The project may sound daunting, but never fear, help is here. Wedding Thank You card etiquette is easy to follow and will be appreciated by all of your gift giving guests.
Contrary to popular belief, wedding Thank You card etiquette states you don't have a year to send thank you notes, but it's a really nice thing to do. It's best to send them within three months of your wedding day. You can use this to your advantage: Get them done while the guests and gifts are fresh in your mind.
There are two things you can do before the wedding to make sure you thank everyone appropriately and don't accidentally send a card to Uncle Elmer for Aunt Bea's handmade quilt.
First, have a friend or family member greet guests as they enter the reception, at the same time offering to bring any gifts that are carried in to a designated area. You can ask this person to keep an eye out for things such as loose cards with gifts. The greeter should be armed with tape to attach any cards to gifts that might get lost in the shuffle. This will save the possibility of confusion later.
Secondly, when opening gifts, have a designated note-taker, such as the maid of honor or best man, keep a list of each gift you open, and who gave it to you. Make copies of this list right away, or even better, type it into a word-processing program and save it on your computer. This will be your master list when writing thank you notes.
A few rules of wedding Thank You card etiquette:
- Guests made the effort to choose a personal gift for you, and they should receive a personal response, hand-written by either the bride or the groom and expressing thanks from both. A personalized (rather than pre-printed) note lets the guest know how much you appreciated the gift and their presence at your wedding.
- Don't forget to send thank you notes to friends and relatives who arranged bridal showers and couple parties.
- Remember thank yous for shower gifts. These should be sent within two weeks of the shower.
- Include your new return address on the envelope. Guests will be grateful for having your up-to-date address.
- When writing thank you notes, try to use the word "you" more than "I" or "we." It will convey a subtle gesture of appreciation.
- When receiving a gift by mail or delivery, write the thank you card right away, even if it's prior to the wedding. This will assure the guest that their gift made it to you safely.
- Send thank you notes to those who contributed their time, effort and thoughtful ideas to your wedding, as well as gifts.
