Hellobee Boards

@babycanuck: What I would rather and what I would do are do different things.
I wouldn't mind if I had the thank you and announcement in the same card, I'm not big on thank you cards anyways. But, I think that might offend some people so for that reason if it were me I would send the thank you cards right away, then the announcements out after the baby is born to whomever you want. Then you won't be stuck sending out a bunch of thank yous and baby shower goers won't be waiting up to 9 weeks for a card.

I would (and did) do the thank yous right after the shower - you've got enough to do once the baby is born! But we didn't send out photo announcements at all, so if you're set on photo announcements and you think you can do them in a timely manner (like, are you going to do newborn photos? Because once you wait a few weeks to get those back and then another few weeks for the cards to be printed suddenly your thank yous are going out 3 months after your shower...) then I think either is fine. Nobody doesn't like getting mail!

I voted separate, but I think it would be ok to do a single announcement card as long as you wrote a personal note on each one thanking them for the specific gift. (Which is way more work then you are going to want to do after baby arrives IMO). I think that having a generic printed card that says "thank you" defeats the purpose of a thank you card and I don't see them as very sincere.

I personally wouldn't mind receiving it all at one time, BUT that's not what I did. I feel like etiquette rules dictate you send thank yous within a month of the event, so I sent out thank yous a couple weeks after my shower and then sent out announcements about 3-4 weeks after the baby was born.

I think thank you notes are a must and need to be mailed out ASAP after the shower.

I think thank you notes need to be sent out in a timely manner after the shower. So I would definitely do those before the baby is born. Personally, I don't really feel I need to get mailed photo announcements when I can see photos via email and Facebook. I understand that your package already includes them, but because I view them as so unnecessary, I would not hold up sending thank you's to send them together.

I did both. At my shower, someone kept track of who gave what and got addresses for me (I had most of them anyway, but it was nice that someone did that). I wrote the notes and mailed them within a week. I'd rather do it earlier because once the baby is born, you will be frazzled learning how to care for this new person and you won't remember who gave what.

I personally hate thank you notes. I hate sending them and I never mind not getting them. I already know if I give something usually there's thank you's said in person. I especially hated doing thank you cards after my baby shower when I was running around like mad getting ready for the baby. I like photo announcements better, especially if photos used weren't uploaded online yet. Plus announcements can turn into keepsake items. With that said, the thank you note thing is something a lot of people care about so I did them and didn't bother with with announcements-I was way too tired.

@babycanuck: Our shower is also 6 weeks before my EDD and we are planning on sending thank you cards and then baby announcements. That said, the announcements will be through email because it's SO much easier!