Thank you notes! How long is to long?

Etiquette says thank you notes should be sent within 3 months after the wedding. I wouldn’t wait to get pictures back. It’s a nice thought to put a wedding photo on the front of the note, but most people read the note then throw it away.

View Quoted Comment So if etiquette states three months and it’s only been one month then that means she has up to an additional two months to wait for the pictures and send out thank you ☺️ cards.

I think that’s a really cute idea 💡that your guests are really going to enjoy.

View Quoted Comment Most people don’t get their pictures back until at least 6-8 weeks after the wedding. Add in time to sift through the pictures, print the thank you cards and wait for them to be shipped, write them and then send them and you’re easily over the 3 month mark.

View Quoted Comment Yes, 3 months minus 1 month means she has 2 months left. But it’s also a nice thing to send them out sooner. No one keeps a thank you note, so I wouldn’t wait in order to have a picture. That’s also an extra cost to get custom thank you notes.

Thank you all. I guess I am the only that keeps thank you notes. I still have my cousins thank you note from her wedding over a year ago on my fridge lol! She had thank you notes with pictures from the wedding so that is where I got the idea from. I might wait just a little bit longer. So just maybe I can use the pictures. But thank you! It helps a lot, and it looks like I will be sending regular thank you notes.

I had the same problem! I wanted to do photo thank yous and include pictures of the guests too.. It killed me to wait for the pictures! I didn't want to be rude but my photography contract said they would be done after 6 weeks so I waited. I'm so glad I did! People have been so happy with the pictures I included in their cards it definitely was a hit! Yesterday was the 2 month mark and I just sent that last of the thank yous. I wouldn't have been comfortable taking any longer than that.

If your pictures are going to be in soon you should be OK. 3 months is the absolute max IMO. Honestly I hated that mine took 2 months but at least the pictures made it worth it.

I always say the sooner the better. I plan on writing mine the following week and getting them out immediately. I love the idea of using a picture, but waiting for them to come back really uses a bunch of your time and writing a bunch of thank yous at one time doesn't sound ideal.

Can you email your photographer and ask for an ETA and tell him/her your plans? If he/she can get them done sooner rather than later, then I feel like you can hold off.

View Quoted Comment

How nice! Thanks for the input!

I would just send out the thank you notes now. You could always send another card with pictures after you get them back.

I always wanted to have my wedding photos used for the thank you cards. But in reality, it won't be for a while (which I totally understand), so I purchased some thank you cards that matched our theme and will be working on them this weekend. I figured I will upload some of the pictures on the website and put some on social media (and of course WW!).

Miss Manners says that thank-you notes should be sent as soon as you can get to your pen and stationery--that is, right away. I don't want your picture; I want to know that you received my gift and appreciated it. And after three weeks I would give up on both the appreciation and you.

I would just send them out without the photo because the sooner the better. If it's really important to you to have a picture on there, use one of the sneak peak photos and have the cards printed quickly.

Eh, I'd really lean toward getting them out as soon as possible. I do suppose that having the wedding photos would be nice, but I'd be more concerned about people getting impatient with their lack of thank-you notes (which reflects poorly on me/SO) as opposed to having wedding photos on the thank-yous.

In fact, since I'm planning on doing mail-merge for my wedding invites, I'm planning on editing the list as I get RSVPs in (that is, removing the ones who send regrets), and then pre-printing out the addresses on the envelopes before the wedding, heh. And maybe even pre-writing the thank yous to a certain extent, such as, "Dear X, Thank you so much for attending our wedding. I really appreciated" and then filling in the rest of it after the wedding so I could mention a gift if I got one from them/thanking them for their presence if there was no gift.

Basically, in my estimation getting them out sooner rather than later is pretty imperative. But that's my own policy on it.

But if it's already been a month, personally, I'd just get to it.