Writing Heartfelt Thank You Notes (with Scripts for Catholic Brides)

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HANNAH HOLLCRAFT

 

A well written thank you note is an act of love. It expresses gratitude and thoughtfulness

PHOTOGRAPHY AND STATIONERY: HUDSON & PRESS

PHOTOGRAPHY AND STATIONERY: HUDSON & PRESS

It takes time and effort to write individual thank you cards for your wedding and bridal shower, but this gesture can express your gratitude and thoughtfulness in a truly unique way.

Plus, sending a thank you note after your wedding allows you to share your new address with friends and family. 

Your guests will appreciate the warmth and personal touch a thank you note brings.

Here are some scripts you can use for inspiration to  make your own heartfelt thank you notes:

Dear (Name),

Thank you for coming to my bridal shower this Summer. I loved getting the chance to celebrate and visit with you. Thank you for the (name of gift). It was very thoughtful of you and I am excited to (way you will use the gift). (Fiance’s name) and I are blessed to have your support as we get ready to enter the Sacrament of Marriage. Please keep us in your prayers. We can’t wait to celebrate with you on (Wedding Date).

Gratefully, The Future Mrs. (Last)

Dear (Name),

Thank you for coming to celebrate our wedding day with us! We were honored to have you there to support us as we entered the Sacrament of Marriage. It was such a joyful day for us and it wouldn’t have been the same without so many amazing friends and family surrounding us. Thank you for the (name of gift). (Husband’s name) and I cannot wait to (way you will use the gift). We are so blessed to have you in our lives, thank you for your generosity.

In Christ, Mr. and Mrs. (Last Name)

Dear (Name),

Thank you for the (name of gift) you sent us to celebrate our wedding. We are very grateful. We already (way you have used the gift). We missed being able to celebrate with you in person but (husband’s name) and felt your love even from far away. We promise to send you lots of photos. Thank you again and warm wishes to your family!

With Love, Mr. and Mrs. (Last Name)

Read more: Heartfelt Thank You Notes: The 6th Love Language


Include any personal/relevant details to make a thank you note extra special:

“We were touched that you traveled all the way from ... to celebrate with us.” 

“It was great to hear about…” 

“We can’t wait to see you and your family again at…” 

“Your children are getting so grown up we were overjoyed to see them again.” 

“Congratulations on…”


If someone did something particular to help out at the wedding or shower be sure to mention it by name:

“Thank you for baking the cookies, they were delicious!” 

“We were so grateful to borrow the venue decorations you lent us.” 

“Thank you for being there to help us set up the tables for the reception. We couldn’t have done it without you.” 

When someone gives you a money or gift card try to be specific about how you will use it:

“Thank you for the gift card to Target. We will use it to buy bath towels for our new home.” “Thank you for the generous $50 you gave us. We will be using it as we travel to (location) for our honeymoon.” 

“Thank you for donating to our wedding fund. Thanks to you we were able to hire the photographer we wanted even though they were a little out of our initial price range. We will treasure our wedding photos for a long time to come.”

Finally, don’t forget to write thank you notes for the most important people in your lives. Parents, Bridesmaids, new In-Laws, Grandparents, and Siblings will all appreciate a handwritten note expressing your gratitude:

“Thank you for being my Maid of Honor. I cannot express how grateful I am that you were beside me as I entered my new vocation. Your friendship is such a gift.”

“Mom and Dad thank you for every little and big thing you did to help with my wedding. I know you made so many sacrifices to get me to this place in my life and I am so very grateful. Thank you for the woman you raised me to be and the way that you’ve always been there to love and support me.”

“Grandma, thank you so much for all the love and kindness you’ve always shown me. Thank you especially for coming with Mom and I when we picked out my wedding dress. It was so special to have you there with me on such a special day.” 

About the Author: Hannah lives in Northern California with her husband Joshua and their daughter. She studied Theology and Business in school and has worked in ministry since graduating. Hannah’s Catholic faith is rooted in a deep love for the Eucharist and Our Blessed Mother. She is passionate about beauty, adventure, and living abundantly. Hannah loves warm weather, gardening, a good dance party and hiking in the mountains or visiting the ocean with her husband.

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Setting Boundaries with Technology in the Bedroom

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HANNAH HOLLCRAFT

 

"Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man’s best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why… It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the nothing.” ––C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

We live in a culture in which noise and busyness constantly vie for our attention. The enemy not only tries to push us towards sin but wants to distract us from what is truly important. 

Modern man’s cell phone use might not seem like a big deal; however, if we are not intentional, time that we could spend fostering our marriages will be lost in this sea of busy nothing, simply staring into a screen. Setting the healthy and simple boundary of keeping cell phones out of your bedroom can help.

Not only does keeping your cell phone out of your room can help you get a better night’s sleep, but it will also benefit your marriage in more ways than one.

