Thank You, Thank You Very Much...

So we're now 19 days past the wedding, and my thank-you notes are DONE. D-O-N-E done.

(pauses for applause)

Yep, I finished 'em. And I mailed them the day before yesterday (which means really they were done at the 17-day mark). This just might be my biggest bridal achievement so far. I was far more excited to mail these than I was to mail our wedding invitations.

The weird thing about wedding thank-you notes is that you really do feel genuinely grateful to alllll these people, but you hardly have time to be really thoughtful in each one because you've got a million of them to write. I did my best to really personalize each one and show how much we appreciated the gifts we received and the efforts people made to be there for us.

Here's what contributed to my being done so soon after the wedding:

1. I've been writing thank-you notes for months. - I wrote all the shower thank-yous right after the showers, and I wrote thank-yous for mailed gifts as they came. This took care of about 60% of the thank-you notes before the wedding day.
2. I had a Excel spreadsheet open while we opened wedding gifts. - I added a column for "gifts" to our guest list spreadsheet, and I just typed in what we opened. Then I just had to print out the spreadsheet and get to writing.
3. I recruited my husband to help. - I know some people think it's the woman's job to do thank you notes and such, but I'm apparently too much of a feminist to let my husband get away with doing none of the work. I gave Jeff all the ones addressed to people I hardly know, or to his college friends. This saved me about seven thank-you notes during our engagement, and another ten or so post-wedding. It was hugely helpful though, because they were the ones it would have been harder for me to write meaningfully. I did make it easy on him by stamping and addressing the envelopes, and putting little Post-its inside the card with the person's name and what the gift was. :o)
4. I had a deadline. - I told myself that no matter what, I'd be done before law school starts. And it starts on Monday, so I was working on a pretty small timeframe. Deadline = motivation.

So that's it! Goodbye thank-you notes! May you make your recipients feel appreciated and loved!

How long after your wedding did it take you to finish your thank-yous? Are thank-you notes a dying tradition?

PS - If you're the person who gave us a set of glasses and a Bed Bath & Beyond gift card, and you happen to be reading this, please let me know because your gift had no card and I'd love to send you a thank-you note!