Invitations when your
guests are flying in.
Digital, print or both — for a wedding in the Dominican Republic where the guest list lives in three time zones. When to send what, what each format costs, and the mistakes that cost couples the most.
A destination wedding changes the invitation math. Your guests aren't driving across town — they're booking flights, requesting time off and comparing hotels, which means they need to hear from you months earlier than a hometown wedding would require. It also tilts the format question: mailing paper across borders adds US$5–15 per invitation, while a digital invitation lands on every phone in seconds. Here's how to think it through.
Before you start — the essentials
- Save-the-date: 8–9 months out — mandatory when guests are flying in. It's what lets them book flights early.
- Formal invitation: 3–4 months out for a destination wedding (6–8 weeks would be enough for a purely local one).
- RSVP deadline: 4–6 weeks before the wedding. Without it, you can't close the headcount with catering.
- How many to order: about 60% of your guest count (you count households, not people) plus 10–15% margin.
The four formats — and which one fits an international list
Four formats are genuinely viable today. None is "best" in the abstract — but when most of your guests live abroad, the digital and hybrid options carry a structural advantage: no international postage, no customs delays, and details you can still update after sending.
| Format | Typical cost |
|---|---|
Digital (PDF, web, video) For: Instant delivery to a guest list scattered across three countries, easy to update when details shift, built-in RSVP, zero international postage. Against: Less of a keepsake, older relatives may struggle with it, and it reads less formal for a traditional ceremony. | US$0 – 200 total |
Standard print (card + envelope) For: The classic. Card, envelope, decent paper. Works for 50–150 guests without blowing the budget. Against: Print time of 2–3 weeks, international mailing adds US$5–15 per invitation, and once it ships nothing can be corrected. | US$2 – 8 each |
Production print (letterpress, foil, hand calligraphy) For: A memorable object. Fits mid-size to large weddings with a carefully produced look. Against: Expensive and slow — 4–8 weeks of production before mailing even starts. A typo means reprinting. | US$8 – 40+ each |
Hybrid (digital save-the-date + print for the inner circle) For: The destination-wedding sweet spot: everyone gets the digital piece fast; the 20–30 closest people (or those who want paper) get print. Against: Two designs to keep consistent — double the design work. | US$100 – 600 total |
A realistic sending timeline
The most common question is when do I send what? This is the calendar that works for couples marrying on the coast with guests flying in. Whatever you compress, don't compress the save-the-date — it's the piece that buys your guests cheap flights. It slots straight into our 12-month planning checklist.
What goes inside the invitation
This is the minimum an invitation needs so you don't spend the following week answering the same twenty questions on WhatsApp:
- The couple's full names (traditional order or however you prefer)
- Parents' or hosts' names (optional, depends on your tradition)
- The full date, day of the week included (Saturday, February 14, 2026)
- Ceremony time, stated clearly (“5:00 pm sharp”)
- Ceremony venue — name plus full address or a clear landmark
- Reception venue, if different
- Dress code (formal, semi-formal, beach formal, white attire…)
- RSVP: how to confirm, and the deadline
- Special instructions (transport, parking, children, pets)
- Your wedding website with the extra detail (optional but recommended)
Optional: a personal note from the couple, your story, a link to the wedding website. What does not belong on a formal invitation: gift-registry details or bank account numbers — that lives on the website or travels separately.
For an international guest list, the wedding website does the heavy lifting: nearest airports (AZS for the Samaná peninsula, SDQ for Santo Domingo), lodging picks, transfers, what the climate demands, and visa notes. If you're still choosing where on the coast to marry, start with our guide to where to get married in the DR — the invitation gets much easier once the venue is fixed.
Digital platforms that actually work
If you go digital, these are the services that hold up for weddings — built-in RSVP, open tracking, and templates that don't look amateur. None of them pays us a commission for the mention:
| Service | Cost |
|---|---|
Free editable templates. Good for a clean visual design plus a PDF download. | Free (Free templates); US$13/mo Pro for more options |
Digital invitations with built-in RSVP and open tracking. Reads formal. | From US$19 for up to 100 guests |
Premium digital templates. Save-the-date, invitation and thank-you in one consistent flow. | Free templates; some premium via credits (US$0.30–2 each) |
For premium print. Artist-designed, high quality; ships to the DR at extra cost. | US$3 – 12 per printed invitation |
Templates + digital RSVP + a free wedding website on the same domain. A natural fit for couples abroad. | Free for digital; print from US$1.50 |
The destination-wedding playbook
When most of the guest list is boarding a plane, the sequence that works looks like this:
- Digital save-the-date at 10–12 months. Include the nearest airports (AZS, SDQ), a lodging recommendation and a soft deadline for booking flights.
- A wedding website with the practical info. Visas (most nationalities don't need one for the DR), airport transfers, what to pack for the climate.
- Formal invitation at 4 months. Digital or print, to taste — the job is to lock the dates.
