Etiquette Questions, Answered: Holidays and Gifts

What’s the Time Limit on Sending a Thank-You?

Q. How long after the wedding do you have to send wedding-gift thank-you notes?
Julie Bahnsen
Irvine, California

A. Ideally, you want to send them as close to the wedding as possible. But we all know that is not always doable, since gifts keep trickling in for months after the big day. But still, even if it is over a year or, heaven forbid, many years since you received a gift, it's not too late to send a thank you. When penning the note, I would address the fact that it's been so long (apologize profusely in some self-deprecating way), but then offer up the same appreciation and detail about the gift that you would have if you had written the note the day the gift arrived. I can't think of anyone who has ever minded getting a thank-you note, no matter how damned late it showed up.

—Julie Rottenberg