Etiquette
Gift Tag Wording for Every Occasion
A tag has room for about six words. Here is how to spend them.
A gift tag holds roughly six words before it stops looking like a tag and starts looking like a note. That constraint is the entire craft of it.
The structure that always works
A greeting, and a name. That is it.
Happy birthday, love Priya. With love, the Mehta family. Thank you, Anita.
If you find yourself needing a third element, you want a card, not a tag.
Birthdays
- Happy birthday, with love
- Many happy returns, Nani
- Another year, still the best, love Sam
- To Aarav, from Masi
For milestone birthdays
Name the number or leave it out entirely. Half naming it, as in a big one, reads as hedging.
Weddings and engagements
- With love and best wishes
- Congratulations to you both
- Wishing you every happiness
- So happy for you both, the Sharmas
If the tag is going on a favor rather than a gift, the wording flips: it is from the couple to the guest. Thank you for celebrating with us. Foil tags in that wording are the most common wedding order we take.
Diwali and festivals
- Happy Diwali, from our family to yours
- Wishing you light and prosperity
- Warm wishes this Diwali
- Happy Raksha Bandhan, your brother
For hampers going to a long list, print the greeting and handwrite only the recipient name. It is faster and looks more consistent than handwriting both. Diwali tags are set up for exactly this.
Thank you gifts
- Thank you, truly
- With thanks and love
- We could not have done it without you
- Thank you for everything
For a business thanking a customer, drop the flourish. Thank you for shopping with us plus your shop name does more work than anything clever. See thank you tags.
Baby showers and new homes
- Welcome, little one
- For the newest arrival
- Blessings on your new home
- Home sweet home, love the Guptas
Corporate gifting
Two rules. Sign it from a person or from the company, not both. And skip the seasonal pun, because it ages badly and someone will keep the tag.
- With thanks for a great year
- Season's greetings from all of us
- With appreciation, the team at [company]
What to avoid
The amount or the price
Obviously, but it happens on gift cards more than you would think.
Instructions
Do not open until Tuesday belongs on a sticky note, not on a foiled tag someone might keep.
Inside jokes on a wedding favor
Fine on a gift to one person. On a hundred favors it excludes ninety nine of them.
Anything you cannot fit
If the wording needs a smaller font to fit, cut the wording rather than shrinking the type. Small text on a foil tag is hard to read at the best of times.
Printed or handwritten
Handwritten is warmer for one gift. Printed is better for anything over about ten, because handwriting drifts and the tenth tag never looks like the first.
For a wedding or a corporate run, printing the greeting in foil and leaving a clear panel for a handwritten name gives you both. There is no design fee for setting the wording, and a proof comes to you before anything prints.
The short version
Greeting plus name. Six words. Foil the part that repeats and handwrite the part that changes.
Shop gift tags
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Related reading
FAQ
1. What should I write on a gift tag?
A short greeting and your name. Six words is roughly the practical limit before a tag stops reading as a tag.
2. What do you write on a wedding favor tag?
The wording runs from the couple to the guest, such as thank you for celebrating with us. It is the most common wedding tag order we print.
3. Should gift tags be printed or handwritten?
Handwritten for a single gift, printed for anything over about ten. A good compromise is foiling the greeting and leaving a panel for a handwritten name.
4. Can I have my family or company name foiled onto tags?
Yes, at no design fee. Send the wording exactly as you want it printed and we send a proof before production.
5. How many gift tags should I order?
Your list plus about fifteen percent. Counts almost always grow in the final week, and packs start at 20.
6. What should I not write on a gift tag?
The price, instructions, or an inside joke on anything going to more than one person.