My mom always told me that if you don't send out thank you cards within a week of receiving a gift, you'll look like you have bad manners. I hated writing thank you notes when I was a kid; truly despised the entire process. But I did it within her allotted time frame so that proper etiquette was upheld.
But wait until my mom hears that even the royal family slips up when it comes to etiquette!
A woman by the name of Gertrude, who keeps a blog called Gert's Royal Replies, posted an amusing response she got from Kensington Palace in regards to a letter she sent to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to congratulate them on their wedding.
"[A] long awaited reply arrived today from the UK," Gertrude wrote. "I had written to Harry & Meghan back in May to congratulate them on their wedding. This reply came about 5.5 months after I had written, which is a long response time, but not the longest I've seen. (That honor would go to the Queen's 90th Birthday Reply.)"
The response came with a black and white photograph of Their Royal Highnesses on their wedding day, plus a note from Claudia Spens, head of the Correspondence Section at Clarence House.
The note apologized for the late response, and even personally thanked Gertrude for her donation to the Myna Mahila Foundation, one of the seven charities Meghan and Harry asked people to donate to in lieu of gifts.
Dear Miss Daly,The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have asked me to thank you for your letter of 24th May and I must apologise for the delay in responding to you. As I am sure you can imagine, this has been a particularly busy time for this office and we have, consequently, been unable to reply as quickly as we should have liked to.
It was so kind of you to take the trouble to write as you did and Their Royal Highnesses were immensely touches by your generous words of support. The Duke and Duchess were heartened to learn of the charitable donation you made to the Myna Mahila Foundation in their honour; this was most thoughtful and commendable of you and Their Royal Highnesses are incredibly grateful.
Although unable to reply to you personally, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have asked me to send you their warmest thanks for your letter and their very best wishes.
Yours sincerely,
Claudia Spens
What's funny is that Princess Eugenie also made headlines for her thank you cards, except that in her case it was for the prompt response. It took just three weeks for people to receive the cards from the princess and her new husband.
"Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making our wedding so special and for thinking of us as we start our married life," the couple wrote. "We are completely overwhelmed with happiness. Eugenie + Jack."
Obviously the palace has more pressing matters to attend to than thank you notes to fans, but it is nice to see they acknowledged their was a delay, and took the time to thank people individually for their donations.