To dislike generic thank you cards?

[TrainsandDiggers]

It’s only a small thing really, but AIBU to dislike generic, pre-printed thank you cards from bride and grooms (e.g. “Thanks for coming to our wedding and for your generous gift. It was great to see you and hope to see you soon! Love Bride and Groom”) It just seems to me that if they are going to bother sending out thank you cards, it is slightly meaningless if they (a) can’t be bothered to write them themselves or (b) make any specific mention of people’s gifts (even if given cash they might take the time to mention what they plan to spend it on).

Receiving a pre-printed card actually makes me assume that sending thank you cards seemed like too much of a chore to the bride and groom, so they got one mass produced in order to keep everyone happy, but if you asked them, they probably wouldn’t be able tell you what anyone actually gave them.

Perhaps I’m being too hard here, but it just seems to me that a gesture that was once used to genuinely express thanks and gratitude, is now just a tick box exercise and makes the senders actually seem slightly UNgrateful and entitled.

I’ve had a long day though, so perhaps that is affecting my judgement right now!

I agree I think it's pointless.
However, why single out thank you cards?

Why are (for example) generic "happy birthday", "good luck", "get well soon" cards without any sort of personal message, any better?

I kind of feel the same although when I wrote my wedding thank you cards everyone had given us money so I probably wrote a generic message but I did individually write them.
When I write thank you cards for presents given to my children I always reference what the person got and make a comment such as DD loves playing with it etc

I think that the practice should die out all together. It should be for elderly relatives who you can't see again soon.

Everyone else should make do with a Social Media, text or WA thank you.

Personally, I wouldn't attend a wedding without giving a gift (I always give cash if there isn't a gift list). So I think they are entitled to a gift and no thanks needed.

I've never had one, and I wouldn't like it, but think a generic card would be better than no thank you at all (or a letter/card 9 months after the event as happened once).

It always worries me when I don't receive a thank you for presents because I'm not sure whether they arrived or not.

I keep 'proof of postage' receipts from the Post Office until I know something has arrived. Sometimes I send things direct to someone's house from Amazon and obviously if want to chase them up if by didn't arrive.

I never ask them, because I used to have an aunt who would write or phone 3 days after something arrived if she hadn't received a thank you letter by then, and it always annoyed me. I don't expect the recipient to thank me quite so quickly as she did!

If it's a wedding I take the present with me but it would be very easy for them to go astray, especially if it's a card with money/cheque.

Eh, as long as I get a thank you it doesnt really matter to me the way it’s presented. If you have 200 guests I understand why it might be too much to hand write every card individually.
I think it’s a bit petty to worry about this, sorry op

Of course it's a tick-box exercise and a chore. People do it, because it's a social convention and people don't want others to think badly of them.

I don't really expect any thank you cards after weddings (or other gifts, like births) these days, so I wouldn't mind getting a printed one - but I would consider it much nicer, and very different, to receive a handwritten note, or a pre-printed note that has something added to it by hand.

I agree it's a shame we're no longer doing handwritten thankyous as a matter of routine though!

There’s a scale really isn’t there from beautiful hand written personal thank you dispatched within 2 days of the gift being given and ... no thank you at all.

I’d rather have an acknowledgement than nothing. They have at least thought about need to thank people.

I used to make my ds write thank yous for Xmas and birthday presents but it became such an awful chore it took the joy out of the gifts. Now he designs and prints his own cards online using a company that posts them out too so we only had to put the address in once. If anyone thinks they are generic that’s their problem as he has still put in the effort to make sure they know he got the gift and likes it.

DS got married in July. We are still getting elderly relatives complaining to us, they have not had a thank you for the wedding present! He is 32 - we’ve told him to say thank you, but we cannot make him!

A generic thank you card would have been better than nothing, from our POV! At least, we would not get moaned at!