Invitations are traditionally sent out 6-8 weeks before the wedding date. Any less than that may cut too close to the date of getting a final head count to your vendors. If you want to send them out more than 8 weeks in advance, allow plenty of time for replies to come back to you. Try not to send them more than 10 weeks in advance. You don’t want guests to have so much time that they forget about the wedding weekend when it finally arrives.

Reply cards, i.e. “The favour of your reply is requested by Month Date, Year”, are best dated at one month prior to your wedding day. This will leave a bit of room for the forgetful guests to return their replies before your final head counts and payments are due.