Wedding Blog
What could I possibly be referring to? Well, wedding announcements! You see, Senora Carrie Bradshaw of “Sex and the City” once called the New York Times Weddings and Celebrations section “the single heterosexual woman’s sports pages”.
I LOVE looking at the New York Times wedding announcements. I don’t know how I started to read them, but all I know is that it satisfies my nosy streak each week.
The bride and groom are required to write pretty personal stuff about themselves and their families. I can find out where they went to college and grad school, to their parents’ non-profit board memberships. My reading experience did start to change a bit for me as I started recognizing a few of the names once in a while. One week I found someone with my best friend’s name, and sent it to her. She was pretty surprised she had gotten married and didn’t even know it!
I’m not the only one who reads (and maybe even ponders) the announcements. The satire website Gawker has recently revived their weekly analysis of the New York Times announcements. You get a plus (and even a minus) for your announcement (and to a great extent, your life) having certain characteristics: add a few points here and there for certain professions or colleges, if the bride stops working after she gets married, etc. I know this is all in jest, but ouch! I guess that’s what you get for putting yourself out there, huh?
Since the New York Times is still technically one of our local newspapers, I have been thinking about whether to try to get our wedding included as one of the lucky few. There is apparently a certain mystique around getting your announcement included. Some people have said that back in the day you needed to know someone and/or be a part of the NYC “society” social set. I don’t think that’s the case anymore as I see a variety couples from a range of backgrounds. After doing some research, I think I have found out the magic formula for getting a wedding announcement published: Just follow the directions! The New York Times apparently has a list of very particular instructions. Case in point: The couple’s heads and eyes have to be the same level in the picture submission. Ummm… okay. I guess many a couple has failed to attain the Holy Grail of wedding announcements by simply not doing what’s asked.
Are we going to submit to the Times or any other newspaper, for that matter? Well, I actually don’t know. I’ve heard the Times process can be a bit cumbersome (e.g., they fact check everything to the tee! Of course, they should, as it is a major newspaper). Also, while I’d love to shout it from the rooftops that I am marrying a wonderful man, I don’t know if I want a large chunk of America to be reading about it over Sunday brunch.
Are you having engagement or wedding announcements published in your local paper?
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The other hilarious S&TC Times wedding announcement joke was in Charlotte & Harry’s announcement, Charlotte had a smudge on her lip that looked like a Hitler ’stache!
Miss Swan, I would LOVE to see your announcement in the Times. It would be a nice change from the usual vapid, rich WASP-types (that Gawker so hilariously and mercilessly skewers! Love it!).
Im gonna squeal when/if I see your announcement in the Times! DO IT! The Times is also our local paper, but we havent submitted yet, if at all. We’ll probably do a marriage announcement in our hometown newspapers, perhaps something back in DC where our hearts are (and where we met) but I dunno about the Times…now you have me thinking we should! 
reading the nytimes weddings & celebrations section is one of my monday morning rituals (i read them online). it’s fun to read people’s stories, and sometimes come across someone you know (happened to me today!).
i decided not to go the announcement route. it wasn’t something i wanted and didn’t want to go through the effort. if that wasn’t enough, i’m a lawyer and the legal blog abovethelaw.com is pretty ruthless (like gawker) about tearing into married lawyers who appear in that section!
I think you should go for it! We had our announcement in my hometown paper….however it’s a SMALL paper so I’m not even thinking that counted (well to anyone other than my mother)
I think you should go for it! In fact, I just looked up information for the Los Angeles Times (my “local” paper), so I might be submitting our info, too. 
I think the magic formula is more just an “automatic in” and a prerequisite. I had a few friends w/announcements that ran in the Sunday Times the day after the wedding, and it may just be more of a “less people with connections submitted for today than we can print.”
Just a warning though… it’ll always pop up as a top google result for your name
Go for it! You’re already kinda “out” there with WB. I think it’s cool! But I’m very much like Charlotte from SATC who gets all worked up about these things, so maybe I’m not the best one to take advice from.
My parents insisted on having the engagement announced in our local paper. Well, after telling them exactly which picture I wanted and having to say no to all the other pictures they preferred, my Dad decided to conveniently “forget” that the picture conversations had ever happened. The picture he chose to submit is the worst one of the bunch…FI and I are both squinting, he’s not smiling, and the wind is blowing hair into my mouth. Needless to say I was pretty ticked that my beautiful photo choice was nicked for a crappy picture.
we just submitted to the NYT for an August wedding. it’s kind of silly in some ways, but we thought it would be a fun keepsake from our time living in NYC (although neither of us are from here originally). we’re keeping our expectations low though - so many people get married in the summer.
We’re putting ours into our local newspaper, which I also did for our engagement announcement. I love seeing my name in the paper
Do it!! I love that SATC episode Our will be in my hometown paper - the rockin’ Mansfield News Journal! WOO!
when i was a little girl dreaming of my wedding, it wasn’t the dress or the flowers or anything else that my fantasies focused on– it was a Times wedding announcement! so when we got in– through early and thorough submission– it was one of the best parts of the whole affair. miss swan, i say go for it!
So funny that you posted this! I read them every week, even though I like in AL and never know anybody in there for the most part{I’ve know two people so far}. Well, yesterday I was reading them online and lo and behold, there was my Sr. Prom Date! He was one of the “featured” ones. He left prom night early to take the SATs the next day and it apparently worked out, since he’s now completing his residency! He was always a really smart guy!
we were published in the times… it was so exciting to look at during brunch the next day! we don’t exactly know how they picked us, because we’re po’ and our parents aren’t fancy. definitely go for it!!
ps - LOVE the giants. i had a giants garter. and a giants ice luge of the david tyree catch. and we had various baseball elements in our wedding too… hehe.
I’m pretty sure that my FI’s application process for the federal government was less complicated than NY Times submission directions. I am amazed. We probably won’t publish ours in the local paper, but I would seriously be excited for you! Do it!
Great post. I think you should go for it! It would make a great (and somewhat ironic) keepsake if your announcement made it in!
Mr. Taffy wanted to, but I was kind of freaked out by all of the info that you had to give up!
i work at a newspaper and get free column space for an announcement. but we too, didn’t want to go all ‘full disclosure’, or end up being run as a feature story (we have an unconventional tale) 
Miss Swan, are you sure you are not my long lost twin separated at birth? Your posts are so “me” that I have to laugh. I too read the NYT weddings and celebrations in the Style section every Sunday as I watch the Sunday political shows. Since I’m such a fan, my fiance and I will submit our announcement to the NYT and our hometown newspapers. Go for it! I think it would be a nice souvenir.
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Mrs. Swan, New York City
Age and Occupation: 31, Legislative Representative
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Finance Guy
Engagement Date: August 9, 2008
Wedding Date: August 2009
Venue: Battery Gardens
About Me: I am an un-crafty but resourceful, Caribbean-born but New York-raised woman who's been known to analyze "Dancing with the Stars" and “So You Think You Can Dance”, buy stinky cheese, and use way too many parentheses. I keep lists for fun, am constantly daydreaming of my next international travel adventure (four continents down, three to go), debating sports (let’s Got Mets/Giants!) and dancing around my apartment to stay sane. I am excited to share our wedding planning journey as I hope to plan a streamlined, personal, and fun wedding with the greatest life partner I could ever imagine, Mr. Swan.
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