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Announcing your news Tell your families, then tell the world Return to articles index | When your parents are divorced | The blended family | Invitations and stationery 
You're engaged, and you want the whole
world to know it. The first announcement you make, though, should
be to your parents and other family members.Ideally, the news should be delivered in person. If your parents live out of town, try to plan a brief visit to share your news. Because the bride's parents often don't know the groom's parents, it is a good idea to arrange for the families to meet. This is an important step to help make the wedding planning go smoothly. For other family members and close friends, a brief personal note or phone call is a good way to let them know about the wedding. The public announcement The new-media revolution has given you lots of innovative ways to do this, including custom bridal websites and postings on social-networking sites. Traditional print media are in decline, and don’t have strong readership among younger people. Still, an announcement in your hometown paper can effectively reach older relatives and friends, and will be routinely posted on the newspaper’s website. In any media, your announcements can provide as much detail as you’d like to offer about the bridal couple, their families, and the particulars of the ceremony. In Southeastern North Carolina, the primary publisher of engagement and wedding announcements is the “Celebrations” page in Wilmington’s Sunday Star-News. Its website, which has forms for submitting engagement and wedding announcements, is starnewsonline.com. Information about the bridal couple and the wedding date is published at no charge. A longer write-up and/or photograph will be charged at classified ad rates. It’s equally acceptable to publish the bride’s formal portrait, or a photo of bride and groom together. In sizing and cropping your photo, you’ll need to decide whether it’s more important to clearly show your face(s), or every detail of your bridal gown. Keep in mind that if every inch of the gown is shown, the bride's face has to be reduced so small as to almost unrecognizable. A couple’s own wedding website, either professionally built or a do-it-yourself project, can include all the details of a published announcement, plus photo galleries and how-to information for guests. These include maps and directions to ceremony and reception sites; hotel booking links; links to online bridal registries; and even online RSVP systems. Other newspapers Often, because of family connections in other cities, it's a good idea to place announcements in more than one newspaper. Each paper has its own guidelines for announcements, including such details as deadlines, whether announcements are paid or free, photo sizes and specifications, etc. For details, call the Lifestyle or Features section. Many papers post their bridal-announcement guidelines on their web sites. A handy resource that provides links to daily newspapers all over the United States is the Newspaper Association of America's NewspaperLinks web site. Return to articles index |
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