Post # 1
Member
2244 posts
Buzzing bee
So we are still about 6 weeks away from our wedding, but we have been receiving wedding gifts at the house (definitely not shower gifts, they are from people who already attended showers and brought gifts there) from my fiance’s family and I am unsure how to treat the thank you cards. We are going to get thank you cards printed after our wedding with some of the wedding pictures (photographer has agreed to give us a sneak peek so we can get these printed ASAP). My fiance and his mom both have said that the people that sent us the gifts would love and prefer a thank you card with wedding pictures. They are older and love to hang stuff like that on their fridge. But the wedding is still weeks away, and I want to make sure we thank them appropriately and quickly. Would it be weird to send a generic thank you card now, and send a second one with the wedding pictures after the wedding? If we sent them two what should the second one say, should we refer to the gift again or just thank them for attending the wedding? They were both very nice gifts, so I have no problem thanking them multiple times, but is that weird? My Future Mother-In-Law is insisting we wait and that “no one sends thank you’s very quickly after a wedding” but I completely disagree with that, and think you should send a thank you as soon as possible. What is the correct etiquette here?
Post # 2
Member
4921 posts
Honey bee
You should send thank you’s asap.
If they are really interested in pictures, there’s nothing stopping you from printing copies of a picture and sending them a nice notecard for no reason other than to be friendly and say hi with a photo enclosed inside. It doesn’t have to be in the form of a thank you card.
But if you end up thanking them twice then so be it. No one ever died from expressing too much gratitude or being on the receiving end of someone’s gratitude.
Post # 3
Member
47417 posts
Honey Beekeeper
Thank you notes should always be sent asap after receiving a gift, no matter what the occasion. Waiting for a wedding pic is not acceptable.
Send a thank you note now (I am presuming by generic, you mean a blank card in which you will express your heartfelt thanks, not a pre-printed Thank You card that you just sign).
You can easily send them a wedding pic later.
Post # 4
Member
240 posts
Helper bee
For gifts we received in advance, we bought blank cards and wrote our thank you for the gift and sent that, then after the wedding thanked them for their presence on the “official” thank you notes.
Post # 5
Member
369 posts
Helper bee
- Wedding: November 2025 - City, State
You’re absolutely right that you need to thank people promptly. Send them a picture later if you’d like (or just to appease your mother-in-law, as the case may be!).
Post # 6
Member
2244 posts
Buzzing bee
Thank you all! I sent them out this weekend (and yes, I meant a generic card with a hand written thank you in it!). I told my Future Mother-In-Law that I will just give them a copy of the other thank you card once we have them printed up!