What To Say In A Wedding Thank You Card

This entry is from our Expert Guest series where wedding and honeymoon professionals share their best tips on creating memories that last a lifetime.

So you are now married and going to live happily ever after!

Sending you on your way have been your many guests made up of family and friends, as well as your wedding providers. After the wedding, you should send thank you’s. It’s always a joy to open up a traditional hand-written thank you card, which is much more personal than an email thank you.

As a wedding provider, a Celebrant, I still love to get a thank you card with your heartfelt message inside. For all the wedding providers you can use the same thank you message.

You can personalise it if you wish, but if you word it well you can save yourself time. As long as the thank you is meaningful and written from your heart, your thank you will be well received.

The 4 “W’s” Of Thank Your Notes

Traditionally, the thank you cards would be done half by the bride and half by the groom. It would be nice to think that those days are past and you do your thank you cards together. So both of you present and accounted for, the cards should include the  four w’s.-  who, what, where and when.

WHO – who do we write to?

As stated already, your wedding guests, family and friends and your wedding providers should receive a thank you  There is debate about should you give a thank you to someone who attends your wedding and does not give a gift?  I personally would suggest it would be a nice thing to do because they have come to your wedding.

WHAT do we write?

Well that’s the topic of this  blog so there will be more – read on!  The key short and sweet, meaningful and personalised.  Easy.

WHERE do we write?

Find a comfortable space where you can feel organised and in-tune (I have some amazing essential oils to support you – contact me if you want to know more) with the task at hand.  Organisation includes a list hopefully made by your wedding party of what everyone gave you. It’s good to be able to write to each person, “Thank you for the¦.. Name the gift¦.. you gave us.”  For monetary gifts, you don’t need to mention the financial amount but reference what you plan to do with the money will work well.

WHEN do we write the cards?

Within 2-3 months of your wedding is a great timeframe to work to.  There are those super-organised people who even do the thank you’s before the wedding day.  If you are not one of those people after the honeymoon, catch your breath and get busy.

Ideas For Thank You Cards

Short and sweet cards are the order of the day. Perhaps your photographer gave you cards with your photo as a part of the package. A special card always makes it easy to do a short thank you.

Here is an example or two to get you started:

GIFT – hopefully cards matched with gifts and listed down by wedding party

Dear Karen and Denis,

Thank you for coming to our wedding day!  We loved the and we look forward to using it in our home.  We will always remember our special day when we see your gift.

Thanks again for joining us at our wedding.

Best wishes,

Kate and Richard

FINANCIAL GIFT – placed with card in wishing well, basket, suitcase (whatever you have) 

Dear Julie and David,

Thank you for coming to our wedding day!  We had the most amazing day and really were glad you were with us.  We really appreciate your generous gift and we will be using it for our honeymoon fund [or whatever you plan to use the money for.]

Thanks again for joining us.

 Best wishes,

Kate and Richard

GUEST without GIFT

Dear Sandra and Warwick,

It was wonderful to have you join us for our wedding day.  We wanted to thank you so much for making the effort to get there.  It will certainly be a day we remember.

Best wishes,

Kate and Richard

GIFT without ATTENDANCE, for  guests who can’t attend but who send a gift 

Dear Jo and Rob,

We were so sorry that you were unable to make it to our wedding. We had the most amazing day and we are sorry that you missed it. We wanted to thank you so much for your gorgeous gift you sent.

Thank you!

Kate and Richard

THANK YOU WEDDING PROVIDER

Dear Julie,

Thank you so much for being with us on our wedding day.  You made the wedding so special and we greatly appreciate  what you did.  We will certainly be recommending you to all our friends who are getting married.

Thank you!

Kate and Richard

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Bio: Julie is an experienced Civil Union and Wedding Celebrant and a member of the Celebrants Guild of New Zealand (South Island Inc). Julie lives in Huntsbury, Christchurch with her husband David and their beautiful daughter Amelia. They too, enjoyed their own unique wedding ceremony on New Years Eve 2001.

Over the years Julie has participated as a wedding celebrant for couples of all ages and backgrounds. Photos from some of these weddings can be seen on this website and Julie would like thank all the couples and photographers for allowing these to be displayed.

Julie delights in sharing her clients’ special day, and many return to her when wishing to have a naming ceremony or renewal of vows. Known as the ‘smiling celebrant’, her relaxing and friendly character is noticeable from your first contact with her.Please feel welcome to contact Julie to discuss how she can help make your day a very special one.