first birthday announcements - not party invites - wording?
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Anonymous
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I want to send out announcements, not birthday party invitations, and not sure what wording to use.
Can anyone make a suggestion? BettySue is turning 1! BettySue will be 1 this October. Ugh, I'm not inspired. |
Anonymous
| Why are you sending announcements for a birthday? Sounds like a gift request if I ever heard of one. Maybe you should just wait for the Christmas card to announce to the world that your child is 1. |
Anonymous
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Eek, I didn't think of that.
(OP here.) I was thinking of people that we are not inviting to the little party, who live out of town. I don't think the message, 'no gifts please,' would apply to an announcement, but I wonder if there is something else I could write in. |
Anonymous
| I don't get this, either. Why do you feel you need to send an announcement for a birthday? The people close to you will already know. The others probably don't care. Can't imagine why you'd need/want to do this - but I'm happy to hear context if there's something I'm missing (e.g. you just adopted this child and this is a combination birth/adoption announcement). |
Anonymous
| I really don't think it's necessary to send out an announcement that your child is turning 1. Birth announcements are one thing, but bday announcements will make people feel like you're asking for gifts. And most people don't expect to be invited to a 1-year old's bday party, especially if they live out of town. I wouldn't bother with these if I were you. A holiday card is a more appropriate place to mention that you child turned one during the last year. |
Anonymous
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If they know you had the baby a year ago, they know the baby must be turning one sometime soon. Making any sort of public announcement (seems like a press release) does seem like a gift grab.
Lots of people post this sort of thing on facebook (wow, can't believe baby is 1!), which prompts congratulations. Or you can call/email people and include it as a subject of conversation. Or why not email a photo of the birthday girl (doesn't have to be from the party) to interested friends and relatives? |
Anonymous
| If you're only talking a handful of people, I would probably just wait until after the party, and then send a handwritten card updating (briefly) about your family's life and include a picture of DC from the party. I think anything sent out prior to the party would come across wrong. |
Anonymous
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why do you want to announce the first birthday?
didn't you announce the birth itself? |
Anonymous
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OP here.
I did send an announcement, and I plan to send an announcement for DD's birthday. Since DD was born, my grandmother passed away suddenly and and mother passed away after a long illness. There has been such an outpouring of love and regular questions about DD (probably with the hidden agenda of checking in on me) that I thought sending an announcement would be a nice thing to share with those people. I guess some people do this sort of thing via email, but that won't work for me and for this group of people. I mainly want to share a cute picture of her, not troll for gifts. I know I could do the same at Christmas, but that's far enough away Well, it sounds like there aren't too many like-minded new moms on DCUM. So thanks for your help, anyway. |
Anonymous
OP, I think I understand what you are saying but I'd vote that you send out a one-year-old pic of your DD via a less formal method - like email. We did that with our son, and now with our daughter...send out a few pictures of her to family and close friends at one month, six months, etc. My SIL would send them out during her DD's first year at times that correlated with ped appts: Suzy just turned one! The doc said she continues to grow well...weighs XX now, etc. Sending out formal "announcements" in the mail just sounds strange (and yes, like you are fishing for gifts) but then again, you know the people in your circle best. |
Anonymous
| If there has been such an "outpouring of love and support" for you then the best way is to reciprocate and take the time to write a nice card enclosing a picture of your DD. Sending a printed announcement makes it look like a gift grab. And if we're not "like-minded" by pointing this out to you so be it. |
Anonymous
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I think the idea of just sending a photo to those select people AFTER her birthday is a good idea.
Then you can say "XX is now 1!" or something like that, and also add any other news you have to share. But an actual birthday announcement definitely sounds off-putting to me if it's not for a party, rather odd actually. If it's part of a general letter to folks, fine. I totally understand why you're feeling like sharing your celebration of this milestone, but an "announcement" definitely seems like you're asking for gifts, and I think people would feel obligated to send something, and uncomfortable if they didn't. Like an announcement sort of expects it, versus just news. |
Anonymous
I don't want to be mean, but this is just weird to me. I've never received a first birthday "announcement." If these out-of-town people are relatives or close friends, they'll know DC is turning one. If they're not that close, they're going to think it's weird. Also, I know this is not your intention, but I would interpret it as a gift request. And I'm not typically a cynical person. My advice: skip it. |
Anonymous
| You could just mail out pictures with a note written on the back of the photo to each person...a bit more work, but you can just have a generic line. |
Anonymous
PP here. My mother used to send out our pictures every birthday or school year. I don't think its weird at all. |