Newspaper Wedding Announcement Photos

Many couples send wedding announcements to local newspapers after the wedding. (Some submit announcements to multiple papers. The record for one of our couples - that we're aware of, at least - is twelve. Since every paper has different submission guidelines and editorial guidelines, we thought we'd discuss a few of the considerations.

Almost all newspapers allow you to submit photos online by uploading a hi-res jpeg. The problem is the same image may not work as well for different papers. Some prefer portrait images (say, 4 x 5 or 2 x 3) while others request relatively square images (4 x 4 or 3 x 3 is most common). And a few prefer landscape images. To make it more complicated, the New York Times requests portrait images for the announcement itself, but if they feature your wedding in their online section, they also request a landscape photo that's 3 x 6 or 2 x 5. Typically that photo is more of an "action" photo than a headshot; often whether or not your wedding is chosen to be featured is partially based on the quality of the additional photo.

The problem is the same image may not work well depending on the relative size requirements. For example, here's a landscape image.


And here's the same image, but cropped as a square.

From a newspaper point of view, the square image is stronger. If a landscape image was requested, we'd definitely crop the horizontal image differently, even though as is it looks great in an album or a frame. (How you'll display a photo makes a big difference in how it should be cropped.)

On a side note, the New York Times also has pretty specific photo specifications, at least as compared to most papers. Here's an excerpt:

"Couples posing for pictures should arrange themselves with their eyebrows on exactly the same level and with their heads fairly close together. Couple pictures should be printed in a horizontal format.

"Our policy on photographs has changed. While we continue to include formal portraits of couples and individual brides, we also include full-length images of brides in wedding dresses, as well as informal photographs of individuals or couples at home, outdoors or in other attractive settings. Those posing for pictures should be neatly dressed, and the images should be of professional quality."

So, while this is a great photo, the Times would be unlikely to use it due to their "eyebrow level" policy.

The bottom line? Tell us the guidelines of the papers you'll be submitting to, and we'll make sure your images look great while also meeting their expectations.