Wedding Thank-You Card Tips

Now that your wedding and honeymoon are over, what else is there to do?  Open gifts and send out your thank you cards!  This may take some time so be patient and work out a system with your spouse.  Here are a few tips on etiquette, and how to save time and money:

 Hand-written thank-you’s: These are a must! It may be tempting to type up a universal message and send it out but some guests may find it offensive. Your guests spent the time and money on a gift for you, so take the time to hand write a thank-you card highlighting the gift you received.

Inexpensive cards: Your local dollar store always has wedding thank you’s.  However, if you prefer fancier patterns, stores such as Target carry plenty of different selections.

Did you purchase custom invitations from a vendor?  If so, ask your vendor, that provided the invites, if you can get matching thank-you’s for a reduced price.  Many vendors provide this option but don’t offer it unless you ask!

Start early: It’s very helpful to start recording the gifts (what the gift was, who it came from, and the address of the sender) as soon as the gifts start coming in.  If guests can’t make it to the wedding, they sometimes choose to send a gift before the ceremony. Recent wedding etiquette suggestions advise that you to start sending out thank-you’s two weeks within receiving the gift, if it was before the wedding, and within one month if the gift was received at or after the wedding.

Take turns: Between you and your spouse, take turns on who opens the gifts and who records the information.  It’s always smart to write thank-you’s to your wedding pastor/officiate and parents first.  Next, thank the wedding party, then the vendors and finally the guests.  It is not required that you send thank-you’s to the guests who did not provide a gift but if you decide to do so, thank them for joining in the celebration uniting you and your spouse, and hope that they had a wonderful time.