Wedding Gift Etiquette

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If you have received gifts for your wedding there are some proper rules of etiquette that you should follow. Of course most people know that they should be appreciative of any wedding gift that they receive, but there are some smaller details that you may want to consider to ensure that everything is taken care of in a polite and timely manner.

Before the wedding you may be thinking about wedding gifts, what you will receive, and what you need. This is all fine, but there are a few things you might want to keep in mind in order to ensure that you are not perceived as rude, or only thinking about the gifts. First off, as a general rule of thumb you should never include registry cards with the invitations that you send out. This will make the guest feel as if the only reason they are getting an invite is because you want them to buy you something from your registry. This can be avoided easily enough by simply leaving registry cards out of the invitations. Some people still opt to do this, but it is not really good wedding gift etiquette. Avoid any embarrassment and leave the registry cards out of the invitation envelope.

Also, if you prefer to receive cash instead of actual gifts, that is fine. Many people do this, it is especially popular among couples that have already been living together for some time before their wedding and already have a lot of the more tradition wedding registry items. Instead of asking directly for cash, it may be better to tell your family and close friends about it and have them spread the word to the other people that are coming to the wedding. This way you get the cash that you want, but you do not have to directly ask for it.

Before you ask for cash instead of gifts, make sure that you have reasoning behind it. If you are getting cash you may want to start a savings account with it, use it towards a new home, or maybe your honeymoon. Just make sure that you have an idea as to why you want cash instead of gifts. Guests often like to know where their money is going.

After you receive your wedding gifts there are a few things that you need to make sure you do.

The most important one being that you need to send a thank you note to every single person that gave you a gift. You do not want to leave out one person or they may feel like they have been slighted. When writing your thank you notes, be sure to personalize them to a certain extent. In other words you do not want to send out a generic note to everyone. The best way to do this is by writing about each gift in particular on each card. This will help to let the recipient know that you really appreciate their gift.

Also, be sure to send out your thank you notes as soon as possible after the wedding. Generally speaking within one month is acceptable, but getting it done as soon as possible is the best way to go.

Finally, if the wedding gets called off for whatever reason it is usually the appropriate to return all of the gifts. Keeping the gifts after calling off the wedding can be very rude, although there may be exceptions to this rule.

Overall, wedding gifts can be a lot of fun no matter if you are giving or receiving. By using proper etiquette you can help ensure that everybody involved is happy.

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