Whether you've eloped or had a small wedding with immediate family and close friends, you still want to get the word out that you're now a Mrs. While a mass email is always an option, etiquette dictates that sending a wedding announcement is the more appropriate thing to do. A wedding announcement can be as formal or casual as you and your new husband want it to be. The Everything Elopement Book has the expert tips you need to know about writing and mailing the perfect wedding announcement.

Wedding Announcements

You wouldn't want your Aunt Patsy to hear about your marriage down at the corner tavern, would you? Doesn't your husband's great-grandmother deserve to know that she's acquired a great-granddaughter-in-law? Wedding announcements are a nice way to divulge your marriage to some of the people you would have invited to a Big Wedding.

The Purpose

The purpose of sending wedding announcements is to let people know that you're married. This is not a request for a gift, and you shouldn't expect checks to start flowing in the week after you mail out your cards.

Who Should Receive an Announcement?

Try this as your criterion for sending an announcement: Would you feel funny if this person heard you were married from someone other than you, or do you imagine this person opening your announcement and asking himself or herself, "Who are these people?"

Since you've eschewed the Big Wedding and its trappings up until this point, keep your wedding announcement list on the simple side. Friends and family (but only family members that you actually know) should receive announcements. Business associates, acquaintances, and neighbors do not need to be on the roster. They'll most likely feel as though they're being hit up for a wedding gift.

Have your new husband draw up his own list of recipients. If he has no clue as to who should get an announcement and who shouldn't, you can certainly guide him, but let him do the actual brainstorming.

How Do I Say This?

Again, keep it simple. There's no need to use the wedding announcements on the society page as your guide. You will not need to include the type of fabric you were wearing when you said your vows, nor will you need to mention what your parents do for a living and/or where they reside. The following sample announcement includes just the basics: Joan J. Jones and John Q. Public were married in a sunset ceremony on the island of Barbados, April 20, 2001.

These are the relevant facts, and you should stick to them. Anything more (like mentioning the four-star resort you stayed at or including your home address on the announcement) may come off looking tacky and/or like a request for cash.

If this seems far too simple for your taste, there are ways to jazz things up a little:

  • Include a romantic verse or lyric
  • Include a wallet-sized wedding photo
  • Choose colorful or unusual stationery

Feeling Artistic?

So you and your new husband are quite artsy and you want to make the announcements yourselves to give them a truly personal touch. Is that all right? Are you within the bounds of post-wedding etiquette?

Sure, as long as you aren't planning on making your announcements from pipe cleaners and construction paper. As happy and lighthearted as you're feeling right now, you might feel as though you could write your announcement on notebook paper -- it would still capture everything you're feeling. True enough.

Remember though, the folks on your mailing list aren't living in a newlywed haze. Mailing out an announcement that looks like the artistic brainchild of a third grader is going to send several unintended messages: You're silly, you're taking the institution of marriage lightly, and you have really bad taste.

If you're looking to make your own announcements because you think it will be cheaper than having them printed, you may be wrong. Call around and get some prices from print shops in your area. If you can find a discount printer, you may find that the cost of making those announcements is about the same as having them done professionally.



Excerpts: From The Everything Elopement Book by Shelly Hagen. © 2004 F+W Publications, Inc. Used by permission of Adams Media.