Is it too late to send wedding thank you cards a year later?
Sending wedding thank you cards nearly a year late causes significant embarrassment, which is often compounded by overwhelming schedules, working long hours, and managing new health diagnoses. Because of these intense burdens, finishing the notes takes much longer than expected, leaving couples stressed about social expectations and how late is too late.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Sending typed instead of handwritten cardsDid this help you?
- 2Writing a few cards a day over a longer periodDid this help you?
- 3Including photo prints with the notesDid this help you?
- 4Saving money on headcount and using the extra funds for a honeymoon or food and bar upgradesDid this help you?
- 5Not inviting more people and keeping the current guest countDid this help you?
- 6Texting gift givers immediately to confirm receipt and letting them know a formal card will follow after the weddingDid this help you?
- 7Waiting until after the wedding to send a single combined card for both the registry gift and wedding attendanceDid this help you?
- 8Sending out thank you cards immediately as individual gifts arrive before the wedding to save time laterDid this help you?
- 9Wondering if the gift card or present got lost in the mailDid this help you?
- 10Assuming that couples have up to a year to send thank-you notes according to traditional etiquetteDid this help you?
- 11Sending a quick text message instead of a traditional cardDid this help you?
- 12Sending one big thank you note online or via email to both familiesDid this help you?
- 13Waiting for the one year anniversary to include a tiny life update and thank youDid this help you?
- 14Writing cards immediately and keeping them extremely simpleDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“The past 3 weddings I attended I all gave them money in a card - not one of them reached out to say thank you.”source ↗
“My fiance and I got a lot more nos from our rsvp's than we thought (31 nos out of 142 invited). His mom suggested to him that he invite more people. Our RSVP deadline is tomorrow and we are doing a plated dinner so it isn't as easy to just add people in. I think it would be rude to invite someone this far into everything because they may feel like a "b team guest". My mom agrees with me but my future mil insists that it's fine. What does everyone think?”source ↗
“It’s been almost 10 months since we got married, and we never got around to doing thank you cards for our guests who gave us gifts / attended the wedding.”source ↗
“So, my question is, how awful is it if we don’t get around to doing thank you cards?”source ↗
“I just don’t know how… ‘necessary’ they are anymore if that makes sense?”source ↗
“We’re sending out wedding thank you cards almost a year after the wedding and I'm very embarrassed about it.”source ↗
“This year has been overwhelming for us. I've been working late often including weekends. Most weeks I’m working over 40 hours. I am also dealing with a newly diagnosed disease.”source ↗
“I had to cut more people than I wanted for capacity reasons and it was kinda heartbreaking.”source ↗
“I am getting married the first week of November. Guests have access to our registry and have started sending gifts. We have not received any but have gotten the notification that they are on the way!”source ↗
“For the thank you card, should we send that out when we receive them if they arrive before the wedding, or should all thank you cards go out after the wedding no matter how early we get them?”source ↗
“Wish I did this, after the wedding, my energy levels crashed, and I am still looking at the stack of thank you cards that I have yet to mail out.”source ↗
“i’ve never received a thank you card, the most has been a message saying thanks. i’ve also had two couples who never acknowledged our gift to them”source ↗
“This is, sadly, becoming more common. I couldn’t imagine having people spend money and time to come to my wedding, give a gift, and *not* send them a thank-you.”source ↗
“The last wedding we went to, we gave a card and a couple of pricey gifts off of the registry and never received a thank you card.”source ↗
“That first wedding was in 2016 and not only did it permanently damage relationships with my extended family, it was still getting brought up 8 years later to my parents!!!”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 3Bridal boutique hasn't delivered my wedding dress with weeks to go
- 4When is the right time to set your wedding RSVP deadline?