Question on Thank You Cards

syoun

For those of you planning to send out photo thank you cards, are you guys waiting to get your professional pics back?  I feel like i'd be waiting too long to start sending the cards if I wait for my pics to come, but at the same time, i'd like to have a nice shot on the card and also include some prints of guests that were able to come to our wedding in their cards as well.  When are you supposed to start sending these out?

carrieoz_76

I sent a different set of thank you cards for shower gifts than for wedding gifts, which gave me a little leeway for our wedding gift TY cards.  The TY cards that I used for shower gifts were DIY-ed (they're in my bio).  Then anything that was a wedding gift got a photo TY card (the shot of us with the turquoise Mahalo parasol!), and I sent those out about 4 or 5 weeks after the wedding.

The clock doesn't really start ticking on TY cards for wedding gifts until after the wedding (since you may not be opening them until then anyways), so I figured it was ok to wait for our pics.

AKWinterBride

Well, tomorrow is our 2 month Anniversary and I have yet to send out our Thank You's - however, I am working on them.  I finally broke down this week and asked my photog if I could get a few pictures for the Thank You's and she sent me some the same day.  I felt like I needed to give her some leeway as I know how busy she is and how long the editing process takes, but 2 months out I really need to get them out! 

syoun

Thanks for the great feedback!  Definitely helps me gauge around when I should bug my photog for a few snapshots!  

kimmykupcakes

You have 1 year from your wedding date to send your thank you cards. I plan on using photos from my photographer for these. 

Tanq&Tonic

I would just be upfront with the photographer now.  "We plan to send photo thank you cards and would like a group photo and a portrait of us to use in the card. Would it be possible to get those within 2 weeks of the wedding?"  At least you can gauge whether they would be willing to release the images and plan accordingly.

I was crazy manaiacal about getting our TYs out for the wedding.  Cards were in the mail within 1-2 days of a gift arriving before the wedding, and within 3 days of our return home for anyone else that attended.   We figured people probably preferred digital photos instead of print, so we just planned to email out the photos when they were ready.  For the AHR, for any gifts that arrived before the celebration, we also sent TYs as soon as the gifts arrived.  We had about 300 TY cards to write, and we were so grateful for the ones we finished early.  The AHR had only our parents' guests, so for gifts we received at the event, we sent print photos in each card (standard card, but with a 4x6 enclosed).  We wrote all the cards ahead of time, and when the photos were available 4 weeks later, we had them printed the same day & mailed.

Clearly I'm a little obsessive about sending TYs immediately. 

carrieoz_76

Also, while the old advice is that you have a year to send out TYs, I think it's best to get them out in a more reasonable time.  I figured within at least 2-3 months of the wedding was good.  A year later is too late, IMO.

kaesha

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_hawaii_question-thank-cards?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:73Discussion:e2d21603-e6a7-4aee-bb04-b29813b182f0Post:a6c98856-59b0-4723-85e2-c8498c7a630c">Re: Question on Thank You Cards</a>:
[QUOTE]Also, while the old advice is that you have a year to send out TYs, I think it's best to get them out in a more reasonable time.  I figured within at least 2-3 months of the wedding was good.  <strong>A year later is too late, IMO</strong>.
Posted by carrieoz_76[/QUOTE]

I totally agree. We wrote them as gifts came in, which made things easier to keep up with than doing them all at once.

syoun

Yea I totally agree a year is too long to wait!  I'd love to be able to get the cards out in the next few weeks!

Also, a side question for thank you cards...in a lot of asian cultures, it's tradition to give money as gifts..so the majority of gifts we received were monetary gifts.  How do you word thank you cards for these?  I tried googling and found a lot of cheesey/generic samples and most of them stated specifically what you'd be using the money for which I thought sounded a little weird.  We don't really have anything specific we'd be purchasing.  How would you word these types of cards without sounding impersonal and generic?