Friday, November 18, 2011

Wedding, thankful

I send thank you notes for lots of things, because they are pretty and it was drilled into my head at a young age, but even if you don't normally, you MUST for your wedding. For weddings, you are almost never opening the gifts in front of the giver. That means the giver who doesn't receive a timely thank you note has to sit around wondering if their gift arrived. Then they worry that maybe it didn't arrive and you are thinking they (the givers) are jerks for not sending a gift. Then they think they should call and check but if you did receive it and just haven't sent a thank you note then everything is awkward. It's a bad place.

thank yous
{thank yous}

You should really have a thank you note system in place as early on as possible. We combined it with our guest list, making a spreadsheet that had everyone's names, addresses and response along with columns for "gift" and "TY sent". D and I have it as a shared Google document, so either of us can access it from anywhere. We made our thank you notes as soon as we set up our registries (D printed them on the gocco and I love them).

As gifts came in, we never separated a gift from the gift card/invoice until the thank you note was written. The pile of boxes cluttering up our apartment really provided an extra push.

As we opened gifts, we noted them in the gift column and then checked off the TY column only after the note was written, addressed and stamped. I also stapled the gift note to the invoice and then noted the date the thank you was sent in the upper right hand corner. Then I filed all the invoices together.

It was a little obsessive, but I feel fairly confident that we didn't miss any thank you notes. Except for one be-ribboned bundle of spatulas that must have gotten separated from its card at the wedding. That still haunts me.

If you need a little tutorial on writing your notes, Mouse has a great one. I do differ a little in that I don't mind saying "thank you" directly but I whole-heartedly agree about referencing the gift in a personal way and she provides some excellent templates.

I love that the timing worked out so that this post will take us on into Thanksgiving week. It's my favorite holiday, we announced our engagement over the meal last year, and this year we're hosting for the first time. I'll probably be posting about prep next week. I take it seriously.

12 comments:

  1. nice... i like the blog cupcakes and cashmere emily's so great!!

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  2. I've really loved reading about your wedding. Thank you so much! You're an organized gal after my own heart :)

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  3. We did a similar spreadsheet idea for ours too, it was so helpful!

    http://chicgeekery.blogspot.com/

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  4. I'm glad you posted this- I have a few straggling thank you notes that I haven't gotten to yet that MUST be done ASAP! You've inspired me. We did all the notes from the gits we received at the wedding in under two weeks, but the gifts that came later I've been a little slack about... not good!

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  5. i was so terrible with the thank yous for my wedding, that i actually sent most of them with christmas gifts. (my wedding was in october).
    but i was determined to get them out no matter what!
    enjoy your thanksgiving. i can't wait to host my own!

    ieatshoplove.blogspot.com

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  6. I once didn't get a Thank You note after attending a friend's wedding. I couldn't believe it. I'm glad you're emphasizing this. Must have a Thank You note! :)

    ox,
    Christina

    www.becauseofmadalene.blogspot.com

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  7. thank you so much for putting such detail into your DIY wedding. can't wait to do the same in the future and i love every little piece of your special day. love reading your blog daily!

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  8. i loved your wedding - and all your follow up posts about how you did it all! I got married 3 months ago and pretty much did everything myself. Wish I had seen all your gorgeous things before hand though!

    <3 your blog, its just beautiful.

    angie
    aisforlove.blogspot.com

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  9. So far, I'm loving this series of posts. Personally, I don't see myself getting married anytime soon, but I still enjoy reading about wedding-related things... and I love all the quirky, charming details that were put into yours.

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  10. I had the exact same feeling when sending thank you notes after my wedding - luckily there was no one I missed...I hope!!

    -Danielle

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  11. I'm knee deep in wedding thank you note writing as we speak (type).

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