The ManicaPost
Technology has done wonders for wedding planning from seamless budget tracking to super-easy ways to share inspiration with your vendors. But not everything is better when technology is involved. Is it ever okay to send a wedding thank-you email instead of heading to the post office? Here’s what our experts have to say.
There are some wedding details that are best left “old school,” and your wedding correspondence is one of them. Just like your save-the- dates and invitations, thank-you notes are an essential part of how you communicate with your guests, and handwritten notes are still the way to go sorry, speed-texters and tech addicts!
While weddings themselves might not be the traditional affairs they once were, wedding thank-you notes are timelessly thoughtful, classy, and just as meaningful as ever. At a bare minimum, a wedding thank you acknowledges that you received a gift or kindness, and reflects the time and thought that went into giving it with some corresponding effort of its own. That all by itself is important. But at their best, wedding thank-you notes can remind a friend or loved one how much they mean to you and thank them, not only for adding to your big day, but for being part of your life. And that’s more than important, it’s essential. It’s taking good care of the people who mean the most. After your Wedding send your thank you messages to your close friends and family for being a special part of that celebration.
Got a big stack of wedding thank-you notes to write? Congratulations, newly-wed! It means you’ve got a lot of people who care about you. It’s a good problem to have. Getting started can be daunting, but don’t sweat it. The honeymoon doesn’t have to end just because you have your note-writing work cut out for you.
Prep and Planning
Stock Up Ideally, you’ve settled on stationery for your thank-you notes and kept track of addresses after sending wedding invitations. You’ll also need a supply of stamps and a self-address ink stamper or labels might just become your new best friend.
Order Cards with Your Invitations
The quickest way to get your thank-you notes done is to get a head start, and the best way to do that is to be prepared. When you’re ordering your invitation suite, add matching thank-you cards to your order (along with envelopes!) and set them aside so you’re ready as soon as gifts come in. If you’re eyeing a more personal design that features a photo of the two of you, use one from your engagement session instead of your wedding so you can get those cards ordered in advance. To save even more time when you’re writing, order envelopes that are printed with your return address, or purchase an address stamp.
And don’t forget to buy a bunch of first class stamps!
Start Writing Early—Instead of saving all of those cards for your honeymoon flight, spread the writing out to give your poor fingers a break. As soon as you get a wedding gift, write down who it is from and what you received, and immediately write a thank you card and put it in the mail. Writing a card or two at a time means you won’t have a pile to deal with after your wedding is overand it will help you keep track of who you have and haven’t thanked. And hey, there are far better things to be doing on your honeymoon than writing thank you cards!
Follow a Formula
Don’t pressure yourselves to write a unique message for every single guest they won’t be reading anyone’s thank-you card but their own! Instead, work with a tried and true formula to keep things moving along. Start by thanking the guest for their gift (and specifically mentioning what they gave you!). Add a line about how you plan to use it, especially if the gift was money instead of an item. Conclude by either expressing how excited you are to celebrate with them (if your wedding hasn’t happened yet) or by thanking them for coming to your wedding and mentioning a fun moment you got to share with them.
Time It Right —It’s good etiquette to send wedding shower thank-you notes within two weeks of the shower, and wedding thank-you notes within three months of the wedding. Aim for those time windows, but remember, late is always better than never. Divide & Conquer Split up the thank you writing over multiple days, and also divvy it up between the two of you. It probably makes sense for each partner to write mainly to his or her friends and family, but you could also split the writing work purely 50/50. Or, if you want to up the team-spirit factor even more, you could both write a little something in every thank-you note.
Thank You for Wedding Gift
A good general plan for a wedding gift thank you is to 1) acknowledge the gift, 2) elaborate on why you like it or how you’ll use it, 3) compliment the giver and make a personal connection, and 4) say thanks again.
Thank You For Attending the Wedding
Sometimes a guest’s presence is the wedding present, and that’s worth a thank you, especially when they’ve travelled or made a special effort to be there for you.
Thank You For Helping Make the Wedding Day Amazing.
These wedding thank-notes might go to friends or family who helped manage the little glitches and big moments of the day, or to the photographer, stylist, or other wedding pro went above and beyond for you.
Examples of Thank you messages
Thank You to Parent(s)
“Thanks, Mom/Dad.” You’ve probably said it to them in person already, but for an occasion this special, it’s worth putting in writing, too.
We would like to thank our friends and family for sharing in our joy and happiness on this day. We are thankful for each of you who have travelled near and far to celebrate with us today. Thank you so much for helping us make our special day even more special with your presence and generous gift.
