My son is graduating from high school this year. We ordered the school announcements because my son was the one who got to choose the school announcements.?
I included a picture and the invitation to his party which we are hosting the day of graduation. We mailed 14 total. We only sent them to those attending with the exception of one.
For my whole life, my favorite aunt always had pictures on her refrigerator. I send an announcement along with a note to her that it was for her fridge. She sent me a photo of the photo proudly displayed on her fridge. I wanted her to have the picture but they live far away and will not be attending.
Many kids here use the annoucements from Snapfish, etc as the invitation to their party. I don’t have any issues with it. Getting an announcement does not change my intention to give or not give a gift. I tend to think most people are just proud and want to share the news of this milestone.
HS - yes; college - a definite no.
We sent announcements as a courtesy to close family who were going to come anyway - our family is big on getting together for graduations. Didn’t send college announcements to DH’s family because they weren’t going to show up and we didn’t want to look like we were asking for gifts.
Niece on DH’s side is about to graduate from high school, we have heard nothing. Asked her father, and he wasn’t sure of dates or plans or anything. Maybe we’ll just send a check if we don’t hear anything.
I made announcements on a photo website when my kid graduated from boarding school; we have a large extended family and many far flung longtime friends who always want to know what’s happening in our lives. A few of those people did send gifts, but that was certainly not the intent… and now I’m cringing after reading this thread, because I would hope that none of the people who received our announcement saw it as a “gift grab”…
probably won’t be doing them for college graduation, but who knows. It does seem like more of a high school thing to me.
“and now I’m cringing after reading this thread, because I would hope that none of the people who received our announcement saw it as a “gift grab””
In my case, I don’t view them as such except for that return envelope that was included which doesn’t seem to e the norm (at least nobody here has fessed up to including that).
We are in the process of sending them out right now, and having a bit of an etiquette dilemma. When I graduated it was typical to send them to any family that you actually associate with as well as giving them to most people at church, at least the regulars that you actually knew well. Someone told my mother that you don’t give them to parents of classmates, even if you are close friends, so that is what we always thought. My question is this, what about grandparents of fellow classmates? There are some at church that my son would send an invitation to because he has known them forever(actually our families have known each other for many years), but they have grandkids in his class and we aren’t sure if it is appropriate. What about teachers?
A little more information: our school does not require tickets for graduation, anyone is free to attend. There are about 60 kids in his class and many of them have been together since preschool, our school is K-12. We live in a town of about 3,500 people so have relationships with lots of people, many of whom like us have lived here for multiple generations. I went to school with some of his teachers, he even had a couple of teachers that were my teachers as well.
I am not sending them to get gifts, just trying to send them to people that I feel like might expect one. We have a graduate reception at church on Sunday night before the week of graduation and I’m sure he will receive some cards/money at that time but some people want to receive the cards or invitations with pictures. I am having a hard time deciding who to send one to(some choices were easy) as I don’t want it to seem like asking for money but don’t want to offend someone that might be expecting to receive one.
I never expect to receive one but did get one from all nieces and nephews. Also got them from close friends.
If you want to send them, I suppose you could write in each, “No gifts please. We are so proud of Muffy and just want to let you know that she has completed this important milestone.”
For D we did graduation announcements for both high school and college graduations. We just bought the ones that the schools offered. For high school graduation we had a dinner for D with just immediate family. For college graduation we did an open house party. We will likely do the same for S. If people brought gifts that was wonderful, but we appreciated their presence and gift were not a requirement!
With D (S hasn’t graduated from high school or college quite yet, but we’ll follow the same format with him) we sent them to immediate family (aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins) and close family friends (people who’ve known her forever. We never sent them to teachers, but I do work at my kid’s school and a few of the teachers there are close friends of myself and our family, so we would send them announcements. Some of these people were my kid’s teachers at one point. We don’t go to church, but if we did we would probably send them only to people there that we are close to. With high school graduation our D didn’t send any announcements to her friends who went to her school. She only sent them to her good friends who attended other schools. For college, D sent them to all her close friends and all her high school friends (that she was still in touch with). She also sent announcements to to all her family and close family friends.
When D had her open house party for college graduation, we sent invitations for that separately from the graduation announcements. With the dinner for high school graduation we just had immediate family so sent around an email with the time and place…
We did not send out announcements. Thought it felt like a gift request. We did post a few pictures on facebook.
We didn’t send them, nor have I ever received one.
@HeartofDixie wish I could help you, but what you describe is outside my experience! With that small and close a town, it seems it is more like sending a Christmas card. Unless you think people will think you are asking for a gift, it sounds like you should err on the side of inclusion.
My son’s godfather is the only one who came to his HS graduation. My parents were supposed to come, but my father wasn’t well enough. We bought the video and sent it to them , and they enjoyed it. College, godfather came again, my mother was supposed to come but she backed out at the last minute. (I was driving her.) I was not happy about it, but honestly, after the fact I realized that it would have been too much for her. His godfather again came to the MS Journalism degree, but this time so did my mother. I planned it for her comfort, and it worked out well. Thankfully S just went to the J school graduation, not the huge Columbia melee with 30,000 or so people! 
@Consolation: Your son’s godfather sounds a lot like my daughter’s godmother! She’s been there for absolutely everything that’s been important to my kid. How blessed we are to have people like this in our (and our kid’s ) lives. (In our case, she is not a relative, but my best friend since we were age 4.)
When raising kids I cannot agree more with the statement that the days are long, but the years are short. Nothing proved it to me better than sitting down with graduation announcements. I decided before sending them, that I would include a handwritten note telling each one how thankful I was for their involvement in our lives. It took me several days, but it allowed me to reminisce and appreciate each person. Quite honestly, I expected nothing in return. I sent several out of state to family and close friends and then to those we were inviting to the graduation party, I included an invitation. I felt it was long overdue. Something I wanted to do for a long time, but the ease of same day photo Christmas cards, or my late to the party New Years cards lol, I often skipped this step. I’m so glad I did it.
My graduation announcement looked more like what they call, I don’t know… A resume ?
?
FYI. That’s a joke. I think a nice, tasteful announcement is perfectly fine.