Your marriage bed is sacred; it is a place where you can connect with your spouse. Make yourselves present and attentive to one another by removing distractions, like screens, from your bed. Doing this will naturally foster emotional and physical intimacy that would otherwise be lost.

Our jobs, our extended family, and social media do not need us available 24/7. Our spouses, however, need us to make time for connection everyday. Sometimes we get busy with our daily tasks and the only intentional moments you have together are before you fall asleep at night or before the day begins. It’s important, especially when life seems busier than usual, to focus on your spouse’s needs and use the time you do have to the benefit of your marriage.

Related: Newlywed Challenge | 3 Simple Ways to Reduce Screens in Your New Marriage


Having our first or the last thoughts of the day dictated by social media or our inboxes isn’t good for us. 

While I enjoy ‘vegg-ing’ out on my phone in bed after a long day, I began to notice that I would inevitably find myself thinking about something I read online that bothered me or comparing myself to some unrealistic standard. Then I noticed a similar pattern in the morning; checking social media in the morning ultimately left me feeling overwhelmed and distracted before the day even began.

Using an actual alarm clock rather than having my phone on my nightstand can  help you break the habit of browsing social media and checking your inbox in bed. My husband and I have a charging station outside our bedroom where our phones typically stay overnight. (Bonus: Doing this with your spouse will also make implementing a similar rule for your future teenagers much easier and more natural. 

I’ve noticed that the space from my phone has not only been good for my marriage but it has also been good for my relationship with Christ.

While I don’t always practice this perfectly, I strive to start and end my day with some silence and prayer to root myself in Christ. Eliminating distractions when I first wake up has helped me to remember to tell Jesus that I love him every morning and offer him my day before my feet hit the floor. In the evenings I can reflect on my day and take time to pray with my spouse.

I have found this simple practice allows me to be more intentional with my spouse, to cultivate my relationship with Christ, and protect our marriage from the enemy’s distractions. I encourage you to try this out in your own marriage and see what fruits you find from keeping your phones out of your bed.

About the Author: Hannah lives in Northern California with her husband Joshua and their daughter. She studied Theology and Business in school and has worked in ministry since graduating. Hannah’s Catholic faith is rooted in a deep love for the Eucharist and Our Blessed Mother. She is passionate about beauty, adventure, and living abundantly. Hannah loves warm weather, gardening, a good dance party and hiking in the mountains or visiting the ocean with her husband.

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Navigating Prayer in a Catholic Dating Relationship

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HANNAH HOLLCRAFT

 

We rightly want to entrust all of our relationships to the Lord, our dating relationships included but figuring out what that looks like with your significant other can be difficult.

One key element to praying together while dating is to keep things simple. As a dating relationship naturally progresses, entrusting your relationship to the Lord together should also follow that progression. Just as we are prudent with our physical bodies and emotional needs, we should also be virtuous with the intimate parts of our spirituality.

With this in mind we should be conscious of how we are weaving our prayer lives together with someone we are dating. Our focus should be our own relationship with Jesus and the way he is speaking to our hearts about the relationship and our own faith journey. When we spend too much time intimately in prayer with someone we are dating, it can be confusing and make it more difficult to make decisions about the relationship from a place of clarity.

Dating is one big lesson in discernment and as such it is a time to really focus on the Lord’s voice in your own personal prayer life. 

The more you are spending time with Him the more you will know and recognize the way he is inviting you to move forward in your relationship or the possibility that he is inviting you away from the relationship because he has greater plans for your life.

When you first begin going on dates with someone, before you’ve stepped into a relationship with them, I would suggest just lifting up your date and that person to the Lord simply from your own heart.

Once you enter an exclusive dating relationship, an easy way to introduce prayer is to choose a memorized prayer you both like and pray that together at the beginning or end of spending time together. Maybe a Memorarae, a Hail Mary or Our Father, or any other prayer you both know and love. This is a good way to take time to entrust your relationship to God, thank him for the joy you find in spending time together, and surrender your desires to his will.

As your relationship gets more serious and you are discerning engagement your prayer together can grow accordingly. One thing my now-husband and I integrated into our dating life at this stage was a daily mass and breakfast date once a week. Sometimes we would talk about the readings or the feast day/memorial over breakfast, but mostly it was just a simple way to come to Jesus together in prayer and offer him our discernment. We also occasionally attended confession or Sunday Mass together.

Related: The Dating Advice I Would Give My Younger Self

This helped us both to picture what living our Catholic faith together might look like in marriage but kept our own personal relationships with the Lord at the forefront. A simple prayer routine that follows the natural progression of the relationship at this stage should do exactly that. It should help you to imagine what living your Catholic faith alongside one another might look like in marriage, remind you that you are each seeking the will of God rather than your own desires, and keep your individual relationships with the Lord the primary place of prayer.

