What to Write in a Wedding Thank You Card

First of all, congratulations on your wedding! Hopefully it was a beautiful day and you’re settling in happily to your ever-after.

And more congrats are in order for getting started on your thank you notes. After all the time and energy you put into planning your big day, you may not be excited about having another project to do, but here’s the good news — you’ve come to the right place for help! Writing out wedding thank you cards and getting that wedding thank you wording down to where it flows magically out of your pen can actually be easier and more fun than you imagine, simply by following some simple tips.

Remember, you don’t have to get them all done today — but three months should be your deadline. There are varying schools of thought on the exact timeframe, and some sources have said you have up to a year, but three months is currently the consensus. However, if month three (or four, or five…) has already gone whooshing by, don’t panic! Just get started.

Set yourself up for success. Gather your supplies — the notes, envelopes, address list or labels, stamps, and a few good pens — and keep them in one space, whether it’s a table, a tote, or a box, so when you’re ready to write, you have everything handy. And then set a goal to write, say, five in one sitting. Once you get going, you’ll likely do more, but this is much less daunting than fifty — and you’ll do a better job.

Personal doesn’t necessarily have to mean unique. While personalizing each note to the recipient is important, remember they are not going to compare your note with the other wedding guests. So it’s perfectly okay to use some of the same wording in different notes. But you might want to mail them all at the same time to avoid someone thinking they’ve been forgotten.

Remember, it’s a note, not a letter. A handful of short, well-crafted lines is the perfect length for a thank you note, and probably all that will fit. And if you follow this formula, you’ll fill the note in no time.

Lines 1-2 — Thank Them for Their Attendance or Acknowledge That They Were Missed.

• Thank you for the attending our wedding. You made the day even more special/beautiful/memorable.
• Thank you for sharing in our wedding day! It wouldn’t have been the same without you.
• Thank you for making our day even more special [with your awesome dance moves, with your beautiful toast, and for all your help with…].
• Thank you for making the trip to attend our wedding. That meant the world to us!
• Thank you for coming to our wedding — it was wonderful to see you after all this time!
• It was so special to us that you could share our day!
• We’re sorry you couldn’t make it to our wedding. It was a beautiful day, and you were missed — but we hope to see you soon!

Lines 3-4 — Thank Them for the Gift And Add One Detail

• Your gift was so generous and so appreciated. It will certainly help as we build our new life together.
• Wow! Thank you for the generous gift. We’ll put it to good use for [insert specific goal here].
• Thank you so much for the [gift] — we absolutely love it!
• We were so happy to receive your [gift] and look forward to [cooking Sunday breakfasts, throwing amazing parties, making it a part of our home, using it for years to come…].
• We were so excited to open your [gift] and can’t wait to [make awesome smoothies, throw a backyard barbeque, fill it with flowers/our favorite picture…].
• We are so appreciative of your generous/thoughtful/beautiful/creative gift and will always think of you when we…
• Thank you so much for the [gift]. What a [creative/thoughtful/generous…] gift!

Closing Lines

• We feel so lucky to have you in our lives.
• We hope to see you again very soon.
• You have an open invitation to visit any time — and we hope it’s very soon!
• We feel so grateful to [have you as a friend/sister/neighbor, to call you family, to have known you for so long…] and we love you very much!
• We’re so lucky to have such kind and generous friends.
• We can’t thank you enough for your kindness.
• Thank you again for everything. You mean the world to us.

You know what’s great about writing wedding thank you notes? You get to relive your special day over again and think of all the wonderful people in your lives. And when they get your note, they’ll get that feel-good rush of giving all over again, they’ll appreciate your thoughtfulness, and they’re sure to think of you with a smile.