When you throw a bridal/baby shower, buy a pack of thank you cards for the guest of honor. During the party, pass out the envelopes and have everyone put their address on one. When the bride/new mom sends the thank you's, they're all addressed!
If I were one of the gift givers at said party, I would feel like they didn't actually want to thank me for the gift but were doing so only out of obligation. Very rude to make a guest and someone who's thought about and paid for a gift for this person. And as it was pointed out, because of the invitations, the host will more likely than not have their addresses already. It just cheapens thank-you notes. The host may call later asking for an address, but at the party, it's just plain rude.
I agree with all the people who think this way of saving time is tacky. If you don't have time to write proper thank you notes and hand address the envelopes, don't allow someone to give a shower in your honor.
I agree with Cheryl. If you mailed the invitations, you already have the addresses. It won't take that much longer to address two envelopes. Asking guests to fill out their own envelopes for the thank you cards is VERY tacky!
The simple solution (Is it tacky or is it easier for the Mom to be?) is to have the person addressing the baby shower invitations to print 2 address labels instead of one. This way the new mom has the addresses at her fingertips and the guests don't have to address their own thank you note. Problem solved and Miss Manners would be sooo proud!!
I've been thinking about this and the reactions to the tip. I remembered that this was done at a shower I attended. By the time I got the thank you note, I thought it was odd that the envelope was in my own handwriting but on opening it, I remembered.
Maybe a good compromise to this would be for the helper to go around to all of the people at the shower with a slip of paper and ask the attendee to write their address on it. Then the same slip of paper could be used for writing the gift received. Then the helper could address the envelopes after the shower and put the slip of paper standing up into the envelope. Then give them to the mom or bride who could then write the thank you note and put it in the envelope (removing the note, of course). It would be easy for them to know which ones were done and they would have the slips of paper with the gift and address into a scrapbook or their address book.
This would make it easier for the bride or new mom , save them time (few of us have extra time these days) and follow good manners. Even if they were not addressed, putting the note with the address and gift they gave into the envelope would help.
I think most people that it is in bad taste to have people do this. If you go to a shower and buy a gift, it should not be expected for you to fill out these for the guest of honor. Check manners on the inter-net. More and more people don't have the correct way of doing the proper thing anymore.
While I agree that this is a handy way to save time, there's something a little off about saving time when expressing thanks. The guests have already spent time and effort giving gifts to the bride/new mom and it cheapens the thanks to know that the bride/new mom is trying to cut corners in their thank you's. Unless the bride/new mom is going to use the time saved to put more effort into her thank you messages, it might not go over well with all the guests. I think you'll find that many etiquette and manners books agree with me on this one.
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