How Do You Handle Destination Wedding Invitations?

Wedding invitations can be a very important aspect of any wedding it ties together the theme, colors and general perception of your wedding and delivers that to the soon to be guests in a pretty white envelope. In recent years wedding invitations have taken on a mind of their own transforming from the traditional white or ivory very simple elegant invitations to now incorporating color, textured paper, unique designs and untraditional methods!!

I am getting married on a beach and I knew from the start the wedding invitation was going to be tricky. We a destination wedding how and when do you send the invitations out in order to give your guests enough time to decide if they can attend and pay for their trip. There are a few different ways that this can be handled:

1) Save the Date - You can send out a save the date invitation around 12-10 months prior to the wedding and put details of the wedding to allow your guests enough time to contact you and prepare for the trip. Then about 6-8 weeks prior to the wedding you can send formal invitations to those you know are attending.

2) Formal Invites Only - You can send out just the formal invitations as soon as the information is set on the wedding. You should not send these out any sooner than 11-9 months in advance including all details and information regarding the wedding and contact information for your travel agent. This is a good option for those that do not want to spend all of the money on the save the date cards and formal invites or if the wedding is less than a year away.

3) Save the Date Only - Most people now are online and so one alternative to save a decent amount of money would be to send out save the date cards to all of your guests including a link to your wedding webpage. Webpage's are so advanced nowadays that you can actually set up an RSVP on the webpage and use that as your formal response.

4) Word of Mouth - Due to the untraditional nature of destination wedding depending on your situation it may be appropriate just to spread word of the wedding and receive verbal confirmation through the travel agent once people book or from your family as they book the wedding.

Destination weddings are a relatively new concept and have spread like wildfire the past ten years. There are no set rules or etiquette standards yet as to how you should handle invitations for destination weddings. You need to do what is appropriate for you and you situation. I am choosing to send out formal invitations about 10 months in advance. I have told family and friends as they ask the plan and directed them our website which I have already created with information!!