Tony and I were intent on making it clear that NO GIFTS were expected for our recent engagement party. In fact, I broke the cardinal bridal sin of deviating from Emily Post’s etiquette rules by actually writing this on the invitation. It was important enough to us that our guestsknow not to worry about presents on top of coming to the party, that we were tacky enough to actually write on the invitations: NO GIFTS! Your presence is present enough.

And we meant it. If you read my recent engagement party blog, you know that for more than half our guests, the weekend was more like a destination wedding than a casual celebration of two people announcing their decision to spend their lives together. (We also threw the party nearly 8 months after getting engaged, so we had a lot of time to plan something that spiraled into the realm of over-the-top/out-of-control/this should really be a wedding/maybe now we should elope.)

But, you may have also read about the night I indulged in a few too many glasses of vino after a particularly stressful day of wedding planning and started our wedding registry at 2am – I registered for roughly 17 decorative trays and exactly 0 plates. It’s on my To Do List to fix, somewhere below  FIGURE OUT WHERE ANEMONES ARE IN SEASON IN AUGUST and BATTLE MOM ON THE GUEST LIST.

I didn’t post our manic excuse for a registry anywhere or share with friends, but a few people found it anyway, and others blatantly ignored the NO GIFTS! rule and gave us thoughtful, personal gifts they thought we’d love (and they were right.) Which brings us to the art of Thank You notes!

{A card a very honest bride might send.}

I am not an organized person. As evidence of this fact, I’m publicly shaming myself with this picture of my “chairdrobe”:

{Sorry Mom. I’ve failed adulthood.}

Which is why I am obsessed with the website Postable. I’ve written before about how it saved the day collecting addresses for our engagement party invitations, and now it’s changing the game with Thank You cards.

It’s easy. You use the address book you already created to send your invites, pick a card from the myriad of designs the site offers, type it in their “real handwriting” font, and the kind folks of Postable will print, stuff, stamp and mail them for you. It’s like having a futuristic robot personal assistant save you the trouble of buying cards, driving to the mailbox and prevent you from getting that gross blister on your middle finger from holding your Gelly Roll pen in a death-grip.

{You can also use the site to attack your Save the Dates, invite a gal pal to be your bridesmaid or congratulate a recently engaged friend!}

At first, I was skeptical – I’d already betrayed Emily Post once, and didn’t want to deviate from her rules again by doing something as gauche as sending an “online” Thank You card. But, it’s not like it’s firing off an impersonal Thx so much!!!! email; your loved one still receives a beautiful card in the mail. And, more importantly, my other wedding idol, Martha Stewart, endorses it as a socially acceptable time/hand-saver:

If you’re absolutely set on writing them yourself, you can even order blank cards from the site, after you’ve personalized them. There are so many designs to pick from. If you’re obsessed with your engagement photos, upload them!

Or, incorporate your hobbies/favorite things so your card screams “YOU!” For example, if you love birds:

Or sitting:

Or trapping hearts and bottling them in artisanal jars:

They’ve got you covered. They even have cards for French-speakers:

And ironic hipsters:

This next one is my favorite. I had the best time working with an art deco, Old Hollywood design theme for our engagement party, and we’re having our wedding in such a rustic location, the Thank You cards seemed like a fun way to incorporate a clean, modern look into our wedding. (If you couldn’t tell, by the time I walk down the aisle, I will have taste-tested every design theme possible. I’m not good at making up my mind.)

I personalized it with our names, and after much deliberation, selected “Baby Boston” for the font:

I typed up our note, clicked “Next Person,” rinsed & repeated. Brides, this task is so simple, you can even move it over to your groom‘s To Do list and rest easy that he won’t screw it up (like that time you asked him to buy cheese for fondue, and he came home with a package of Kraft American slices. But I digress.)

Done & done! Time to move on to my next order of business, reasoning with my mom as to why that couple from Canada she met on a cruise a few years ago should be cut from the guest list…