Wedding Invitation Q&As

Composing wedding invitations involves complex-and beautiful-etiquette guidelines. We RSVP to your urgent questions.

Wedding Announcements

Q: My fiancé and I are getting married in Las Vegas and cannot invite too many people. I'd like to send out announcements instead. What's the procedure? —Troy, New York

A: Wedding announcement should be mailed as soon as possible after the wedding ceremony takes place, so you'll probably want to have them addresses and ready to go before you leave for Las Vegas (assuming you'll be honeymooning afterward).

You can have your announcements printed wherever you get your invitations, and formal white or off-white paper is generally preferred. The announcement may be issued by your parents or the two of you, and should include the date, city and state in which the marriage has taken place. The ceremony site is optional. They typically read:

Mr. and Mrs. John H. Brady
have the honor of announcing the marriage
of their daughter
Martha Lynn
to
Michael Thomas Mayer
on Friday, the seventh of October, two thousand
Las Vegas, Nevada

Announcements are usually sent to friends, business acquaintances and relatives unable to come to the wedding - there's no need to send them to guests who did attend. And although no one who receives an announcement is obligated to send you a gift, many people do so.

Q: I’m marrying for the second time and having a very small ceremony in Italy. How should I word our wedding announcements, and when should they be mailed? —Des Moines, Iowa

 

A: It’s best to send out announcements the day after you exchange vows, but it’s acceptable to do so up to several months afterward. You should send them to friends and relatives who were not invited to the wedding, or to any business associates and acquaintances with whom you’d like to share the news of your marriage. If you prefer getting the announcements out immediately, then be sure to have them printed in advance and ask your mom, a sibling or maid of honor to drop them in the mail while you’re on your honeymoon. Here’s a suggestion for the wording:

Marianne Teresa Miller
and
Jonathan Sinclair
announce with pleasure
their marriage
Saturday, the fourth of October
Two thousand and eight
Positano, Italy

 

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Comments

I have a few friends who included a Save the Date magnet in their wedding announcements. It was pretty helpful - I attached the invitation to my fridge using the magnet provided, and then on the day of the wedding, when I was scrambling to get out the door on time, I was able to quickly locate the invitation for directions. For my Save the Dates, I did a postcard. However, I still like the idea of including a magnet in the actual invitations. My invitations will have a pocket for the RSVP card, and I was thinking of including a magnet of my fiance and I there. Would this be OK, and if so, what would be the proper wording on the magnet at this point - would "Save the Date" still be OK?