RSVP Timeline Advice Needed!!

[jaspbri0317]

Okay so we technically are not having a "cruise wedding"...we're calling it a Familymoon. We are getting married in PA in a private ceremony and then inviting everyone to come with us for a cruise to celebrate.

 

We picked a NCL 7 day out of Miami for January 2017. Nearly everyone invited will be traveling from Pennsylvania and will be flying down.

 

I'm so conflicted with the RSVP timeline...

 

Guests deposits are due Sept 1

Flights will most likely be booked in Oct

Final Payment is Nov 8

Cruise leaves on Jan 22

 

We kind of want to know before Sept 1 who is coming and who is not. I fear that if I leave the RSVP until Sept, last minute people will only have 2 months to pay off the balance AND pay for airfare. Hopefully people wont wait that long...but who knows!?

 

Is a June or July RSVP way too soon? I would think that 6 or 7 months out, you would know if you could afford a trip like this...right? :confused:

[BimTheDuck]

I think June is good. i actually plan on sending out my save the dates 18 months in advance bc ppl will need to save up and take off of work for several days. know I appreciate advance notice

[slord12]

Okay so we technically are not having a "cruise wedding"...we're calling it a Familymoon. We are getting married in PA in a private ceremony and then inviting everyone to come with us for a cruise to celebrate.

 

We picked a NCL 7 day out of Miami for January 2017. Nearly everyone invited will be traveling from Pennsylvania and will be flying down.

 

I'm so conflicted with the RSVP timeline...

 

Guests deposits are due Sept 1

Flights will most likely be booked in Oct

Final Payment is Nov 8

Cruise leaves on Jan 22

 

We kind of want to know before Sept 1 who is coming and who is not. I fear that if I leave the RSVP until Sept, last minute people will only have 2 months to pay off the balance AND pay for airfare. Hopefully people wont wait that long...but who knows!?

 

Is a June or July RSVP way too soon? I would think that 6 or 7 months out, you would know if you could afford a trip like this...right? :confused:

 

We were married on June 11, 2015. We chose a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas from Port Canaveral - which was driving distance for the majority of our guests. We were engaged in August 2014 and everyone knew when it happened we would be planning a cruise wedding. We sent out save the dates late September/early October 2014. The save the date had our website and a phone number on it (for the computer illiterate) with instructions to complete their RSVP by April 1, 2015. Since we were also planning a welcome dinner at a resort the night before the wedding/cruise and we needed some extra time. That gave us the entire month of April, May, and a week in June. Honestly I think you'd be fine waiting until September. You'll be surprised at the ones who will wait and book at the last minute and you're just going to cause yourself more work with people calling/texting/emailing after your June/July deadline wanting to be added. Trust me, even with our late RSVP we still had a few get added on at the last second - like 3 weeks out!

[makeese]

I got engaged December 4th and booked our cruise wedding end of December. I mailed out my save the dates a week or two ago and don't plan on mailing invitations until maybe August time frame. I also only plan to send out invitations to people who have already booked or are undecided. The definite no's won't be getting one and I already have an idea of those now and it is a year away.

Edited January 20, 2016 by makeese

[MonaCK]

I am getting married May 8th on the Celebrity Summit. I have a lot of non sailing guests along with sailing guest. I booked in March of last year, and the majority of those who are coming along put down deposits then. I sent out invites the end of last month and have already gotten a pretty good response rate on them.

 

I feel when you are dealing with a special situation like a cruise wedding, more time is better. I have to have my final counts in 45 days prior, and in order to book the restaurant for the reception, I need to book that as soon as possible. So I wanted to have a real idea of my numbers as soon as I could.