Want to let faraway friends, relatives, and colleagues know you’ve gotten hitched? Send announcements. Here’s our quick and easy guide to saying it with style.
Why Send Them?
You don’t have to send wedding announcements. If everyone you want to tell about your nuptials is at the wedding, there’s no need. But if you have a small wedding or tons of extended family, friends, or colleagues, announcements let people who weren’t invited know you made it official. Some people view announcements as a gift solicitation, but that’s not the case: A wedding announcement is like a newspaper announcement that’s directed at specific people. (If anyone does send you a gift, send a thank-you note right away!)
Who Gets Them?
Wedding announcements are especially useful if you want to let professional colleagues know you’re changing your name because you’re now married. If you’re having an intimate wedding, there may still be tons of pals and family members you want to tell. If your parents hosted the wedding but have many friends and colleagues who were not invited, they may want to send announcements.
How to Word Them?
Formal announcements are worded like wedding invitations , except that the wedding has already taken place. (You can even match the style, font, and paper of your invitations — at any rate, they should have the same level of formality.) Your parents can announce your wedding (especially if they hosted it and their names were on the invites) or you two can do the honors.
- If your parents announce it:
Mr. and Mrs. James McDeal
have the honor to announce
the marriage of their daughter
[or “announce the marriage of their daughter”]
Samantha Regina
to
Edward Michael Gallagher
Sunday, the first of March
Nineteen hundred and ninety-eight
St. Thomas Beckett Church
Mount Prospect, Illinois- If you two announce your own wedding:
Samantha Regina McDeal
and
Edward Michael Gallagher
announce their marriage
Sunday, the first of March
When to Send Them?
Send announcements on the morning of your wedding day — or as the old joke goes, on your way from the ceremony to the reception (“Pull over, post office!”). We’ll cut you some slack, though: The night before is fine. Just don’t send them too soon — you’re announcing an event that has already happened! You could also enlist your mom, maid of honor, or best man to drop them in the mailbox the morning after.
- If you two announce your own wedding:
