How to Write Your Wedding Thank-You Notes

The wedding is over and you and your new spouse have happily unwrapped all of those great gifts from your wedding registry. Now it is time to send a thank you and make sure that you remember those fabulous people that generously sent you off into wedded bliss with a present.

Can I send an e-card? These are much more informal and but etiquette is changing and a lovely thank you e-card is widely accepted by many younger and/or more tech-friendly friends. However, older or more traditional and conservative relatives and friends will still need a hand-written note.

Things You'll Need

• A wedding guest or person to thank for their wedding gift to you.
• You do not need to use fancy, expensive thank-you cards. No one remembers what the thank you card looks like but they do remember if they don't get one. If you were able to negotiate thank you cards

Instructions

1. The salutation - This would be how you address the person inside the card or note. Because weddings are a personal occasion, "Dear..." is always appropriate. More formal salutations such as "For" and "To" will likely seem a bit too stiff here.

2. Thank them for the gift. Whatever it is, make sure you include the thank you AND what you are thanking them for. "Thank you for the lovely vase".

3. The how did they impact you part-People love knowing that their gift is special to you. Acknowledge their gift and something about how you plan on using it. For example: "Thank you for the great gift card. We are really excited to go out and get ourselves that treat I was telling you about". Or, "Thank you so much for the great crock-pot. We really are looking forward to exploring recipes together." That's the basic idea.

4. Mention something personal that you have in common with the gift-giver. You could thank them for making the trip to the wedding, making the great toast or even mention that you heard they were making some other guests laugh up a storm. Something to show that you are thinking of them outside of the gift that they gave you. One line should be plenty.

5. The close-"Sincerely", "love", "See ya soon", just include something nice to sign off with.

Tips & Warnings

• Ideally you want to send your thank you cards as soon as possible and etiquette rules give you two months to get them out. Some couples take their gift list and split the duty in half over a nice bottle of wine one evening. The rule is, just get them done. Guests and well-wishers have a year to send a gift. They usually will remind you if you take that long for the thank you.