Save the Dates...not Announcements! (Oops!)

If money is tight, skip the announcements. Frankly, I thought announcements were for after-the-fact, if you had a very small wedding with family only, etc. I think including the photos are a nice thing, but also if you are trying to keep costs down AND manage stress, skip it. And to risk sounding awful, I don't keep the engagement/wedding photos personally unless they are very, very close friends or family. The rest go in the trash...

check out www.vistaprint.com. I got 100 save the date post cards for free!

You need to first figure out what your budget is. I do not know how much save the date magnets cost but with the cost of postage they may not be cost effective. The last one I received had two stamps so that adds almost a dollar to their cost. I do not use magnets on my fridge and with stainless appliances being so popular a lot of people do not. When I receive one I write the date on my calendar and throw it away. The internet is so popular and easy I would send e cards if you feel you need to announce the date, a photo can easily be used with these. They do not need to be professional photographs, find a nice setting and have a friend go with you to take the photos. I would figure out what is most important to you and spend your money there. Keep good records of what you spend because the budget can quickly get out of control. Cut where you can and spend on what is important to you. An example would be flowers, our church had a floor to ceiling stained glass window behind the alter, at other weddings I noticed the flowers got lost in all of the color. Instead of alter flowers I rented two very large ferns from my florist and they were beautiful. After that I noticed a lot of weddings at our church used them instead. Good luck with your plans and keep in mind, a good marriage is much more important than a good wedding.

A friend of mine is getting married next July as well, and she did a "save the date" magnet. She ordered them online and they came with the envelopes & labels. I think these worked out great, as I lose everything!
When the time comes to do the invitations, go ahead and include the baby in the picture. If you are hiring a professional photographer, they will usually let you choose 3 or 4 different shots. You can choose which invitations you want to send out with the baby in them, and if you want to send some with just the two of you, you can do that as well.

I think, instead of announcements, you mean save-the-date cards? Announcements are usually done to announce the marriage, not the engagement (if you have a lot of money, you could announce the engagement too, I guess, but it doesn't sound like that's the case). Save-the-date cards are cards that tell those you will be inviting when the wedding will be in advance. They are nice, especially if most people will be coming from out of town, but are otherwise unnecessary. If you do decide to do them, you don't need an engagement photo, but I think it would be a nice touch. And by all means, include the baby. It's not tacky - it's a family portrait. Good luck with your wedding!

Check out Shutterfly and Snapfish.com. I have purchased various items from these sites and the quality has been good. You download your own digital picture then you can apply the picture to all their products. One, if not both, of the sites have done magnets in the past. I know one did magnet sheets, where the whole picture was the magnet (not a magnet stuck to a picture) and I think they were pretty reasonable. Plus, I think you could have writing on the magnet as well, so you could put date information directly on the picture and magnet.

Do save the date postcards with your picture on them. Check out www.madisonjennifer.com, she does GREAT work and is reasonably priced.

I'm planning to be married in May 2011, so I'm kind of in your shoes too. If you want to send out announcements, and you're considering engagement photos, I'd say to go ahead with the photo with your baby in it. You are a family, after all, right? I don't see anything tacky about that. And personally, I'd consider doing a photo card, or photo post card as your announcement, rather than sending a photo with the announcement. That would save some money, especially if you went with the postcard, as they are cheaper to mail and don't require an envelope. Sure, it's a little informal, but if that's ok with you, then I'd go with it.

As for photographers, the prices can range so much. If you will be hiring a professional wedding photographer, some have packages that include an engagement session. But if you want to do the postcard announcement idea, I'd make sure that either they can make them for you, or as part of your package deal, you will have the copyright to your pictures, so that you can print them as you desire. Then, you could go to any photo website and design your own announcements (Shutterfly, Snapfish, etc.)

Wedding announcements are typically sent after the wedding, to let people know that you have gotten married, what name you will be using, your address, etc. Save-the-date cards are sent prior to wedding invitations, but are not necessary, if you don't want to or can't afford to send them.
Only you can determine how much is too much to spend, but in my opinion, I would save money on invitations and spend it on the reception.
If you want to include a photo I think that the place to do it is in an announcement, after the wedding.
Congrats on your engagement!

my cousin had professional pictures taken and had them turned into the invitations. it was very nice.

i would def do the pics with the annoucment in a more postcard type like a birth annoucment. people will actually keep that more than if it were just a card, and to send a card and photo seems like overkill. all the annoucments i see are simple and casual, like a one liner of save the date which would be great on a photo.

a real engagement package will cost a lot, but if you can find someone to take them on the beach or something and go online to snapfish, or even just go to picture people, you can write your date right on them and be done in one snap. it will actually be cheaper than getting annoucments and yet you still get the photo aspect.

i think though annoucements, unless you live in the hamptons, should be more casual, so this is def a place to SAVE money!!! unless you really want professional engagement pics, this is not something that will be "remembered" in the big picture. make a list of all expenses and put them in order of importance, like where does you dress or the flowers fit in your budget? something like annoucements or invitations are an easy place to save money (you could also do them yourself if you have a good printer but you still will pay for the paper and ink)

as for photos in the invitations themselves, i live in nj and we dont do that here, lol. seriously, the invitations usually have so many layers of papers in them like envelopes, directions, tissue paper(never understood that one), ect, a photo would just get lost in the shuffle. we do put wedding pics in the thanks yous though. good luck.