Engagement Announcements

Once you become engaged, you may want to share your excitement with others by officially announcing it. The announcement is traditionally made by your parents as soon after the engagement as possible. While there are no strict rules regarding the wording of engagement announcements, they are usually pretty straightforward.

Is it appropriate to send engagement announcements? Doesn't the newspaper announcement suffice?

Newspaper announcements are great but they only reach those people who subscribe to that paper. If you want to make sure that all of your friends and family members find out about your engagement, you need to send announcements -- or make a lot of phone calls.

I would like to send engagement announcements but I am afraid people will think I am asking for a gift.

An engagement announcement is not a request for a gift. It is simply intended to announce an event -- your engagement. Nobody receiving an announcement should feel obligated to send a gift.