Organizing Your Thank You Notes With Basic Invite

Hello, Friends!

As many of you know, this past summer I got married to my best friend! It has been such an exciting past couple of months enjoying married life, moving to Dallas, and getting settled into our new home! While I still can’t get over the fact that I’m married (ahhh 🙂 ) getting acclimated to a new city can be stressful. Coming back from my honeymoon, I almost had no idea where to start with unpacking! However, one thing I made sure to do was to stay on top of my thank you notes. So, without further adieu, I have teamed up with Basic Invite in order to help you tackle your thank you notes without getting behind or overwhelmed.

As a bride to be, so much can be expected of you. It is such a blessing but it can also be a stressful time. So much planning is involved in almost every detail leading up to the big day. It can be hard to stay organized – I definitely couldn’t have done it without my mom and my amazing wedding planner! I am so grateful for their help and they definitely took a lot of the stress off for me to focus on other things such as my thank you’s.

I loved using Basic Invite to design my thank you notes! Not only do they have so many affordable options, but you can also customize almost ANY type of card, thank you note, or invitation that you can think of! I wish I had discovered them sooner so I could have used them for wedding showers. There were so many pretty options on how to customize my very own thank you notes, but I decided to go with the Glamorous Typography Thank You Card Theme. I was drawn to the navy color and delicate font. Although you can change the coloring of any card as they offer 180 different color options, I wanted to replicate this look for my own! Navy was also one of my wedding colors, so I thought it was perfect to use. The notes took about 5 minutes to personalize and next thing I knew, the cards were on their way! I went with a basic white envelope, but they offer over 40 different envelope colors! You can also put your return address on the back to make life a little easier 🙂 .

I wish I had come across Basic Invite before my wedding! They also have adorable wedding invitations as well as save the date options! They even have free wedding website templates – perfect for the busy bride to be! I loved the invitations I used for my wedding, but Basic Invite would have been a wonderful route to go as well. Basic Invite truly goes out of their way to make your life easier for whatever event you may be planning. I can’t wait to customize invitations for other events and parties in the future. I am just so glad I found them at the end of wedding planning to help me organize my thank you notes!

Writing Thank You Notes

Thank you notes are not something you want to put off writing, trust me. Before you know it, you have had one shower one weekend, and before you can even get the envelopes addressed, you have another shower planned the next! Or, just when you finally sit down to write your thank you notes from your last shower, you receive wedding presents in between! It can be overwhelming to keep up, but don’t worry, I have outlined a few tips to keep you from getting behind!

General Thank You Note Tips

Type out your thank you note before writing it down on your stationery. This helped me SO much with not just my wording but making sure the message was well thought out and meaningful. Also, it helped me not to waste cards with misspelled words. Even if you do mess up a few, don’t worry, because Basic Invite saves your template and its easy to order more!
Document the gifts you receive. Things happen. Gifts arrive late and things get misplaced. That’s why it is important to write down or document in Excel what you received and if the note has been written. For me, it just was easier to write in a notebook what I received and then mark through the item once I had written my thank you note. Basic Invite also offers free downloadable templates for you to stay on top of your thank you notes and wedding planning!
Once you receive a gift, write a thank you note as soon as you can. As your wedding date approaches, more gifts will arrive and you will be even busier with finalizing details. It is so much easier to write it once it’s on your mind instead of holding off until it gets too late.
Don’t use a gift until you have written a thank you note! Keep this rule of thumb in mind as you receive your gifts and you will be sure to keep up – especially if it is something you had your eyes on! For me, this wasn’t really a problem as I couldn’t use anything until after my wedding and moved to Dallas.
DO write neatly. This is something I struggle with as I don’t have the prettiest handwriting. However, it can be a little cringe-worthy to receive a thank you note you can barely read! So, remember to write slow 🙂 . This is also when typing out your message comes in handy! Basic Invite offers hundreds of different Thank You Note Options that are customizable! With their beautiful cards, it will especially help when you don’t have the best handwriting like me!
Make time to do them! Want to watch the latest episode of The Bachelor? Same. Write your notes while you watch TV. You might not get as many done but AT LEAST you were on top of it and multitasked!
Bring them to work to do during lunch. It’s not much fun to eat at your desk during lunch, but your co-workers will leave you alone if they see you hunched over with your notes! This way, your thank you’s will be out of the way for the evening!
Be sure to purchase a lot of pretty stamps ahead of time so that way you are prepared to mail your thank you notes out on the same day.
Make space on your desk or work area where your address list is handy along with your thank you notes, stamps, and pens!

Thank You Note Tips For After A Shower Or Party

If you have just had a shower, a rule of thumb I would stand by is always doing the hostesses the day after the event. This way you can be sure to put those in the mail and your hostesses are thanked for all of their hard work and time for planning and hosting your event! It is important to thank them first as they are the ones who put in a lot of extra hours to make sure you had the best time being celebrated before the big day!
After you have written the hostesses, I would then plan an order of how you want to write the next thank you notes. If you can knock them all out the day after, then more power to you! I always kept my thank you notes in the order of hostesses, family, family friends, and wrote to my friends last. It’s more likely your friends will let the timing of your note slide a little bit more than your aunt or mom’s bestie!
Make sure you have thank you notes for one shower written before the next one. This will not only be so helpful to you but it also won’t overwhelm your guests if they have attended both showers. A wedding is such a special time and you want to be sure everyone is appreciated before the next event.

After The Wedding…

You will most likely receive a lot of gifts while you are on your honeymoon and after the wedding. This is a busy time as you will be getting adjusted to your NEW life, NEW name, etc. etc. So, be sure to plan accordingly. Once you are at a point where you can breathe, document the gifts you have received and start writing! I would try to do 5 a night if not more until you are finished! Also, remember, it doesn’t hurt if your husband decides he wants to pitch in, too!

Whether you are a bride to be, or someone who has a few thank you notes to tackle, I hope these tips were helpful to you! Now that I am done with my thank you notes, these tips and tricks I used really kept me organized and able to finish my thank you notes a month after the wedding! Basic Invite really put me at ease when I found their adorable cards! I know all of my friends and family enjoyed receiving such a beautiful and unique thank you note in the mail and know that their love and support for both Chris and I was well received!