The wedding is over, and you’re ready to relax and enjoy married bliss. You will have a chance to relax, but first, you must send out thank-you cards. Thank-you cards aren’t as daunting as you may think. We’ve broken down wedding thank-you card wording so you can conveniently write up personal notes for your guests and gift-givers.

Use this guide to writing wedding thank you cards to ensure it runs smoothly so you can spend more time enjoying married life and less time stressing over thank you cards.

Key Takeaways:

• Name each gift giver individually on thank you cards
• Personalize thank-you cards by specifying the gift
• Add personal notes about the gift giver

When Should You Send Thank-You Cards?

You send thank-you cards to people who attended your wedding and people who sent gifts. Sometimes, these two groups overlap.

Wedding gifts will come trickling in not long after you announce your engagement. So, you should have thank-you cards ready. You want to send thank-you cards no later than two weeks after receiving a gift.

However, your wedding day thank-you cards have a more flexible timeframe. You should aim to send these no later than three months after the wedding: Not all your guests will give gifts, so consider waiting a month before starting on your wedding thank-you notes to allow time for gifts to come in. In the second month, start on thank-you notes for your gift-giving guests. Finally, in the third month, send out thank-you cards to guests who didn’t give gifts.

How to Write Wedding Thank You Cards

Your thank-you cards will look best if they match the theme of your wedding. Order the thank-you cards when you order wedding invitations so they’re ready as gifts arrive.

You will want to handwrite as much of the invitation as possible as that’s most polite and personal. However, you can print thank-you cards with a few lines already in the card. This reduces your workload, especially if you have over a hundred guests. Then, you’ll handwrite a line or two after the thank you card greeting.

Because you will have many thank-you cards to write, consider dividing them into groups. That way, you can stay organized and tackle them in small amounts rather than all at once. You might work an hour each day to write thank-you notes or set aside several hours each weekend until you finish them.

After your wedding, some couples also send thank-you notes to vendors. For those thank-you notes, thank them for their service. You can also mention how you hope to do business with them in the future or recommend them to friends. Mention specific areas they did especially well. Then end with a formal close.

What to Write in Wedding Thank You Cards

Use this wedding invitation wording guide to help you write personal thank you cards.

1. Greeting

Dear (guests/gift giver’s name),

A thank you note starts by naming the guest or gift giver. You should include the name of everyone on the gift, even if not everyone attended the wedding or you don’t know all the people.

If the individual gift givers are from separate households, send separate thank-you notes. For instance, if your coworkers pitched in to give one large gift, send each coworker a separate thank-you note, while couples and families receive one note.

2. Thank You

The first line thanks the recipient for their part in your wedding, whether they gave a gift, attended your wedding, or did both. This line is simple and states what you’re thanking them for.

Here are some examples:

• Thank you so much for the set of dishes.
• Thank you so much for celebrating our wedding with us.
• Thank you so much for traveling across the country to celebrate our wedding with us.

While you should specify what they got you or did for you, you can use a generic “thank you for the gift” if you aren’t sure what the gift was.

3. The Gift’s Use

When someone gives you a wedding gift, consider adding another line about how you will use it or why you like the gift. For example, if you received a crockpot, you might mention your favorite crockpot recipe.

For guests who gifted you money or gift cards, thank them for the money, then add a line about how you will use the money. Gift givers like knowing where their gift is going. Many couples will also name the amount they received. This confirms with the gift giver that the couple received the total amount.

That said, you won’t like or need every gift you receive – and that’s normal. Instead of forcing a thank-you note, focus on the gift giver rather than the gift. You might thank them for their generosity or comment on their excellent taste in design instead of how you’ll use the gift.

4. Wedding Attendance

You should send thank-you notes to all your guests, even those that didn’t give a gift. They were still influential in making your wedding day memorable through their attendance.

You could add a note about what your guest did at the wedding if the celebration was small enough to interact with the guests. For example, if you saw the recipient dance to every song or had a meaningful conversation with them at the wedding, mention it on the card.

If a gift giver couldn’t attend the wedding, have your thank-you note convey you missed their presence. For those you’re close with, you can mention how you look forward to your next celebration together.

5. Personal Note

Personal notes are a nice addition at the end of the card for guests who played a major role in your life or the wedding. For instance, thank your bridesmaids for their participation and name an item or two they did that you found especially helpful or thoughtful.

Parents also receive thank-you notes. Include a personal note about how much you appreciated them during the wedding and in your life. You can also mention a significant moment, like their toast or first dance.

6. Ending

A few examples of typical closing signatures include:

• Sincerely,
• Love,
• Warmly,
• Best,

Order Elegant Wedding Thank-You Cards

Shine Wedding Invitations streamlines the wedding thank you card process for you. When you order your invitations, we also offer stylish thank-you cards matching your wedding design. We can print guest addresses on the envelopes and inner envelopes as well as a short note inside. You can pre-write as much or as little as you need.

View our collection of elegant wedding thank-you cards.

Photo Credit:
Bride in Wording Tips: Garrett Richardson Photography