Do I have to have an RSVP and if I do, what date should I make it? My wedding is June 8, 2011.

There are many reasons you will want an RSVP from your guests.

The RSVP is used and most often needed to get an accurate count of the number of people coming to your reception. You will have to guarantee a number and you don't want to have to pay for people/food that won't be there. If you are doing food yourself and not hiring a caterer, it's still good to know how many people are coming to know how much food to prepare.

Also, you probably order favors, etc. which will be dependant on the guest count. If you do a seating chart/name tags etc. for the reception, you will need to know who and how many people are coming.

In addition, many brides have A and B lists of people (because of cost or reception room limitations not everyone you may want to invite makes the A list.) Anyway, if you send invitations early enough (about 5-6 weeks before), then when A list people RSVP "no", you can send an invitation to someone on the B list. It's acceptable to mail invitations up to 2 1/2 weeks before the wedding.

Many brides also then contact those who have not RSVP'd by the date given and ask them if they will be attending.

Given all that, you will need to make the RSVP by date before you need to guarantee a count and with enough time to do the other things (order favors, send more invitations, plan seating, or call them, etc. So, probably around 3 weeks before the wedding is a good date (mid May 2011).