Praying with someone you are dating will appear different from couple to couple. But whatever that might look like, when we allow our prayer to progress prudently it prepares us to move forward in whatever way God is calling us towards vocation, be that engagement and marriage, a different relationship, or towards religious life. While there is a lot that can be said on this topic, I hope that each of you can find peace in this area of dating that doesn't need to be over-complicated.

About the Author: Hannah lives in Northern California with her husband Joshua and their daughter. She studied Theology and Business in school and has worked in ministry since graduating. Hannah’s Catholic faith is rooted in a deep love for the Eucharist and Our Blessed Mother. She is passionate about beauty, adventure, and living abundantly. Hannah loves warm weather, gardening, a good dance party and hiking in the mountains or visiting the ocean with her husband.

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Entrusting Your Marriage to Our Blessed Mother

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HANNAH HOLLCRAFT

 

It is no secret that Our Blessed Mother Mary is an important figure in the Catholic Church.

She is a powerful intercessor, a source of guidance, and our greatest example of sainthood. Countless saints proclaim the goodness of devotion to her, the devil flees from her, and she considers us her dearly beloved children.

You can honor Our Blessed Mother on your wedding day in countless ways, including consecrating your marriage to her.

Marian consecration is an ancient tradition of entrusting oneself completely to Jesus through the maternal care of Mary. We give ourselves fully to Mary so she can help to form us in the image of Christ her Son. Belonging fully to her we can belong more fully to the Lord.

When we consecrate our marriages to Our Blessed Mother we are handing over to her our vocations, our spouses, and ourselves entirely. We are surrendering our bodies, minds, possessions, works and all we are to her protection, guidance, and intercession. 

What better way to safeguard your marriage than to totally entrust it to the care of the Mother of God who loves you and wants your marriage to be happy, holy, and healthy in every way?

In our single lives both my husband, Joshua, and I made our own Marian consecrations. They had lasting impacts on each of us. Through her we experienced healing, joy, and deeper conversion. She was a guiding star for us and we both feel it was her love and attention that ultimately led us to one another.

We knew shortly after getting engaged that we wanted to entrust our marriage entirely to Our Lady on our wedding day. We wanted to honor her as our Mother for all the ways she cared for us and to offer ourselves anew as we entered our vocation; we chose a Marian feast day to get married on and set aside the thirty-three days before our wedding for prayer with Our Blessed Mother.

I found this intentional time walking with Our Lady before marriage to be particularly intimate and eye opening. Just like so many women around me were helping me to prepare the details of my wedding like flowers, decorations, and dresses,  Mary was there too. She was helping to prepare my heart, reminding me what it truly means to be beautiful, to be a bride, to be a daughter of God. 

As the days got closer and last minute adjustments had to be made she was there reminding me that the day of my wedding was not about everything being perfect. Rather, it was about the love Joshua and I have for each other and celebrating that with jubilant thanksgiving regardless of who couldn't make it or the craziness of being a ‘Covid-bride.’

Walking with Mary was a great way of preparing in the final days of engagement. 

We took time on our own to read and pray each day. We would share any reflections we might have had and pray the “Ave Maria Stella” as a couple each evening. 

During our wedding Mass we brought flowers to an image of Our Lady of Guadelupe and knelt to pray our Act of Consecration together. We altered St. Louis Marie de Montfort's consecration prayer slightly using ‘we’ and ‘us’ rather than ‘I.’ Because this version of the consecration prayer is long we did the first half on our own the morning of our wedding and the second half together during the Mass itself.

There are lots of styles of Marian consecrations to choose from. We chose the one written in the 1600s by St. Louis de Montfort but there is a simpler version that is very popular called 33 Days to Morning Glory by Fr. Michael Gaitly, a nine day version by St. Maximilian Kolbe, or one which journeys with St. John Paul II. 

Each of these will provide you with readings for reflection and certain prayers to pray each day to help you to prepare yourself to make this great entrustment to Our Blessed Mother. Whatever you choose I would suggest purchasing a physical book or printing out the materials so you can have them on hand throughout the thirty-three days.

Marian consecration is not something you can only do on your wedding day! Any married couple or individual can choose to make a Marian consecration. Our Lady’s arms are always open to welcome us into deeper devotion so she can in turn lead us closer to her Son. If you are interested in learning more about Marian consecration check out the book True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis Marie de Montfort.

I am confident that if you choose to consecrate your marriage to the Mother of God you will be abundantly blessed in ways you never expected. 

May her maternal love guide you to heaven and make you more like her Son. 

Gratefully, Totus Tuus Maria.

About the Author: Hannah lives in Northern California with her husband Joshua and their daughter. She studied Theology and Business in school and has worked in ministry since graduating. Hannah’s Catholic faith is rooted in a deep love for the Eucharist and Our Blessed Mother. She is passionate about beauty, adventure, and living abundantly. Hannah loves warm weather, gardening, a good dance party and hiking in the mountains or visiting the ocean with her husband.

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