Choosing and Sending the Perfect Birth Announcement

If you are completely overwhelmed with new baby duties and really want a pretty commemoration of Baby's birth, you may just want to shell out the extra bucks to have an expert design and print your announcements. If you choose to use a professional printing company, all you have to do is pick out the cards and specify what you want printed on them.

On custom-printed announcements, you choose the design, font, ink colors, and layout. You can also typically ask to incorporate a baby photo into the card.

One plus of custom-printed cards (as with photo cards): You can either have all the cards sent to you or request that they are sent out to your address list. It typically takes these companies anywhere from one to six weeks to complete your order, so be sure to ask when your order will be ready—especially if you're in a rush.

Don't just randomly choose a printing company based on a blind Internet search. While there are many custom printing organizations online, not all of them are reliable. Ask your friends and family if they can recommend a dependable printing company. Even if they haven't sent out birth announcements before, they may have hired a printing company to send out wedding, shower, or birthday party invitations.