Wedding/engagement announcement in newspaper?

Yes. I did it. The point is literally just to announce you're engaged...to your community or local city. It was probably a bigger deal in decades past before social media and when MOST people still had a newspaper subscription.

My announcement listed our names, parent names, where we were from, our college education, and our current job. And a final blurb that "A wedding is planned for April 2017 in Atlanta". The last line isn't necessary. None of it is but we wanted to do it. We'll always keep that newspaper clipping

And no it's not a Save the Date. STDs are given to your guests telling them the date and location of your wedding with a promise of a formal invite to come. That's all. The announcement in a newspaper is much more generic. Don't have to mention the date at all

It used to be very common. I say if she insists, let her pay for it.

@Meaghan Thank you! I was a little confused. The examples on Google had dates, city, etc. Sounded more like a STD to me with all that. And yeah, I defiantly see that being a big thing back before social media. I just don't understand why she wants us to put one in the newspaper so bad when we've announced it over social media.

Oh my - so old school and cute! I can definitely see why your FMIL wants to do it. If she does, that's great - she's proud to announce your engagement. Go for it - it will be a cool keepsake one day and honestly is fading out. Except in the New York Times where its totally still a thing and very prestigious.

My Aunt really wanted me to do this and I was all for it. It's very traditional. I think it might be too late now for me though. I say go for it. It's definitely a thing.

They used to be very common. If you know lots of people in your local area it's a cute announcement.

Example of the awesome NYT ones: http://www.nytimes.com/section/fashion/weddings

This is super common in the town that I live in. It's just an engagement announcement

I guess I didn't see it as much because I grew up in a small town on the outskirts of the city and FH came from an even smaller town! (And not to mention my parents never had a newspaper subscription)

Maybe in the 80's

My mom is doing this. It's not a STD. It's just to announce you're engaged. Where I grew up only family members put it in. You never put your own in, but it may be different by location.

It gets archived by the newspaper. That archive gets put into microfiche. Genealogical researchers use the databases to research family history for birth, marriage, and death notices to gain accuracy in their family trees.

It was the norm back before Facebook but turthfully not many people get the paper anymore plus I wouldnt be comfortable with strangers knowing about my wedding

Millions and millions of people do get regional city papers, and even more get a weekly small paper for their town or a few towns together. People still get pi tures taken when they become president of the garden club, when the kids graduate from high school, when kids from the local school play sports. They also cover things city or townspeople need to know about local government. Many if these papers are online, and some you can click to local notices. But these local papers are scanned, and searchable online. But if you do not submit them, then when your Facebook page or whatever is gone, the record of your engagement, marriage, kids birth records, is only there for those who search state vital records. Just names and dates. Mom wants people the family knows, your old teachers and schoolmates, the locals, to know who you are marrying etc. I like on a rural route in N. New Hampshire with no delivery of newspapers. And our local store still holds a Boston paper for us, 3 hrs away. And complains like today, we only stocked 500 papers, like a usual summer weekend, but tourists! All gone by 9am. NY Times, Montreal and Boston papers, as well as Manchester NH, real newspapers every day. Someday Go to the NYTimes or Washington Post websites, and click on today's newsprint edition. A world more things than in online articles. The same paper will print opinion pieces on both sides of each issue. And right there, wedding notices and obituaries. Not just an 80's thing. That is like saying rock music is a 1950's & 1970's thing. It has not disappeared. Not everyone listens to it, but like newspapers, huge numbers of people do. And not just us old people in our thirties. There is a whole world out there off screen.

😂 A newspaper always published upcoming weddings in the local paper. Obviously, this protocol/tradition was before your time. It was a grand thing to turn to the women’s page of a newspaper and see couple's engagements, weddings, as well birth announcements. The weddings always profiled a photograph of the bride in her beautiful regalia, and sometimes with the groom publishing the names of their parents, the wedding party; etc.