Here are some etiquette tips on how to acknowledge others:
- Try to send your acknowledgement cards within a week to 10 days from the time of the service when sending thanks for flowers, gifts, and other acts of kindness.
- If friends and neighbors performed personal services, usually no card is necessary as they are often so close to the bereaved family that they are thanked in person.
- Letters and cards received from friends require some written words. These notes can be written on the inside of your regular acknowledgment cards. If your loved one was a prominent person or public figure, a regular acknowledgment card without a written note is acceptable.
- It is not considered necessary to acknowledge visits and calls made by friends to the home or to the funeral home, as usually some member of the family has seen them and/or spoken with them already.
- Sympathy cards received by your family members do not usually require a written response.
- When acknowledging other acts of kindness including pall bearers, honorary bearers or friends who may have offered a car for transportation or other services, it is proper to write a personal note. The regular acknowledgment card may be used for these notes.
Have any funeral etiquette tips you'd like to share? Please share them here.
