Thank You Cards: the Details

Your wedding. You thought the day would never come, that the rollercoaster of parties and planning would never end. But, now your wedding is over and you’ve come back from the honeymoon, it’s time to express your gratitude and appreciation for your guests’ and for their wonderful wedding gifts. You may think that the task seems daunting, especially if you’ve had a large wedding, but it is a necessary step. Plus, the experience of reflecting on the gifts – both material and spiritual – that your family and friends have given you is a wonderful way to bring your wedding adventure to an end.

Thank you cards don’t have to be novels, but each card should convey your sincere gratitude for their generous gifts and attendance at your wedding.

Here are a few pieces of advice that can help make the process of writing and mailing thank you cards a lot less stressful:

1. Make sure that you have everyone’s correct mailing address. Some people may have moved since you sent your initial wedding invitations. An easy method to ensure that you have everyone’s correct mailing address is to set up a simple box to the side during the wedding dinner (with pens and individual sized papers). Ask your master of ceremonies to inform guests to write down their name and mailing address and place it in box if they have moved since you sent your wedding invitations. This gesture will be welcomed and appreciated by your guests as it shows that you genuinely appreciate their support of your wedding.

2. At your gift opening, appoint someone to be responsible for writing a log of who has given each gift. This is not something you should do yourself, nor is it something that you should count on yourself to remember.

3. Once you have a log of all the gifts you have received, put that information into an Excel spreadsheet. Excel is extremely useful and can help simplify many tasks. An Excel spreadsheet containing the contact information of your guests should be maintained throughout the entire wedding planning process. By keeping an organized list of your guests, you can easily keep track of their contact information, current mailing address, RSVP, and the gift they gave you (this is essential as you can then mention how useful or how much you love their gift in your thank you cards and address their gift specifically).

4. Many times, guests that won’t be able to attend your wedding will still send you a gift to show their joy and support for you and your big day. It’s important to remember to thank these guests as well.

Once again, thank you cards don’t have to be too long. They just need to contain a few sincere and simple words that will express how grateful you are. The card should address the person or people that gave you the gift, mention the specific gift that they gave you, and perhaps how useful the gift is to you.