decision that depends on a real number.
Once you think about the timeline that way, it gets much less confusing. Send the save the date early enough that guests can plan. Send the invitation late enough that the details are actually final. Set the RSVP deadline early enough that you have time to hunt down the people who somehow think “RSVP by April 12” is merely a suggestion.
If you want the bigger framework for the whole 12-to-18-month wedding plan (budgets, vendor timelines, the order of everything from venue booking to thank-you cards), our Smart Wedding Planner Guide walks through all of it with worksheets. The budget tool below runs the numbers in about 20 minutes and tells you where postage, calligraphy, and stationery should sit at your guest count.
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