So did you REALLY get married?

[apeman33]

Our latest new policy (not that it would affect sports often ):

We must now ask either the groom(-to-be), bride-(to-be), or one of the parents of, an engaged/married couple if they actually got engaged/married. Why? Because some woman brought in a fake engagement announcement to our sister paper a couple of months ago.

This is the somewhat logical followup to our policy that all obituaries/death notices must come directly from a funeral home, which was created after someone submitted a fake obituary to a different sister paper in order to try and get out of paying some sort of debt.

This led to the managing editor's end of a phone call today: "I have to ask you two questions, one of which is going to sound really dumb. It doesn't say when the wedding took place ... OK, then, and now I have to ask you if you're actually married ... Well, I said it would sound really dumb."

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

If someone would go to the trouble to bring in a fake engagement announcement, what would stop them from just lying about it when you call to ask them?

 

[LongTimeListener]

If someone would go to the trouble to bring in a fake engagement announcement, what would stop them from just lying about it when you call to ask them?

That's exactly what I was thinking.

If this is really a problem, the paper should include a "county of license" line on the form and then check it in whatever timeframe each county uses to post the record. Those announcements aren't all that time-sensitive anyway.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

It was only a matter of time...

One paper I worked at would get fake obits faxed in pretty regularly.

 

[HejiraHenry]

It was only a matter of time...

One paper I worked at would get fake obits faxed in pretty regularly.

Which is why we only take obits - and, most importantly, obit corrections - from funeral homes.

 

[apeman33]

If someone would go to the trouble to bring in a fake engagement announcement, what would stop them from just lying about it when you call to ask them?

Actually, now that I think about it, the policy should probably be that you have to at least contact both the bride and the groom.

The incident that caused the policy to be created resulted from the fact that the guy who was named in the fake engagement announcement came into the office looking for some skulls to crack. I can't remember what the woman's motivation for placing the fake announcement was, though.

 

[LongTimeListener]

If someone would go to the trouble to bring in a fake engagement announcement, what would stop them from just lying about it when you call to ask them?

Actually, now that I think about it, the policy should probably be that you have to at least contact both the bride and the groom.

The incident that caused the policy to be created resulted from the fact that the guy who was named in the fake engagement announcement came into the office looking for some skulls to crack. I can't remember what the woman's motivation for placing the fake announcement was, though.

She wasn't good at saying no, so it was her way of telling him she didn't want to have sex.

 

[pressboxer]

Many years ago at another paper, there was a big to do over a birth announcement. Seems the couple wasn't married and the alleged paternal grandmother was insistent that her son was NOT the father of the child. I never heard the outcome of the situation, but it was just another example of why life in (extremely) small towns isn't always idyllic.

 

[Versatile]

I never got marriage announcements. I thought whoever would have a burning desire to know that I had gotten married would've been invited to the ceremony. No need to announce it to the world*.

* -- Unless your spouse is really good-looking and you wanted to brag. ;D

Well, we don't all plan to get married six or seven times.

 

[93Devil]

It was only a matter of time...

One paper I worked at would get fake obits faxed in pretty regularly.

Hi. I would like to report an death. The name of the deceased is Tom Sawyer.

My name? Ummmmm...... Tommy Sawyer.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Let the record show that when I got married in 1982, the "Times" called me at work to verify the details of our wedding annoucement.

 

[Brian]

I always feel like a creep for having to tell an elderly woman who brings in her husband's hand-written obit that we need it to be emailed or faxed ("Why don't you just send it over on a dinosaur?") from the funeral home. But people are pretty understanding when we explain the horror stories.

 

[BillyT]

If someone would go to the trouble to bring in a fake engagement announcement, what would stop them from just lying about it when you call to ask them?

You look up the number for the people in the picture and call them.

 

[Double J]

If someone would go to the trouble to bring in a fake engagement announcement, what would stop them from just lying about it when you call to ask them?

You look up the number for the people in the picture and call them.

"May I speak to Mr. Jablome, please? First name Heywood."

 

[BillyT]

If someone would go to the trouble to bring in a fake engagement announcement, what would stop them from just lying about it when you call to ask them?

You look up the number for the people in the picture and call them.

"May I speak to Mr. Jablome, please? First name Heywood."

Game over.

 

[ColdCat]

or you just require that one member of the staff be invited for the wedding announcement to run, cuz hey, free food

 

[ZummoSports]

or you just require that one member of the staff be invited for the wedding announcement to run, cuz hey, free food

That's fine as long as they don't expect you to bring a gift.

 

[T&C]

Many years ago a daily in our city ran an engagement announcement about a former resident who had moved to the Cayman Islands for reasons unknown who was supposeldy marrying the daughter of the head of some African nation. His friend?? who gave the announcement to the paper got the photo of the princess out of National Geographic. The paper did check with the guy who assured the person calling that he had been asked by his friend in the Caymans to place the announcement on his behalf. It ran right at the top of the Saturday page full of wedding and engagement announcements. Needless to say it generated plenty of calls as the guy in the Caymans was just the type who would have got engaged to someone he didn't know very long and not tell his friends.

 

[farmerjerome]

They really didn't have to check when Dr. J and I got married. Half the newsroom was in attendance at the reception when the disco ball caught on fire and the other half heard it when it went over the police scanner.

Verified.

 

[outofplace]

I never got marriage announcements. I thought whoever would have a burning desire to know that I had gotten married would've been invited to the ceremony. No need to announce it to the world*.

* -- Unless your spouse is really good-looking and you wanted to brag. ;D

Well, we don't all plan to get married six or seven times.

Well played. To give a more serious answer, I think it is more of a thing for the parents, so they can brag about their kids getting married. I didn't even realize there had been a marriage announcement for my wife and I until somebody mentioned it the day of the wedding.