NY Times Will Accept Paid Wedding Announcements

For years, getting your wedding announcement in the NY Times was a signifier of social and class status. Each couple's family could be counted on to have several doctors, lawyers, Vanderbilts or Rothschilds in it, and sometimes all four. Since the Times never accepted paid advertising for the section, but rather chose each couple from a large pool of applicants, competition for such an appearance grew fierce. In recent months, the selection process appeared slightly more random. Sure, wealthy families were often chosen for longer writeups, but teachers, gardeners and other middle-class couples started being included as well.

On Friday, the Times announced that it would start publishing paid announcements of engagements, weddings, anniversaries, and partnerships within its weekly Sunday Styles section. They don't say whether this will decrease the number of pages devoted to editorial coverage of weddings, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. "We are pleased to offer a guarantee that your big day will be mentioned in The New York Times," said Jyll Holzman, senior vice president of advertising, in a statement.