Wedding Thank You Cards Etiquette

So you’ve had your amazing wedding day and you’re settling into married life.  Usually the last thing left to do now is to send your Thank You cards to your guests.

It’s really important to do this as attending a wedding often costs your guests a lot of money with outfits, travel, accommodation and your wedding gift.  And let’s face it your day wouldn’t have been the day it was without your guests being there.  

So let’s look at the who, what, when………

When To Send Them

Traditional wedding etiquette states that you should send thank you cards within three months of your wedding.  The sooner the better I always say.

Writing them soon after your wedding will mean the memories of your day and your wedding gifts are really fresh.

But don’t worry if you’ve missed the three month window, it’s better to send them later than not at all.

Who To Send Them To

You could use your original guest list as a starting point to make a list of who you wish to thank.

Alternatively, you could use your wedding cards as a reminder of all your guests.  It’s definitely worthwhile recording who bought which gift as you’re opening them, especially if you didn’t have a gift list.

If you did have a gift list, that should provide the names of who bought what from your list.  But don’t forget the people who chose something else as a gift.

As a general rule, you should send thank you cards to:
·      All your wedding guests
·      All those who gave you a wedding gift (including money)
·      Everyone who helped you with the planning, including your wedding suppliers

How To Choose Your Cards

You could choose to match your thank you cards to your other wedding stationery.  Your stationer will, I’m sure, be happy to supply them for you.

Alternatively, a lot of couples choose to use a photograph from their day in the design. This then also makes a lovely momento of your day for your guests.

What To Include In The Card

A personalised message is definitely best, so thank them for their gift and also mention anything else which is relevant to them. So if a guest helped with something on the day, travelled a long way or you have a special memory of them doing something, then why not mention it.

You could have some generic wording printed inside and then add a personal message to it to save some time.

Don’t try to write them all at once, do them in batches and you’ll soon have them all ready to go.  Do make sure you post them all at once though.  You don’t want guests to think that you’ve forgotten them if they know someone else got theirs.

If a guest gave you money then don’t mention the amount they gave in your thank you.  But do thank them for the money and tell them what you did or are planning to do with the money.  Guests will want to know that you did something special with the money – not just paid your electricity bill or taxed your car!!

I hope this helps you to get your thank you cards sorted and posted with ease.  There’s lot more help and advice on my blog around planning your wedding.  

Louise