Hometown Newspaper Engagement Announcement

I don’t know if it’s a tradition everywhere but in the south, when you get married, you announce it to EVERYONE. Even before internet stalking-er, social-networks like Facebook emerged, the news of an impending marriage spread like wildfire where I'm from. Soon after getting engaged, my mother mentioned putting an announcement in our hometown newspaper (as if a small town couldn’t spread the news by word of mouth efficiently enough).

I decided to entertain her and emailed the newspapers to see what it takes to publish an engagement announcement. Much to my surprise, it costs money to run them. Maybe I’m the only one who didn’t know this already, but I was just always under the impression that since you were providing them with “news” they wouldn’t have otherwise (especially for the small town papers), they would just put it in for free. It makes sense to make money off of them, especially in an era when newspapers are all on the rocks. But now we’ll be out $15 for my hometown paper and $30 for Mr. Lab’s.

What’s funny about this whole newspaper announcement thing is that I’m no stranger to being featured in my hometown’s paper. I used to be somewhat of a “hometown celebrity” if you will. My town is so small that the majority of the paper is designated for school news. Because I was so involved in academics, athletics, and extracurriculars, I regularly appeared in the paper. I still have all my clippings that my grandpa would bring me (he loved seeing me in the paper) and occasionally look back at them. Here’s some of my favorite blasts from the past:

Small town = small school. So it wasn't too hard to be at the top of the class. I missed Valedictorian by a smidgen because the guy who was #1 did work-study instead of academic classes our last semester. :(



My first pageant win (only my second time competing!). I was also voted Miss Congeniality. This sparked a love for pageants and I competed for the next 5 years to earn money for college.



Me & my BFF aka MOH! She and I were the captains of our varsity soccer team. We've been friends for nearly 12 years!

It’s been 6 years since I last appeared in our paper but every time I look at one of the clippings, I feel like I've been transported back in time. The more I think about it, the more I’m glad my mom suggested the announcements. They’ll be cute keepsakes to put in a wedding scrapbook to look back on one day. We’re submitting them this week to run the next week. I’ll be sure to post the clippings when we get them!

Is anyone else running an engagement or wedding announcement in your local paper? Were you surprised by the costs?