The wedding A + B list

The reality is sometimes, there has to be a B list. The dream wedding resort or venue sometime's can't hold your dream guest list.

What is the B list? The B list is the guests who potentially receive an invitation later than the A list guests, once you know some of your A list guests are a solid no.

Now, knowing that you are on the B list is obviously not fun so, we're just going to keep that hush hush. But for the soon to be newlyweds planning their wedding, this is just sometimes a necessary evil.

So how do you go about collecting these A list replies in a timely manner so that you can still invite your B list guests with ample time to RSVP?

First we take into consideration, is this a destination wedding or local?

With destination weddings [ either the venue is a destination for all or most guests are coming in from out of town ], you will definitely be sending save the dates.

Save the dates are mailed / sent 6 months to a year before the wedding date. Once you mail your save the dates to the A list, about 2 months later I would personally follow up with those recipients, to see if you have any definite no's. Now you know if you can send a save the date to some of your B list guests!

For invitations, you typically mail them 8-12 weeks prior to the wedding date.

If you are still hoping to invite some B list guests, I recommend mailing the invitations 14-16 weeks prior to the wedding date and requesting a reply by date about 8 weeks prior to your wedding date. That way, as replies start rolling in, you will still have enough time to mail out some or all B list invitations, which have a later "reply by" date on them than your A list invitations.

How do you have two different reply dates?

When you work with a custom wedding stationery designer, you have the advantage of that designer, personalizing your details! I work with clients all the time who request a certain number of their invitation suites and have a later reply by date intended for their B list guests.

These suites are held off until I receive word to mail them or sometimes my clients will hold onto them and mail out themselves, if needed.