How to Plan Your Wedding Stationery Timeline

There's a lot of wedding stationery to think about — save-the-dates, invitations, RSVP cards, day-of signage, thank you cards — and each one has its own natural moment in your planning. Get the order wrong and you'll be chasing addresses at the last minute or waiting on a caterer who hasn't confirmed numbers. Here's a simple, month-by-month timeline to keep everything moving at the right pace.

12–18 Months Before: Save-the-Dates

Save-the-dates go out first, especially if you're marrying during a busy season (June, September and October are the most popular in the UK) or expect guests to travel. As a rule of thumb, send them 12 months out for a standard wedding, and closer to 18 months for a destination wedding or one that falls over a bank holiday weekend.

Save the date! Amara & Josh are getting married 12 September 2027 in the Cotswolds. Formal invitation to follow — we can't wait to celebrate with you.

At this stage you only need names, the date, and the location (city or venue is fine) — full details can wait for the invitation itself.

3–4 Months Before: Order Invitations & RSVP Cards

Once your venue, catering and guest list are locked in, it's time to order. Aim to have invitations, RSVP cards and any info cards (accommodation, parking, dress code) designed and ordered together 3–4 months before the big day. Printing and finishing takes anywhere from a few days for digital prints to two or three weeks for letterpress or foil, and it's worth building in a buffer for proofing and any last-minute tweaks before you commit to a print run.

Ordering everything as a suite — rather than piecing it together separately — also makes it much easier to keep the wording, colours and paper consistent from the outer envelope through to the RSVP.

6–8 Weeks Before: Send Invitations & Set Your RSVP Deadline

The invitations themselves should land on doormats 6–8 weeks before the wedding — 8 weeks if you have a lot of overseas guests, a destination wedding, or a date that clashes with the summer holidays. Set your RSVP deadline for 3–4 weeks before the wedding, which gives you enough breathing room to get a final headcount to your caterer and finalise the seating plan.

Kindly reply by 1 August. We hope you'll join us — details and gift registry at amaraandjosh.com

A wedding website or QR code on the invite is now a completely normal way to collect RSVPs and share extra details, and it takes the pressure off the printed card itself to hold everything.

4–6 Weeks Before: Day-of Stationery

Once your RSVPs are in and the details are confirmed, it's time for the pieces guests will actually see on the day: welcome signs, table numbers, seating charts, order-of-service programmes and menu cards. These usually take 4–6 weeks from order to delivery, and it's worth ordering them together so fonts, colours and paper stock match your invitation suite.

Place cards are the exception — leave these until 2–3 weeks before the wedding, once your seating chart is completely final, since they're the item most likely to change right up to the wire.

After the Wedding: Thank You Cards

Ordering thank you cards before the wedding — ideally alongside your invitations, 4–6 weeks ahead — means they're ready to go the moment you're back from your honeymoon. Etiquette-wise, aim to send them within two to three months of the wedding, sooner for gifts you received before the big day itself.

A Few Timeline Tips Worth Knowing

• Order 10–15% more invitations and day-of stationery than your final guest count — for last-minute additions, keepsakes, and the inevitable addressing mistake.
• Bundle your invitation suite (invitations, RSVPs, info cards and thank you cards) into one order where you can — it keeps your stationery consistent and is usually cheaper than ordering piece by piece.
• Confirm your ceremony order and catering menu before ordering programmes and menu cards — these are the two items most likely to need a rewrite if you order too early.
• If you're printing at home or through a local printer, build in extra time for proofing and reprints — don't count the "order by" date as your safety margin.

Keep It Simple

You don't need to have every date memorised — just work backwards from your wedding day, and let each stage of stationery follow naturally from the planning decisions that come before it (guest list, venue, caterer, seating). Editable templates make it easy to move quickly once you're ready, since there's no waiting on a designer between each stage.

Browse our editable wedding stationery templates — fully customisable in Canva, so you can update wording and reorder at every stage of your timeline without starting from scratch.