Wedding Blog
While Mr. Canary and I are listlessly waiting for our honeymoon trip and professional photos, we have decided to get one final wedding task out of the way… writing thank you notes. Normally, I am a very prompt thank you note writer, but in the afterglow of the wedding, it just seems so daunting. Although by Emily Post standards, we have a year… I just hate having things looming.
To make it easier, I decided to pre-write a few “phrases” so if we should need the “inspiration,” it’ll be right there. Plus, no one is going to compare notes, so I’m not worried about two people getting the same thing! And now I can share the fruits of my labor with the hive so that thank you note writing won’t be such a chore.
CASH
Dear ___________,
Thank you so much for your generous gift. We are saving for [our dream honeymoon/additions to our/down payment for a new home] and thanks to you; we’ll be [traveling to_____/sprucing up our apartment/purchasing a house] very soon. Again, many thanks for thinking of us and for sharing our special day.
Love,
Mr. and Mrs. Canary
REGISTRY
Dear ___________,
Thank you so much for the ______________. We are looking forward to your next visit, when we can make use of [it/them] and enjoy [a drink/dinner/a meal together]. Many thanks for thinking of us and for sharing our special day.
Love,
Mr. and Mrs. Canary
MISCELLANEOUS GIFTS
Dear ___________,
Thank you for the _____________. You are both so thoughtful! Every time we [look at/use it,] we will think of you and this special time in our lives. Again, many thanks for sharing our joy.
Love,
Mr. and Mrs. Canary
Mr. Canary and I are hoping to complete at least five notes a night… which means we should be done right before we head off on our honeymoon!
How long after the wedding did it take you to get your thank you notes out?
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Share this post: Gratitude… in True Form
Doesn’t get much easier than that! thanks for sharing your ideas Canary!! I know I will be on top of my thank yous… I was MOH in a wedding last year, spent $$ on showers, bachelorette party, gift, etc… and never even a word or note of thanks. Even my parents and sisters who attended the wedding never got a thank you. SO that is all the convincing I need to be on top of my own thank yous!!
i love the idea of cards, but i’m terrible at writing anything meaningful because i never know what to say. thanks for your tips! i will be saving this entry on my google reader. =)
This is a brilliant idea with your pre-written notes, I totally wish I had done something like that. It took me about 3 days to complete my thank you notes. Of course it wasn’t a full 3 days but hours at a time in the course of 3 days. Had I pre-written my notes like you, I probably would have gotten them done in a day maybe two! Awesome ideas, I will be passing that one on.
Yay, comes in handy. I just got married this past Sunday!! I feel the happiest person in the world to not only marrying my husband, but be surrounded by the friendship and love from my family and friends.
Umm…I hesitate to even post from the shame, but I am still doing thank you notes 5 months out. I keep reminding myself that I’m okay according to etiquette, but….
I have been staggering them out, 12 here, 12 there. It’s just so….tedious. I am VERY grateful and appreciative, but somehow it’s difficult to sit down and come up with something personal and creative for each and every person, but I have admonished myself that they will get done within the next month while I am in between semesters. Honestly.
Thank your for your diligence! Let me just tell you that in the last FIVE weddings I have attended, I have not received a single thank-you note. As an unmarried person, I feel that a year is too long to receive a note of thanks…However, maybe I’ll end up eating those words one day. As a one who has spent $$$ on gifts/showers/parties, a very simple acknowledgement goes a loooong way! I am sure your guests will very much appreciate your timely thank-yous!
We got married at the end of May and we *just* sent out our thank you notes yesterday. We wanted to get them out sooner, but we’re just slow and we wanted to send some people pictures with their thank yous.
I’m glad you’re getting on with the thank you notes! It’s hard to imagine that after the time and money people spend to give such generous gifts at weddings, that any couple would fail to send out a thank you. It just blows my mind that people somehow think that pushing aside writing thank yous is acceptable, it’s not.
I, for one, think twice about a person’s character when it takes them half a year to write a 3 sentence acknowledgment of my gift and put a stamp on an envelope. People plan entire weddings in the time it takes some couples to get thank yous out. Get on it ladies! People notice when they don’t get thank yous!!!
*steps off soapbox*
We were married on May 31 and I have half of our notes done. Hope to get the rest of them done within the next week or so. I used a similar prewritten format similar to Mrs. Canary and it’s been working really well. Great post!
It’s actually a misconception that there’s a year to write thank you notes after a wedding. Guests have a year to send a gift. The happy couple has 3 months to write the thank you notes. This is what Emily Post’s website says: http://www.emilypost.com/weddings/etiquette/postings/wedding_thankyous.htm
It does point out that even if you don’t make the three month mark, sending a note late is better than nothing.
Just write what you can. This has been my MO in writing my shower thank you’s–I write about what is awesome about their gift (which helps) along with a stable of adjectives (i.e. lovely, fabulous, generous, you get the idea) and then said how lovely it was to see them at the shower. It made the process quite fast…
I plan on making/buying some REALLY cut cards so that I am extra motivated to send them out 
I learned this as a kid:
The bread-and-butter thank you note. Doesn’t get easier!!
Dear ___
Thank you for the ___
[Insert comment about the gift, e.g., "it is so ___!"]
Thanks again (reiterate the thank you in some way)
Sign off
I have a confession…I wrote our thank you notes on the airplane on the way back from our honeymoon. Every. Single. One.
But seriously…it is just because I have issues 
We got married on June 21st and we’re almost done with our thank you notes! I thought the rule of thumb was a six month window after the occasion (I have certainly received a few thank you notes at the four and five month marks). I’m glad to learn that I’m not too late!
Our timing would have been earlier, but DH decided that he’d like to do the thank you notes (I did all the other ones for the showers) but due to his career, never found the time (he’s military). So I grabbed them from him at the beginning of this month and started to tackle them!
Argh! What a timely post, haha. We’re almost 4 months out and so far have only sent TY notes to close family. I always feel like I have to write more than a few lines, and include a life update, which makes it a much more daunting project than necessary, especially since life has thrown us some big challenges since the wedding - but thanks for the reminder that a short note can say everything you need to say!
It took us just under a month to get the majority of them done. Our goal was to do at least 4 each evening, which is quite do-able. Some evenings we got inspired and did 6 or 8 (record was 10) and then gave ourselves a day off. Interestingly enough, at just over a month after the wedding, we seem to be getting a late wave of gifts and cards, so we are writing thank you notes again.
And really - share the work! I wrote probably the first dozen (all before the wedding) but after that, I told DH that he needed to take responsibility for the notes to his family and friends. We would each write a note, read the other’s note, and both sign. It resulted in some very cute and creative note-writing, as it just makes sense that two heads are better than one.
Thanks! I’m currently writing thank you notes and your suggestions helped!
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Mrs. Canary, New York
Age and Occupation: 24, Marketing
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Journalist/Editor
Engagement Date: February 16, 2007
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: October 19, 2007
Venue: Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers
About Me: I'm a born and raised New Yorker who loves all things crafty and artsy, food (cheese and dessert!), magazines, and shoes. I'm a power shopper always on the lookout for good deals or great quality-- sometimes I'm lucky and I find both! I love to dance and "shake what my momma gave me" but can also really enjoy a quiet night in with Mr. Canary and a good episode of Seinfeld or curl up with a good book.
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