Differences - engagement announcement vs. STDs vs. Invitations

Engagement announcements are just that - a way to let everyone know you're engaged. It's much less formal than the others. Most people do it through social media these days.

Save-the-Dates are an early heads up to everyone to keep that date open. This is important for guests who have to travel far and need to save up for a ticket. It's also important if you're planning a wedding at a busy time of year like Christmas (that's us).

Invitations have more information on them, such as the venue(s), address, time, dress code, RSVP deadline, etc. Invitations can also serve as a gentle reminder midway between the save-the-dates and the wedding that hey, this is still happening, and we need to know if you're coming, if you're bringing a date, if you're vegetarian / vegan / gluten free / lactose intolerant, and so on.

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This is the perfect answer!

Jack's explanation is spot on!
We aren't sending engagement announcements and our STDs were mailed out at the end of October. Invitations will be mailed out at the end of May for our August wedding.

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Jack crushed this answer!! Couldn't have said it better myself

STDs are a great, general way to let guests know when your wedding will happen so they can keep that date open and think about any travel plans they might have to save up for/consider. The formal invitations will have more details on them and will be sent closer to your wedding date (sending an invitation closer to the date gives guests a better idea of whether or not they can make it!). The invitations will include the RSVP info/deadline (as Jack mentioned).

Engagement announcements are kind of like graduation announcements in the sense that they say "hey, I did something big with my life!" but don't have any date/location information. As Jack said, this is more of a thing that's posted on social media now, but it used to be a big thing back in the day when people wanted their engagement to be announced in the newspaper!

Jack answered this well! One thing I might add is you can tell anyone you are engaged, but only send out Save the Dates to those you plan on inviting to the wedding. This is for those planning on attending to mark that date in their calendar and the invite will give the better details later!

I believe engagement announcements are just like "hey we got engaged!", but aren't as common anymore. Save the dates are usually send in advance with the date & location of the wedding so people can plan 6-12 months out. Then invites are sent 2-3 months out with more information and an RSVP.

View Quoted Comment That's was going to be my next question! (When?) Haha. Thank you

View Quoted Comment Fantastic!!! Thank you so much for this great info. I was so confused there for awhile. Haha. Thank you!

PPs summed it up. Really only Save-the-dates and invites are used any more. These are the ones you often seen made as magnets, or other fun items instead of just paper.

I decided to skip out on all but the invites. We only had a 9 month engagement, and didn't start really planning until the 6th month mark, so save-the-dates seemed unnecessary.