- Reminder + detailed itinerary at 3 weeks. A map, exact times, an emergency contact and the plan B if it rains.
One more destination-specific note: your guests will use the invitation (or the website) to decide whether the trip is a long weekend or a full week. Marrying in Las Terrenas? Say so early and point them at what's around — the couples whose guests turn the wedding into a holiday get far fewer declines. And if your ceremony format is still open (symbolic here, legal at home is the most common formula), settle it before the invitation goes out — our guide to ceremony types walks through the options, because the format decides what time and venue the invitation announces.
The six mistakes we see most
The fix: If the wedding is more than 4 months away AND guests are flying, the save-the-date at 8–9 months is mandatory. The formal invitation does a different job — it closes details, it doesn't buy your guests time to book flights.
The fix: Without a deadline, half your guests answer at the last minute and you can't lock the headcount with catering. Print the RSVP deadline prominently and set it 4–6 weeks before the wedding.
The fix: If you're inviting only the person, address the invitation to their name alone. If their partner is included, write both names. Leaving it ambiguous creates awkwardness — and an unpredictable headcount.
The fix: Without it, guests poll each other, arrive mismatched, and the couple winces at the photos. “Beach formal” or “cocktail” solves it for almost everyone.
The fix: Order for households, not people — a couple gets ONE invitation, not two. That usually works out to about 60% of your guest count, plus 10–15% extra for corrections and keepsakes.
The fix: PDFs get compressed on WhatsApp, videos can break, GIFs don't animate on some phones — and for an international guest list, WhatsApp IS the delivery channel. Send the final version to yourself and check it on at least one Android and one iPhone.
Stationery is a small line in the overall picture — see where it sits next to venue, catering and photography with our budget calculator before you commit to letterpress for 120 households.
Frequently asked questions
When should I send invitations for a destination wedding in the Dominican Republic?
Earlier than a hometown wedding. When guests are flying in, send a save-the-date 8–9 months out (some couples go 10–12) and the formal invitation 3–4 months out. For comparison, a local wedding with in-town guests works with 6–8 weeks, and a domestic wedding with out-of-town guests with 8–12 weeks. Whatever the format, the RSVP deadline should land 4–6 weeks before the wedding so you can close the headcount with catering.
How much do wedding invitations cost?
Fully digital: US$0–200 total for everything (free templates like Canva, delivered by WhatsApp or email). Standard print: US$2–8 per invitation with envelope, so 80 invitations run US$200–700. Production print (letterpress, foil, hand calligraphy): US$8–40+ each, easily over US$1,000 for 80 guests. And here's the destination-wedding kicker: if most of your guests live in another country, international mailing adds US$5–15 per invitation on top.
Is a digital invitation acceptable for a destination wedding?
In 2026, absolutely — and for a destination wedding it's often the smarter default, since international postage is expensive and guests live off their phones while planning a trip. The caveats: if your wedding is very formal or you're inviting grandparents who don't use smartphones, go hybrid — digital for most of the list, print for the 20–30 closest people or anyone who needs physical paper.
How many invitations should I order for 80 guests?
Not 80. Count households, not people: a married or cohabiting couple gets ONE invitation. For 80 guests you typically need 45–55 physical invitations. Add 10–15% for error corrections, keepsakes, and one sample for your photographer (it goes in the flat-lay shots on the day). Around 60 invitations covers 80 guests comfortably.
What should I tell international guests inside the invitation?
Keep the invitation itself clean — names, date, time, venues, dress code, RSVP — and push the travel logistics to your wedding website: nearest airports (AZS for the Samaná peninsula, SDQ for Santo Domingo), lodging recommendations, visa notes (most nationalities don't need one for the DR), airport transfers and what to pack for the climate. Then send a detailed itinerary 2–3 weeks before the wedding with exact times, a map, an emergency contact and the rain plan.
What do I do about guests who never answer the RSVP?
After the deadline, call or message them directly — don't wait. The wedding-industry rule: if a direct message goes unanswered for 7 days, count them as not attending and tell the caterer. It sounds harsh, but it's fair — if they couldn't take 5 minutes to reply, you can't pay US$120 for their plate.
How should I handle plus-ones?
Pick a policy before anything prints: (a) a plus-one for every single guest over a certain age (typical for weddings above 80 people), (b) a plus-one only for guests with an established partner you both know (typical for intimate weddings), or (c) a plus-one for guests traveling from abroad, as a courtesy for making the trip — a natural fit for a destination wedding. What never works: leaving it vague or deciding case by case as RSVPs arrive. That breeds resentment.
Do I need to send written thank-yous afterward?
Yes — within 3 months of the wedding, for every gift received: physical gifts, envelopes with money, a paid trip, or simply someone who flew a long way to be there. The card can be digital (Paperless Post and Zola both do it well), but the personalized note is the point. This is the one piece where a generic copy-paste genuinely reads badly.