Optional list invitations must be sent very promptly, no later than four weeks before the wedding. Typically, news of an engagement is spread by word of mouth, but you may want to send engagement announcements to more distant friends and family. Although these are typically not printed announcements, it doesn't hurt if they coordinate with your stationery. You may want to have an announcement published in your hometown newspaper. Most newspapers publish engagement and wedding announcements on a weekly basis.
Some papers offer a free, basic announcement as well as larger, paid announcements.
The invitations shape your guests' first impressions and will begin to set a mood for your wedding, whether traditional or contemporary, formal or informal. Formal invitations are typically engraved. The print is pressed into the paper and ink is flowed over it. If you look at the back of an engraved invitation, there will be indentations on the back. More common today is thermography.