Yes. You do have to write thank you cards for your wedding.
While there are a lot of wedding traditions you can take or leave, thank you cards are about manners. Wedding guests go all out, gifting money and expensive presents – even if you’ve asked them not to!
A hand-written thank you card shows you appreciate what they’ve done to support you.
But hand-writing thank you cards doesn’t mean risking RSI. There are a few things you can do to make it easier on yourself – while still making the cards feel personal and appreciated.
- Thank you postcards give you plenty of space when you do have lots to write, to your wedding party and parents, for example, but don’t look weird with just a short message when you don’t.
- Plus, getting custom photo cards gives you a good excuse to send your thank yous out late…!
- But a lot of people will give gifts in advance, so there’s no reason you have to wait ’til after the wedding to start writing them.
- Doing it in short stints (five a night or so) will make it more bearable than trying to do a hundred at once.
- You can plan out a bunch of pre-written phrases and mix up what you put in each card. They’ll feel personal and thoughtful, even if you’ve written them in front of the TV.
- It might seem counter intuitive, but it’ll be quicker to copy and paste some phrases together on your laptop to work out what you want to say to each family, then copy that into the card by hand.
Copying out doesn’t take the same kind of brain power. (Why do you think Bart Simpson still hasn’t learned his lesson after all these years?)
Not sure what to write? We’ve put together wording examples
Thank them for coming
Start by thanking your guests for coming to your wedding. They’ve traveled, organised hotel rooms, and spent the day celebrating you. Thank them for making the effort for making your day special.
We’re so glad you could make it to our wedding. It was an incredible day made all the more incredible by getting to celebrate it with you.
The whole day was incredibly special to us, but it wouldn’t have felt as special without you there – thank you for coming.
Thank you for being there, on the day. You made it so, so special.
We’re so glad you could make it to our wedding. It was an awesome day made all the awesome-r by celebrating it with awesome people. It meant a lot to us that you came – even if we didn’t have much of a chance to see you!
Thank you for coming to our wedding! It wouldn’t have been as utterly incredible as it was without you there – not least because you pitched in to help us so much!
Get specific
If your guest got you a gift, contributed towards the wedding, or did anything to help on the day, thank them for that. If they gave you a money gift, mention what you spent it on – it’s nice to know it went to good use on a honeymoon or on something for your married home.
Thank you so, so much for your thoughtful and generous gift.
We wanted to thank you for your generous gift, too. It was a lovely – and much appreciated! – surprise, and we were able to treat ourselves to a special night out on our honeymoon with it.
Thank you for your generous gift, too. It was a lovely – and much appreciated! – surprise. We were able to treat ourselves to a special night out on our honeymoon with it – which was the best gift we could have gotten after 18 months’ planning!
We also wanted to thank you for helping towards the wedding. With the money you gave us, we were able to buy…
Thank you for the money you gave us towards the day. (We hope you think it was well spent!)
Get personal
If you want to write a longer message – thanking your wedding party for everything they did, for example – this is a good place. But you don’t have to write a completely personal message to every single person who came – you can skip straight to the wrap up for most people.
That’s all, folks
Wrap it up with another thank you and your love. (It’s about a wedding, after all!)
Thank you again.
Love…
Thank you again for such a generous gift – it was very kind of you, and we really appreciate it.
With lots and lots of love…
Thank you again for everything.
Love…
You guys are incredible. Thank you again.
Love…
No really, that’s all
So, now you have some wording to get you started, all you need is some gorgeous thank you cards (we can make a recommendation or two 😉) and something to binge on Netflix while you write them out!