7 wedding thank you tips

After the flurry of wedding planning, the big day has finally come and gone. Now, all that’s left to do is send out thank you notes for all the gifts and help you received throughout your event. Having a plan of action can make this task a lot easier, so a few tips would be:

Order thank you cards
This is one of the more important parts of the whole process. Without thank you cards, sending notes to express your gratitude for various presents and assistance will be hard. Be sure to choose a design that matches the style of your wedding so everything is uniform.

Get comfy
Chances are you’ve received close to a hundred or more gifts from family and loved ones, so this project is going to take a while. The best thing you can do is find a cozy place to sit where you can put on a movie and get to work.

Make note of the gifts
You don’t want to send out generic thank you notes. People like to know they are appreciated, so make a list while you open packages of who gave what item. This way, when you’re writing your cards, you can specifically mention the gift the person gave you. If you received money, The Knot suggests mentioning how you plan to use the extra money in the future, such as saving for a new house or a honeymoon.

Space out the task
Don’t give yourself a hand cramp. You’re not going to be able to get all the letters done at once, and it’s probably better that you don’t try. If you do attempt to complete all thank yous in one sitting, the cards at the end may become bland and short. Your guests deserve a thoughtful thank you for their contributions, which is only possible if you take your time. Try dividing the list into five or six sections and do that number of thank yous each day.

Limit the message
You have over a hundred notes to write so save yourself some time and limit the amount of words you write to each person. Martha Stewart Weddings suggests keeping the sentence count to four or five. This is just enough lines to express your gratitude, mention the gift and say how you plan to use it. If you had someone drive exceptionally far or fly in, be sure to mention that you appreciate the effort they made to attend your special day, as well.

Create labels
Creating address labels will save your hand some extra work. Hopefully you kept the list that contained everyone’s names and addresses from the wedding invites because it will be handy for your thank yous as well. Put the information into an excel spreadsheet if it’s not already there and then use Word to create printable labels. This will save you a lot of time and hand pain because all you have to do is peel off the label and place it on an envelope.

Give yourself a deadline
It’s easy to get caught up in married life after your big day and forget about the thank you cards. Don’t be an unappreciative couple – get those notes done and sent out. The best way to do this is to set yourself a hard deadline. Mark it on your wall calendar and in your phone so you can remember. If this doesn’t work and it’s been more than a couple months since the wedding, still send the card. Better late than never, as they say, so show that you care no matter what.