Thank you notes -- ideas for wording

Amber_Waves

I'm getting my rear in gear for writing Thank You notes for our upcoming shower.  I've printed out some ideas for wording and am putting them in a box with address labels, the cards, and stamps.  I figured as long as I have gone to the trouble of digging these up and tweaking them a bit, I'd pass the templates along (these are mostly from this old Sept 2012 thread.  Anyone have additional advice on wording or thank you notes in general?


Ideas for wording:

Dear ________,

Thank you so much for the _______. I can't wait to use it! /see her in it!/ It will definitely be put to good use!. Thank you even more for coming to shower to celebrate with us. It means so much to get to share this experience with dear friends and family. (Sometimes another sentence about our friendship).

Love/Thank you again/ ,

------

 Dear X, Thank you so much for celebrating our baby with us--and for driving all that way! We really appreciate your generosity and know that we will use the bedding and lamp for years to come.  Sincerely, XX

Dear X, Thank you very much for the awesome jogging stroller! I'm so excited to use it and whip myself into shape.  I'm so thankful to have you as a friend too! Love, L

Dear Aunt X, Thank you so much for coming to celebrate with X and me.  We love the special blankets and baby booties.  We will truly treasure these handmade gifts and appreciate that you took the time to make them.  Love, XX

------

Thank you so much for your generosity, we cannot wait for baby to get here to enjoy this gift

We will definitely put this to good use (when referring to money or gift cards)

Baby __ will look adorable in this

Thank you so much for ___ we are so excited that you got us this

Thank you so much for ______, it will be so helpful once the baby __ gets here

Or you could add in little things like: I will probably be calling you for advice next month (even if you won't)

Or things like hopefully this will help _____ sleep- not counting on it but we can hope right

kyrwyn

I have been writing a lot of "It was great to see you at the shower!" and "Thank you for your love and support" along with specific mentions of the gifts (or advice) we received, and when I'm light on filling up the card some generic "We are so excited to introduce Baby __ to you soon!" or a holiday-related thing (We are so excited to see you at Thanksgiving, etc).  When an item was a genuine favorite on our registry, or something DH picked out himself (when writing his people) I mention that. 

Example: I got to tell one of my coworkers that he has the honor of gifting us the first German-language book that DH has ever read on his own.  (It's subtitled/bilingual, so it's less of a HUGE accomplishment than it sounds, but it's still a really big deal and said coworker is a polyglot and was very excited.)

Advice: I started a list of addresses a few weeks before our shower and when I'm feeling burnt out on writing the actual thank yous, I switch to addressing envelopes for awhile. Then I go back to writing the notes when I'm burnt out on addresses. This works better for me than addressing & writing all for one card in succession.

KathrynJ088

Tip: put out the envelopes at the shower to have everyone address it to themselves! Saves a ton of time when the time comes

anewadventure

ehhh i'm a curmudgeon but i DESPISE filling out my own envelope. like, no. that's not the point. i don't even like to do it at my dentist when they have me fill in an appointment reminder card. 

i'm also not one for templates but i have a stickler of a mom for thank you notes (as does my DH) and i've written so many billionty of them that it doesn't occur to me that people don't know what to say. just be genuine! 

for real though, i don't recommend "thank you for the ___ we will put it to good use." this is the worst. 

Amber_Waves

Oh yeah, I have the addresses printed out on labels already...when we printed them
out to give our hostesses for invitations, I just printed a second set.  It's 2017, I'm not hand-writing that shit!

whiska

Bumping this because I definitely used it today!  Thanks @Amber_Waves!

tracefacemsu

@Amber_Waves and @kyrwyn these ideas are great!

I recently finished my thank yous and have another tip to add. I had a few people who gave maybe 4-6 different types of gifts. Instead of writing a laundry list identifying each gift (e.g. Thank you for the books, onesies, toys, gift card, and blanket.), I said something like:

Thank you for the generous assortment/set of gifts. The ________ (pick one or two of your favorite items) will definitely come in handy for ________ (state purpose, e.g., bath time, car rides, bed time, etc.). Or We are especially excited to use ______ when LO arrives.