The cut off to add your engagement announcements to the newspaper?

That depends entirely on the policy of the particular newspaper to which you are submitting it.

For my first wedding, no one asked me when I had gotten engaged when I sent in the engagement announcement. It was still a few months before the wedding, and the newspaper never commented on the timing, but ran the announcement as I wrote it. It was one of those small-town newspapers that would basically print almost anything you sent them. (For a time in the Girl Scouts, I was responsible for sending the minutes of each meeting to the newspaper, and it printed those, too.)

On the other hand, if you were trying to get the announcement into the New York Times, there is a whole list of requirements, including that your eyebrows and your fiance's eyebrows be at the same level in the engagement picture.

So just check with your local newspaper on what its requirements are.

We got engaged last May and the wedding is in July our engagement announcement will run today in my hometown local paper. They actually have a form for you fill out and put your info in as very detailed or simple as you like then they send a proof to look over. Very pricey, $5.80 per line. Came up to $191 total. Your local paper may not charge per line though or this much , may just have a flat fee just give them a call. The only major requirement they had was that you submitt your announcement 16 days prior to the date you wanted it run in the paper. We paid $175 which included to outfit changes , $75 print credit, unlimited hours which was good so we didn't feel rushed, and studio or your outdoor location of choice or both. We opted for outdoor pics last September at the park where my FH proposed.

Sharonte' E brings up a good point. For some newspapers (like the New York Times, and the paper from the small town I grew up in), engagement/wedding announcements are considered news. For others (like the Washington Post), they are paid announcements. Thus, you need to figure out whether your local paper charges for engagement/wedding announcements, and if so, whether the cost is worth it to you.

Personally, we aren't doing it. And in terms of having budget concerns, I strongly believe that this is one area you should definately cut if you have to pay for it.

Meh, we were told to do it a couple of months before the wedding. Good thing, too, because we have been engaged since 2009.

Some papers have a backlog of announcements. So get it to them as soon as you can so it's not running after the wedding or not getting printed because it's too late.

Thanks everyone!

This small town we're in, my Fiance didn't know at the time he was proposing that the local Newspaper photographer would be there to capture it. I'm happy he did though. So ours was announced. HOWEVER, we're both not from here and plan on running an Ad in the paper a few months prior to the wedding.

I'm not doing an "Engagement Announcement". I don't currently live in my hometown and that puts the entire county on notice that I am getting married and too many people would want to be invited. But I am running an announcement after we are married.

WE are not doing the announcement because we moved to Atlanta not too long ago and we don't know enough people here so it would be pointless to announce our engagement to people we that won't care.

We placed ours in the paper to run today. In order to do so we had to pay the fee by noon the Wednesday before. Our package included publishing in the Sunday Gazette-Mail, posting on the Celebrations website for six weeks, mailing 10 extra copies of the life section of the newspaper (include the one name and address). It was about $170.

http://celebrations.wvgazettemail.com/?section=engagements&page=announcement&ad_id=911361