My brother-in-law is from a small town in upstate Wisconsin, where the population numbers in the thousands. I had always heard about this small town from my sister, who would describe the kindness of the people and its cute downtown. After years of hearing about Merrill, WI, I finally got the chance to see it for myself, and it was, of all honesty, a great town. My brother-in-law and his family have always been such kind people, so I was not surprised at the kind feeling of the town. I traveled up there a few weekends ago for the bridal shower of my brother-in-law’s sister (or my sister’s sister-in-law, which ever is the correct term), at their parent’s home. I arrived a little on the late side, but upon my arrival, I realized the large crowd of people at the gathering. It was packed in the living room! And as I traveled around after the presents had been opened, I saw their wedding announcement hung on the refrigerator. It was a big announcement, cut from the local paper.I ventured to that website of the local paper, thinking of this question of wedding announcements, and upon arrival to the home page, found a link at the top of the page to announcements, as well as that of engagement and wedding forms to fill out and send to the paper. I think in smaller towns, much like that of Merrill, WI, wedding announcements are such a huge part of their paper because of the close-knit community. It’s interesting, then, to go to a southern newspaper in Milwaukee in Wisconsin an realize it is harder to find wedding announcements, as well the form to will out wedding announcements. When a member of a smaller community (or their child) gets engaged and married, the people like to share in the celebration of this event and the happiness of the couple. It was done in a similar manner in my hometown, a little larger than that of Merrill, but still a place where people like to hear the news of community members and friends and share in the celebration.

News Source: http://www.merrillcourier.net/index.html

http://hinsdale.suntimes.com/

http://search.jsonline.com/Search.aspx?k=wedding&s.x=26&s.y=13