Wedding Etiquette: When Should You Start Distributing The Invites?

Your wedding invitations are like the prelude to the perfect wedding movie! It's where it all starts. Once everything is booked – your venue, vendors and all the shopping done, it all begins. You start designing your wedding invitations and start the progression of inviting your loved ones to your dream day. But when do you exactly invite people? When do you send the save the date card? What about digital invites? We’ve got it all down for you. Here’s the perfect timeline for how and when you start distributing your lovely wedding invites.

Image via Oh Yes Events★ 4.9

First Things First – Confirm Your Guest List

Finalise your guest list. We promise you that there are going to be wars fought about this so be prepared. After all the family fights about your dad saying that you need to invite your grade 5 teacher, and your mom saying that there is no need to invite your cousin’s girlfriend. Your venue booking should give you a fair estimate of your guest list.

Sort Them Into Categories

You won’t be inviting everyone to all events, so sort them into categories, event-wise. Make a list of only wedding-reception attendees, all-event attendees, only reception attendees and so on. This will give you a clear idea of how many cards and inner leaves you need to print

Image via Turmeric Ink Invitations and Stationery★ 4.6

Decide The Style Of Wedding Invites

The pandemic has opened a new world of invitations – the digital invite. Most people, barring a few oldies, are now okay with digital invitations. So you need to decide with your family if you are going the digital way or half digital and half physical cards way. That way you need to re-sort the categories into who will get digital cards and who will get physical ones. You can also do a save-the-date invite digitally and then a physical wedding card!

Designing The Invite

Your invite design should be ready at least 5 months before the wedding. That way it gives you ample time to print them, label and then start the distribution. Usually, it takes 3-4 weeks for vendors to print invitations so that gives you a head start to start the distribution at least 3 months prior to the wedding. If you are going the digital route, you can push all of this to 2 months before the wedding. We are totally loving these WMG E-invites for that hassle-free invitation.

Save The Date

The save-the-date should go out 5-6 months prior to the wedding. This way your guests who are coming out of town will be able to block dates accordingly. If it’s a destination wedding, the more notice you give, the better so that if any travel plans need to be altered, they can be done prior.

Image via Akanksha Negi Invitations★ 4.8

Wedding Card Tags

Once the cards are printed and in your hand, get to label them immediately. If you are planning to get a calligrapher to do them, intimate them beforehand so that they can start work accordingly. You can also get pre-made calligraphy-style stickers that you can simply stick on the cards and start mailing or distributing them. Check with your wedding invitation vendors for these.

Wedding Invite Gifts

Most wedding invites are now given with gifts or at least sweets. Order your gift hampers with your cards so that they arrive at the same time. If you are planning to gift edible gifts, remember to order them close to your distribution dates as these are perishable items. If you are looking for fun wedding invite gifts, check out our WMG Gallery for the best invitation gift vendors!

Image via The Good Life Company

Invite Categorization

Once everything is labelled and all ready, start categorizing them into these categories

• To be mailed – These ones will go out by courier
• To be hand delivered part 1 – These ones will be hand delivered by immediate family only.
• To be hand delivered part 2 - These ones will be hand delivered by other family members like mamas, chachas or even brothers and sisters of the couple.
• To be hand delivered part 3 – These are all the friends. These can be given during any meet-ups or by your best friend, as friends don’t usually care for formalities.

Invite Distribution.

Once this is done, you start the distribution. Ideally, you should start 3-4 months before the wedding so that you get ample time to distribute and not cut it too close to the wedding. If you are planning to give physical gifts with your invites, consider that while you start your distribution. Have some help or a card with you while you carry all this across the city. Aim to finish all your invites at least 6 weeks before the wedding.

Image via The Murphy Studio★ 4.8

Video Invites

Send out all your video invitations 2-3 months prior to the wedding. You can also have a small reminder video going out 3 weeks prior so that there is a build up to your happy day!

Looking for exclusive wedding invitation designers? Check out our WMG Wedding Invitations Designer now!

Check out: Invitation Designers Reveal – One Invite Trend They Believe Will Rule 2022-2023 Wedding Invites!