<p>What is the tradition around high school graduation announcements?</p>
<p>I vaguely remember that, in my day, we ordered them, inserted a picture of the graduate, and mailed them out.</p>
<p>Is this what is still done?</p>
<p>Do they double as invites for an open house, if one has one?</p>
<p>It was amazing to me the amount of things they tried to sell us senior parents when my first D was about to graduate. Invitations, announcments, memory books, etc.!</p>
<p>We don’t have a huge family or gazillion friends to send out to, but wanted to make something personal. So the photographer that took her senior pictures (someone who does photography as a second job and was VERY reasonable) made up a postcard size item for us. It included a photo (one of her senior shots) and brief language announcing the graduation, the open house/grad party info and a brief future plans sentence. </p>
<p>By using this, we did not send out seperate senior photos, and everyone was aware of her graduation, party and college plans. </p>
<p>I will do this again for my son in 2010.</p>
<p>I consider the official school grad announcements nothing but an invitation to buy a gift. So, I am getting only 5 for family. S1 also graduates in May from college and told me he wasn’t buying any grad announcements. I am fine w/that.</p>
<p>Ultimately, I think the announcements of old are no longer required in this day of instant communication. A more personal announcement can be created inexpensively and can be more reflective of your unique student.</p>
<p>I used Snapfish to create our own invitations - using a picture of my DD when she was about 3 years old. Since we invited many long-time friends who remembered her when she was that age, it was quite a conversation piece.</p>
<p>We also created our own announcements - better priced and no need to order a quantity we would never use. We sent to only very very close friends and family. I am doing the same for S’ college graduation next month. Now, it’s a lot easier - U has downloadable logo/seal and all on its website.</p>
<p>They can’t really serve as invitations to an Open House, unless you insert a separate invitation. No reason not to, imo. We had an Off to College! party at the END of the summer, so that didn’t apply in our case.</p>
<p>I also ordered only the minimum # of announcements ( I think it was 10). One for H & I to keep, one for D and the rest to send to Grandparents and my and H’s siblings. That’s it. We are not sending them to anyone else, as we don’t want people to think they need to give a gift.</p>
<p>My son point blank refused to order any of the graduation stuff other than the cap and gown as he thought is was a big rip off. So I made his announcements. Then 3 years later may daughter wanted me to make hers as well. I used print shop and bought some blank announcements (there are some really nice ones). Printed her graduation photo in the center (they refused to have formal graduation photos as well so a friend of hers that is an excellent photographer took them), then put some pictures of her at various ages baby on up around the main photo. They came out really nice and got lots of compliments. And I had fun doing them.</p>
<p>We also only sent them to family and close friends.</p>
<p>Our hs doesn’t do announcements. I don’t think they’re a tradition here in the northeast, but I know they’re big in parts of the South.</p>
<p>Since I have southern relatives, I created our own graduation announcement using Snapfish. It had S’s senior portrait on the cover. I got lots of positive feedback from the people who received it, and it wasn’t horribly expensive.</p>
<p>I’m not big on announcements even though I am in the South. For HS graduation, I just got a handful to send out to my family, and I’m not ordering any for college graduation.</p>
<p>I just think it gets a little tacky to send them out to people that you’re not even that close with because to me it just says, “Give me a gift!” (Some people I know have done this.) I still got plenty of unexpected gifts from people in my church, etc. without sending them invitations.</p>
<p>If you want to get them either make them yourself or have a local print shop make them. The ones sold by the standard vendors (eg Jostens) are very over priced considering what you get.</p>
<p>I also just ordered the minimum of formal announcements, so that there was one for us to keep, one for the scrapbook, enough for grandparents etc. Then created my own using Shutterfly (like Snapfish). There are many templates, it is quite easy to do, you can use either a single photo or make a fun collage and the turn around time is quick. You will get many compliments, and the kids like them too!</p>
<p>I have seen some gorgeous ones that folks made themselves. But I am terrible at that kind of thing so I went ahead and ordered the minimum amount. We won’t send all of them. Just to close family and friends</p>
<p>We got megacheap ones at the grocery store. Took a baby picture of kid to store to make photocards: added text announcing graduation and party/open house. About 30 cents each including envelope, and very cute. The stores have designs for graduation announcements, just like they do for the holiday and birth announcements. Quite a few people commented that they really liked the cards; it’s fun to see how the kids have grown.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom: what size were these announcements? Like a folded card?</p>
<p>Tx!</p>
<p>What if you won’t doing a grad party? Would you still send announcements?</p>
<p>We’ve gotten announcements from daughters of far-flung family members whom we (literally) have not communicated w/in 25+ years. That seemed, as said, to be an invite for a gift.</p>
<p>Wanted to show our pride, but not be tacky…</p>
<p>
The ones I did for my son were folded cards - I think they were actually from a box of DIY wedding invitation cards. When I did them for my daughter I used a larger non folding card that was actually designed for graduation announcements. It had a black embossed strip across the top with caps and stuff. I found them somewhere like Staples or Office depot.</p>
<p>ah…so, about 5 x 7 inches in size for the non folding card?</p>
<p>Wondering when to send them? I’m thinking soon to the out of state relatives that might actually come. Maybe a month in advance for the local folks?</p>
<p>So, of course, part of me feels like sending these out is bragging, but seriously, how proud am I of my D! I am really so happy for her and want to send them out. But between the wallet-sized picture and the printed card from the school, I see there is nowhere to include her future plans. Do I omit that? Hand write it in? Assume that everyone who is getting an announcement already knows (this is sort of true!). </p>
<p>Gosh! Such a milestone. </p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>The photo I am including is one from one of those one hour portrait places, not a formal portrait. I personally like it when a grad announcement includes a picture because sometimes I haven’t seen the kid in awhile. So, I don’t think sending a visual aid is bragging per se. :-)</p>
<p>missy, I am sending mine out three weeks in advance for out of staters, all of whom already know the date, and local folks two weeks in advance. I found some awesome stamps at my post office that are perfect for my D’s announcements, too.</p>
<p>We printed up some announcements, not invitations. "We are proud to share with you that DD is a member of the graduating Class of 2009 at Dear Old High School. In August, she will be attending XYZ College in City, State. Dick and Jane " I enclosed a copy of her senior picture.</p>
<p>Nobody on our list was surprised at the news. Our family is spread out all over the country and we knew there’d be no out of town guests. Just our way of acknowledging her graduation and letting friends and family know about her college decision. It was important to me that this announcement not be perceived as a request for a gift.</p>