3-4 weeks, it's not a wedding

if its at venue and your ordering cake food and favors u need to know the headcount 2 weeks prior at least in ny..

I like to get them 3 weeks out. Gives me time to get a present and wrap it and cajole my kid into making a birthday card, plus I can put it on the schedule. We have one set of friends that notoriously sends out the invite 7-9 days ahead, but I am well aware of that by now and always mark the date on our calendar in advance.

If you send any earlier, I'm going to hesitate to respond until closer to 3 weeks out as I don't generally have family visiting us/us visiting them set up until then and that trumps birthday parties.

I think it depends on the date of the birthday. My kid's birthday is right around Halloween, plus he's a snowmaggedon baby. There are just a ton of birthdays celebrated around that time, so you need advance notice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree, I think 4-6 weeks is standard in our circle. Most people definitely send invites out closer to 6 weeks because everyone is so busy these days.

I think you should send whenever you want. Best case, more people come because they are free.

Gee, how old are the kids in your circle? I could see asking grandma way in advance, but not the kiddo's friends. Lighten up, like PP said, it's not like a wedding.

Yeah, if there's someone in particular that you want to come, like your kid's best friend, then I would confirm the date with them earlier to make sure they were free. But otherwise--I have to be honest, I'm not holding a weekend open for a kid's birthday. We're not going to schedule travel or around a kid's birthday. If you send it out six weeks in advance, I'm probably not going to RSVP for several weeks, unless I am 100 percent certain that we'll be in town and not doing anything else.

Hmm-- I sent out invitations 5 weeks before the party because DD has a bunch of friends with similar birthdays and I was hoping they'd be able to come-- rather than all end up having parties on the same day. It's also important to let out of town relatives know in advance. I'll try to cut it a little closer next time. It's certainly no wedding.

We recently received an invitation for a 3 yo birthday party TWO MONTHS in advance. As far as I know we're free that weekend but I didn't want to RSVP that far in advance. But then the mom emailed me two weeks after sending it to confirm that I had received the email so I felt compelled to make a decision...6 weeks before the BIG DAY.

Anonymous wrote:I disagree, I think 4-6 weeks is standard in our circle. Most people definitely send invites out closer to 6 weeks because everyone is so busy these days.

I think you should send whenever you want. Best case, more people come because they are free.

Gee, how old are the kids in your circle? I could see asking grandma way in advance, but not the kiddo's friends. Lighten up, like PP said, it's not like a wedding.

Agree 2-3 weeks. When I get a bday invitation that is sent 5-6 week beforehand, I usually don't respond right away.

2 weeks, here. I invite a lot of people, so if half don't come because it's too soon, that's fine. I do them all at home, so I don't need to know that far in advance.

Anonymous wrote:I recently received a birthday party invitation that's in 3 months from now. Now that's early!

3 months??? Ludicrous! Why the need to invite folks to a birthday party that early? Worried no one would come? Wouldn't it be funny if no one showed...

We got 3 invites in a span of 4 days. One party is this Saturday, the second the first weekend in March, the third the first weekend in April.

Bottom line, do whatever you want lol, but if you send them out early use something like Evite so you can send a reminder.

3-4 weeks

I recently received a birthday party invitation that's in 3 months from now. Now that's early!

our crowd is about 4 weeks in advance.