Free Printable Wedding Announcements

By Jennifer Wark

Using free printable wedding announcements to send to friends and family who cannot attend the ceremony can help you stay within your wedding budget. These announcements can be printed on a home printer for just the cost of paper and ink.

Finding Free Printable Wedding Announcements

There are many sites that offer free wedding announcements you can print at home. One of the important things to know about these sites is that the announcements are available in a variety of formats, some of which may require specific programs to open and use. Popular programs include word processors such as Microsoft Word, PDF readers like Adobe Acrobat or Mac Preview, and graphics programs such as MS Paint and Adobe Photoshop. If you don't have any of these programs, don't worry - there are also web-based options for creating your announcement.

Create your own printable announcement.

Web-Based Options

These options allow you to create your announcement entirely on the web, but may require free membership or a download to save and print your file.

MSN American Greetings: MSN's American Greetings site offers a "printables" section, which allows you to personalize and print your own wedding announcement. The site offers a free two week trial use of their web-based personalization program. Files can be saved to your computer or printed directly from the site itself.
Blue Mountain Greetings: This is another site which offers an online personalization program for printable wedding announcements. Blue Mountain has the option to create and print coordinated stationery suites including envelopes and inserts, so this is an excellent way to print out matching pieces. This site also has a free two week long trial which allows access to the printables creation software.

Word Processor Options

You can create your announcement in a word processing program using convenient templates. Designing announcements with word processing programs is easy, allowing even novice designers a straightforward way of editing a custom wedding announcement.

Southworth Company: The Southworth Company website offers a number of templates which can be altered using a word processing program such as Microsoft Word. For couples without a processing program, these templates also work with the free word processing program Open Office. The templates are downloaded and then altered using the word processing program.
WorldWin Extraordinary Papers: WorldWin offers several different templates for wedding stationery which are compatible with both PC and Mac versions of Microsoft Word. The templates come in a number of sizes and in both folded and unfolded versions.

PDF Options

These options are excellent for those with a little design knowledge, but can be difficult for novices to edit.

Hoover Web Design: Hoover Web Design is a private web design company based in Tennessee. Their website offers a number of free printable PDF templates, including a design for a wedding announcement. This site is a commercial site, but the design is simple and the instructions for printing easy to follow.
Design Betty: The Design Betty website is full of fresh, creative designs including wedding announcements. These templates come in a number of colors, styles, and sizes. They are personalized online or downloaded as a template, which can then be edited or filled in by hand.

Printing Your Own Announcements

Before deciding to print your own wedding announcements, consider the amount of time and effort you will need to put in to the project. The expenses of paper and home printing ink can mount up quickly, in addition to costs of postage and the time needed for the work, so make sure you plan your budget and schedule carefully.

Using free printable wedding announcements can be a way for budget-conscious couples to trim their wedding expenses. With many different companies offering a variety of options for web-based and program-based printing, it is easier than ever to make your own wedding announcements.