Thank You Note Etiquette
Lucy Hamilton
Thanking the people who have attended your wedding or bought you a gift is a very important part of proper etiquette. It is impolite and even frowned upon to forget to send notes to guests to thank them for taking the time out of their schedules to attend your wedding. This is especially true if they gave you a gift for your wedding. Being certain that those who have been so kind to you are made to feel appreciated is an important part of the follow-up for any successful wedding.
The best time to send your Thank You notes out is within two weeks of returning from your honeymoon. This serves two purposes. It shows the gift giver that you appreciate their thoughts and gifts by thanking them in a timely manner. It also ensures that you do not forget to do it. The longer you let them go, the easier it is to make excuses not to do them. Forgetting to send Thank You notes to friends and family in a timely manner after your wedding can cause many problems in the future, so be sure to do this as soon as possible.
The exception to the two-week rule is if somebody sends you a gift before the wedding. If they are thoughtful enough to ship a gift to you and your soon-to-be spouse before the wedding, you should send them a Thank You note immediately. It will only take a minute to sit down and write a short Thank You message to this person and they will know that you appreciate their thought.
When filling out your Thank You notes, mention the gift that the person has given. If you open your gifts at the reception, it is a good idea to have a close family member next to you when opening the gifts so they can write down who gave what. This speeds along the process and keeps your guests from getting bored. If you open the gifts at home, be certain to keep some type of record of the gifts and who gave them. It is important to mention the gift in the Thank You note so the giver knows that you filled the cards out personally. It will give it that extra touch that will ensure that the giver does not feel slighted by an impersonal message.
For the gifts of money, it is bad etiquette to mention the amount in your Thank You. It is proper to mention that it was a gift of money, but mentioning the amount is not called for. Simply say that you and your spouse have put the money to good use in starting your new life. If you are ambitious, you can even say something specific that the money was used for, such as "Your gift of money was used to buy a new refrigerator for our new home." As long as your money was not blown on something foolish, the giver will feel that they have helped a new couple just starting out in life.
Thanking your wedding guests for coming to your wedding is a very important gesture that is greatly appreciated. People take time out of their busy lives to attend your ceremony and most of them even spend a lot of money to buy gifts for you and your new spouse. Thanking them is not only polite, it is also the right thing to do. Sending the notes as soon as you return from your honeymoon also prevents you from forgetting to make sure this important task gets done.
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