When To Send Wedding Invitations Out and How To Get Them Ready

…send your invitations about 12 weeks before your wedding date.

While your guests will likely already be aware that they’ll need to travel for your wedding thanks to your save the date, sending your invitation early — which will likely include more details about hotel blocks and other accommodations — gives your guests enough time to finalize and book their travel plans.

…send your invitations 6 to 12 weeks before your wedding date.

The exact time within this window that will be best for sending invitations to international guests can vary based on a few factors. If you only plan to invite just a handful of international guests, it is fine to send their invitations at the same time as your other guests (so 6 to 8 weeks before your wedding). Just be sure to communicate the wedding day details to them well in advance to give them enough time to book travel.

But, if you know a large number of guests will need to travel internationally for your wedding, you may want to send your invitations closer to 12 weeks before your wedding to account for longer delivery times and to give your guests plenty of time to prepare for your big day.

…send your invitations 8 to 12 weeks before your wedding date.

Most couples send save the dates 6 to 9 months ahead of their wedding, but it is not a requirement. If you decided not to send save the dates (or are having a short engagement), it is a good idea to send your invitations out slightly earlier than tradition dictates. That will give your guests enough time to get excited about your big day and make any travel plans that might be necessary.

Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to browse invitation designs to get a sense for what you like. Once you’ve selected a few invitations you like the look of, you can personalize them to see how your names or details will affect the overall look and feel of the design. Before you finalize your design, we recommend ordering a free sample kit so you can get a sense of what the various paper types, printing methods, and invitation shapes will look like in person (keep in mind that it can take 4-7 days for your sample kit to arrive)!

If you’re pressed for time, the simplest way to find your dream wedding invitations is to book a free consultation with one of Minted’s stationery experts, who will help you narrow down the designs you like and quickly customize them for you.

As you’re picking out your perfect invitation suite, you should also get to work on finalizing your guest list and making sure you have everyone’s most up-to-date addresses. If you’ve sent save the dates, you may have some “soft” RSVPs from guests who are unable to attend, which might open up spots for other guests or to extend plus ones to those who have requested them.

Each Minted order comes with complementary envelopes and free recipient address printing, so to take advantage of that (and to save yourself some serious time addressing each envelope by hand!), be sure to have your guest list and addresses finalized by the time you’re ready to place your invitation order.

Your invitation will contain the most important details about your big day — including instructions on how your guests can access your wedding website. While you’ll need to have the web address and password ready to share by the time you order your invitations, you’ll also want to give yourself plenty of time to get all of the details of your day added to the website, including hotel blocks, travel recommendations, and your registry. If you plan to ask guests to submit RSVPs online, you’ll also need to make sure you have your guest list uploaded to your website ahead of sending out your invitations as well.

Once you have your invitation design picked out, you’ll want to decide on what finishing touches (if any!) you’d like to include to make your invitations feel extra special. If your invitation suite has multiple pieces — the main invitation and a card detailing other events surrounding the wedding, for example — you may want to wrap them in a beautiful vellum jacket, belly band, or ribbon pressed with a wax seal. Or, you may want to make an immediate impression on guests by including a curated collection of vintage stamps that tie into your wedding theme on each envelope. No matter how you choose to accent your invitation, be sure to give yourself enough time to research, pick, and order all of those little details.

One of the reasons why we recommend starting the invitation process early is that it's easy to forget that you need to account for the time it will take for the invitations to arrive to you before they can go out to guests! Minted’s standard shipping takes 4-7 business days (3-day rush shipping is also available), while smaller vendors who do completely custom invitations may take up to 4 weeks to print and ship your invitations.

After your invitations arrive, you’ll need to block off at least an evening—and potentially a few evenings—to assemble them. This includes stuffing them into their corresponding envelopes, of course, but can also include tying suites together with luxe ribbons, sealing belly bands with custom stickers, and finishing off each with a custom wax seal.

Counterintuitively, you’ll want to hold off on putting any postage on your invitations at this stage. We’ll get into why in the next section.

Your invitation suite is likely going to be heavier than the average letter, so once you have a few of your invitations assembled, take them to the post office and ask them to weigh them. This will ensure you know the exact amount of postage each invitation needs — which can save you serious time and money down the road (you don’t want to receive a box of returned invites because of insufficient postage).

After you purchase your stamps, it is time to put the finishing touches on your invites! Add the correct postage to each and then take them back to the post office. If your invitations are slightly bulky thanks to a belly band or wax seal, ask the postal worker to hand-cancel each invitation. This means that each stamp on your envelope is marked with the lines and dates you see over postage (or “canceled”) by hand instead of by machine. Hand-canceling your invitations can help protect them from being torn by the post office’s canceling machine, ensuring your guests receive them just as you intended.