Your wedding registry duties don’t end once the gifts have arrived. You’ve got one final–and extremely important–task left. You need to write thank you notes.
Get Thankful
If they gave you a gift, they get a thank you note. You thank them for their generosity and to let them know that you’re thinking about them.
Get Personal
This is one of those situations where a form letter would not only be ineffective, but also kind of insulting, especially to older relatives. You need to make this personal. Your aunt needs to feel like you’re writing her a private note.
Thank her for the blender and tell her that you use it on everything. You’re blending smoothies, milkshakes, margaritas. You’re cooking full dinners, blending them, and drinking them through a straw. You could not be more obsessed with this blender if you tried.
Get Organized
Preparing things before the gifts arrive will make the process even easier. Start a spreadsheet (or other type of database) of your guests as they start buying your registry items. Fill this database with info that will help you write the notes: their addresses, what they bought, the names of their children. Anything.
Get Fast
A note should go out not long after the gift arrives. Sending a handwritten note right when the gift lands on your doorstep will 1) make it easier to personalize it and 2) make it more of a habit for when the other gifts arrive.
Get Visual
A picture is worth a thousand words, and will help the note feel unique.
Take candid photos from the wedding and include them with the card. Try to include photos of the recipient at the wedding (if they’re flattering) or photos of yourself (if they’re funny or particularly nice).
Get Traditional
Part of making these notes more personal is writing them by hand and dropping them in the mail.
Don’t email them or send them as texts. You can keep them short (in fact, you probably should), but go through the work of writing them out and mailing them.
Wedding gift giving is an old tradition, and it requires an old school response. Pretend to be a man of letters: handwrite personal notes and snail mail them to the people who bought you gifts. Pen and ink were good enough for Shakespeare, Keats, and Abraham Lincoln. They’re good enough for you.
