WEDding WEDnesday: giving thanks to our wedding party

Never being a fan of the Things Remembered trinkets, I knew I wanted to gift our wedding party with personal items they would use.  One would think a bride would know her attendants very well, since she chose them to support and represent her in the, arguably, most important day of her life.  And, same goes for the groom and his attendants.

Our wedding party consisted of mine and Gabe's best friends as our MOH and BM, respectively, along with all of our siblings: my two sisters and Gabe's sister, and Gabe's two brothers and my brother. 

 
I spent months gathering each of their gifts, as they weren't all found in one place.  And I had a blast doing it, mostly because I was taking a break from making decisions for my wedding day, and shopping for others {Virgo}.  Gabe and I really enjoyed watching our attendants open their gifts at our rehearsal dinner, the night before the big day.  Also, I didn't want to leave out Gabe's young step sister who was not part of our wedding party, but whom we had asked to help greet and seat guests at the ceremony, so I gathered all the new and vintage blue embroidery thread I had and wrapped it up in a cute gift box--her favorite color is blue and she makes these awesome friendship-style bracelets with this kind of thread--and gave it to her to open at the dinner with everyone else.  She was so tickled, which made us really happy.

Each groomsman received:
2 bars of homemade beer soap
1 vintage bow tie
1 Crown Royal bag

I found the beer soap on etsy, from a seller who makes them herself from several different brands of beer.  I custom selected each kind to give to each guy, wrapped the bars in a vintage silk bow tie {also carefully selected from a local thrift store Cheap Thrills, which they wore on our wedding day}, and packaged them in a Crown Royal bag.  And since my co-worker--who acted as our officiant--was watching over my shoulder as I purchased the soap and whined about how cool it was, I bought him a couple bars as well.  He told me a few weeks after our wedding that his teenage sons got a kick out of them! :)

Each of my bridesmaids received:
1 J.Crew tote
1 vintage magazine from the month & year she was born

The canvas and leather tote bags were luckily on final sale at my local second home J.Crew.  I wasn't shopping for them, but I saw a whole rack of the pink totes in the sale section while I was meeting with the tailor, and I couldn't resist.  I already owned this same tote in camel and use it as my everyday purse, so I knew the ladies would too appreciate how handy it is.  The magazines took the longest time to track down, as I had to find all of them on ebay.  I looked at local used bookstores and thrift shops, but did not have any luck.  Eventually, and all in good time before the rehearsal dinner, I found fashion mags from each gal's corresponding month/year.  The one shown above is a June 1989 issue of Cosmo, for my sister Hannah. Aaaand... Bonus!  My MOH is only a day younger than me, so her month/year Cosmo {September 1984} is mine as well, so I had a blast flipping through her's before I wrapped it up.  Note: there were several more cigarette ads back in the 80s in Cosmo.  And a helluva lot more text in the articles, in comparison to the 'gist' the writers give readers nowadays.

Lastly, as a gift to our parents for helping us with all the wedding planning and for, well, giving us life, Gabe made rosemary {from our garden} and garlic infused olive oil, bottled in the small green S. Pellegrino glass bottles, with a neon orange pourer, and handed them out to each set of parents at our rehearsal dinner.  They were so cute, and all the parents loved them.
 
Almost a year later, none of the guys have told me they have again worn their bow ties, but they did use up all the beer soap, so that's good news.  And the ladies all use their totes either for purses, overnight bags, beach bags, or shopping totes, which makes me extra super happy.  I love that we gave our wedding party gifts they could use and were happy to receive, because that truly means a lot to us.  Gifts should be meaningful.  Period. 

I hope this has inspired at least one bride/groom to rethink the flask or shot glasses and instead dream up a more appropriate and special gift for her/his special attendants.  It will really mean a lot to your party that even though planning your wedding has you totally stressed, you still found the time to hand-pick a gift especially for them. 

Peace and happy hump day!