It is the week after your honeymoon and you are determined to make Miss Manners beam with pride. You’re using VistaPrint to create the perfect design for your wedding thank you cards and as soon as they arrive, you’re going to write thank you notes and address envelopes until you’ve showed your appreciation for every single gift, including that thing your Aunt Pat gave you. (Now there’s a challenge. How do you write a thank you note for something when you can’t figure out what it is?) As you design your cards, you should:

• Consider choosing a design that can be used for other purposes, too. This is an especially good idea if you are ordering in bulk. A monogrammed card or a simple card with “thank you” printed on it using a sophisticated font will never go out of style.
• Think about how formal you’d like to be. Some people prefer to have their formal married name printed on their cards, while others are much more laid back and only want to use their first names.
• Remember to order new return address labels at the same time. You dont want to start addressing the notes, only to realize that the labels you have are for your maiden name and old address.

As you pack the kids into the car, you begin the checklist. “Where’s Bobby? Do you have your coats? Amy, did Grandma give you that bracelet to keep or were you supposed to leave it behind?” You finally pull out of the driveway, waving madly at the front window of the house, where Grandma is watching. You are halfway home when you realize you left something off the checklist. “Who thanked Grandma for their gifts? Bobby? Amy? John? No one?” When you get home, the first thing you do is make a call so that the kids can thank Grandma one after another for those gifts. As you hang up the phone, you remember writing thank you cards for the gifts you received when you were a child.

Why not order thank you notes for all your kids so that the next time they get gifts, they’ll be able to send their relatives a tangible expression of thanks instead of making a quick phone call? The people receiving the notes will appreciate getting them and may just brag to all their friends about their young relatives’ amazing manners! To make sure your children are as pleased with your idea as you are, you should:

• 1. Make sure you choose designs your children will like. Monkeys and princesses are much more appealing than a stylish thin stripe.
• 2. Look for designs that make writing notes as simple as filling in the blanks for your younger children. This way, they won’t be overwhelmed by a scary blank space.