Save The Date/Engagement Announcement. What's the difference (update)

A wedding announcement comes after the fact to anyone and everyone you want to be informed of your marriage but who wasn't invited to the actual wedding.

"MyLove&HisMrs. were married in a small family ceremony on 7/20/2013."

STD is exactly what it says - heads up for your guests to mark their calendars and think about travel plans. Only gets sent to people you are SURE you will invite. Not following through with an invitation to anyone who receives a STD is very bad form, basically uninviting. They're usually sent out between 6-10 months in advance depending on the time of year or travel involved.

"MyLove&HisMrs. will be married on 7/20/13 in Chicago, IL. Formal invitation to follow. Please save the date!"

Thanks ladies.

I hid my post so that I don't confuse anyone... I think Krisalicious explained it really well

So I think I jacked up on my Save the dates...hahahaha. I already ordered them and I was putting them in the envelopes, then I realized all mine say are "Save the Date" and then my wedding date...this would probably be fine if I lived in the same state I am getting married in, but now people might get confused. I don't know why I didn't think of putting the city and state. Guess they can always call me if they have questions until the invites go out...or I might print out little slips of paper that give more details about the location and put them in each envelope to avoid getting asked 100 questions.

Thanks Shelley! I never know if my ramblings make any sense.

Lauren are you having a destination wedding that's really far away/out of the country or is it just OOT in one of your hometowns? If it's just OOT, I wouldn't redo anything re: your STDs, I would just spread the word where the wedding will be. Chances are you'll be talking to those people and they'll be asking you about wedding stuff anyway since they're on the guest list! Or your parents/families will, if they're family friends.

So OP are you actually talking about engagement announcements? That's different from the wedding announcement then. Usually where I'm from, if people want to announce their engagement in a formal way they have their photo taken and submit it to the local paper but that's a Main Street USA kinda town.

I think sending STDs and a separate engagement announcement seems redundant, I would skip it.

Thanks Krisalicious. I've seen them in newspapers, but never received one personally. A friend said I should send the engagement announcement. I'm glad I decided to ask. I am not going to do the announcement just the STD's.

Good choice! I would just send out STD's.

To me engagement announcements would be sent if you are having a n engagement party, which would really make them engagement party invites. It IS redundant to send out both, so If you are not having an engagement party, then I would just stick to the Save the date to inform your OOT guests about planning to make accommodations for you wedding.

Happy planning!

When I got engaged, we just notified people via phone calls and e-mails. In the old days, this was part of the formality of the wedding, but now it's not really needed. Plus, is you are having a small, mostly family wedding, it gives you the opportunity to tell each person who may not be invited that you are just having a small family wedding, so that they don't get offended if they don't get an invite.

Our close family was notified in person (we got engaged just before mother's day/my mom's birthday/my birthday celebration, so we made the announcement when we saw the family there)

I wouldn't worry about engagement annoucements, we did send STD because FH family are all OOT, and it helps the local friends and family book the day off if they need to