Birth Announcement Etiquette

• When should I post my birth announcements?
• What details should I include in my baby announcement?
• To whom should I send my custom birth announcements?
• What if my circumstances are unusual for the birth announcement?
• When should I send thank you notes for gifts I may receive in response to my baby announcements?

To whom should I send my custom birth announcements?

The answer to this depends on the vastness of your social network, as well as your budget for custom birth announcements. If you have a smaller budget, consider sending a baby announcement out via e-mail to acquaintances, and reserving printed birth announcements for close friends and family. At Hello!Lucky, we provide a free .jpeg version of your custom baby announcement, so that you have the option of e-mailing the news to additional recipients in your address book.

How to begin compiling addresses? While it can seem like a daunting task, a good place to start is often a mailing list you may have compiled for wedding invitations or Christmas cards.

If you’ve eschewed snail mail in the past, then start by going through your phone or e-mail address book contacts. Also, ask your parents (soon to be grandparents!) to send you a list of their friends and family to add to your list. It can be helpful to use an online collaboration function such as Google Docs to allow multiple family members to simultaneously add or edit addresses for mailing your custom birth announcements.

At a minimum, you should plan to send custom baby announcements to your close family and friend. Extended family that you know fairly well and see on holidays would be nice to add to the list – anyone you might feel left out if they don’t hear the news directly from you. Consider adding work colleagues as well.

In general, keep the list brief to save both time and cost, but include key individuals who you think would be personally interested in the news. Note however that you’re not required to send a girl birth announcement or a baby boy announcement to everyone you have ever known!