how soon after the wedding to send thank you cards?

Hello lovely married lady! I ordered thank you cards before the wedding as we decided not to use a photo (quite glad as our photos took ages) so we sent ours a couple of weeks after we got back from honeymoon, about 4 weeks after the wedding. My best mate (who is disorganised to say the least) still hasn't even got cards made up after getting married at the end of December!

If your photos work like ours (view them on the tog website, choose them, then get them) it might be worth asking for the photo you want to be emailed to you so you can get started x

I got married same day as you I think (30th March?) and have sent all mine today. The reason for this is that my OH's cousin had herr 18th while we were on our 4 day honeymoon and I heard loads of his family complaining that they hadn't had official thank yous yet!

It panicked me a bit so I decided to just get them done. I used a photo but I just chose one that someone had emailed me. We didn't have a professional photographer so I didn't need to wait.

I don't think there is a set time but I started to get paranoid that my husband's family might be thinking we were rude! Once thought was in my head I decided to get it done, especially before term starts again next week.

Thanks both for the replies. We got married on 3rd april (good friday). Our TOG promised some teasers on Sunday 5th and all the photos for Thursday 9th but he hasn't delivered on the promise and I'm getting impatient! I know it will be worth it because he is brilliant but I wish he hasn't promised them so quick as now I'm constantly checking my emails.

Sums, that is very quick for family to be wondering about thank yous! People can be so rude, we are still getting over the fact my step sisters got us absolutely nothing, not even a card. Such extremes, my Nana gave us £100 and she's lived on council estates her whole life and hardly has 2 pennies to rub together, then I've got a friend who works for Harrods quite high up and just got us a card. Very strange. We'll be sending thank yous to everyone regardless as we are just pleased they came, but I do think its rude to turn up to a wedding as a whole day guest without so much as a card. Anyway, I digress...

That seems ridiculous, I mean people can't seriously expect you to be writing thank yous on your honeymoon. I am not sure what the right time frame is but I would definitely not expect any in the two weeks after the wedding. I would probably say 3-6 weeks after would be fine. We mught do ours earlier but that's because we are not going away (if we are it'll just be a few days), and we only need to write 7.

I agree, it's ridiculous! And I think your suggested time frame seems much more reasonable. I just decided to capitulate to be honest!

Huge congrats IGBMN - meant to post on your other thread but the last week has been a bit crazy following the wedding. You look lovely in the pic you posted and am sure the prof photos will be worth the wait. We sent our thank you cards yesterday as we only had a small wedding (and only 20 or so to send) and I wanted to do them before going back to work. I am sure people won't expect them that quickly though so think another couple of weeks would be fine xx

I think we sent ours out about a month after, cos I was waiting for personalised ones. This was after I heard that H's aunt in America had complained to his mum that she hadn't yet received a card! I mean I would have sent them sooner if they'd arrived, but I didn't think a month was an inordinately long time.

The 'rule of thumb' is that they are sent within three months of the wedding date. I don't think your friend will feel you are stealing her thunder by sending out the wedding thank you cards, and if it is concerning you, perhaps raise it with her that the delay is due to waiting on your wedding photographs. I am sure she won't even consider that it would be an issue.