Sunday, October 04, 2015

The Wedding Diaries: The Gifts, Favours and Last minute dramas!










Photographs from Perfect Circle Photography, apart from product photos from each website - sorry we didn't have photos taken of all the gifts!

I think the gifts are one of the hardest parts of the wedding to get, our parents were so generous with helping us with the wedding, our friends were so generous with their time that I wanted to find the perfect presents to show our thanks for all their effort in helping us plan for the wedding and throwing us both great Hen and Stag do's! Luckily we planned our wedding over two and a half years, so you know... we had time!

Bridesmaids
For my beautiful bridesmaids & my momma I bought these gorgeous floral kimonos, purple for the girlies and then treated myself to a white one. Two years of Pinning meant I had to get these so we could look photo ready at any opportunity on the morning and whenever they wore them the girls would be reminded of getting ready on that day. We all stayed in the same hotel the night before the wedding so I placed the kimono hung in their room along with a hand written note to surprise them when they checked in.
On the morning of the wedding I bought each of the a rose gold "knotted" ring to say thanks for helping us tie the knot, get it.... never mind. I also got each of them a brooch to wear on their dresses to tie the look altogether.

The Groomsmen
The boys - Bretts besties from school and uni and god can these boys drink! So we figured a personalised hip flask filled with their favourite tipple would be a present they would actually want. Needless to say they didn't stay filled for long.

Flower Girls & Page Boy
For the little un's I figured any sentimental presents were aimed more at their parents and they'd prefer more sweet based gifts! So I did the best of both worlds. Each of them got a personalised log slice with their name, the date and a thank you message from us to keep. I then made goody bags up for each of them containing Thornton's chocolate shapes iced with their name on, disney princess toys for the girls and marvels avengers for our page boy along with a wedding themed colouring and puzzle book and pens. These were placed on their chair at the reception and did an amazing job of keeping them all entertained when the grown ups were being "boring".

The Mums
For my mum along with her Kimono I bought her a Jo Malone candle in the same scent I wore on the day and had a special messaged engraved on the lid. Safe to say it went down a treat and numerous tears (happy ones) were spilt when she read it.
Similar tears appeared when we gave his mum a necklace engraved with our initials, the wedding date and the message "Thanks for raising the man of our dreams".

The Dads
My dad is one of the most difficult men to buy for! He has everything and never wants anything; he is however a traditionalist who still carries round a handkerchief in his pocket! So I commissioned a customised handkerchief with the message "Dad, Thank you for walking by my side today and always. You are the first man I ever loved, and I will always be your little girl Love, Ellen". 
His dad is never out of a suit, so we figured he would get a lot of use out of cufflinks engraved with his initials on so he's truly suited and booted.

Each Other 
Organising Brett's present was probably as stressful as organising the whole wedding! The boy is car mad and has always dreamt of driving an Aston Martin my budget didn't stretch quite as far putting one in the garage permanently. I did however rent one for the day which he drove with a huge smile on this face making the stress totally worth it.
Brett surpassed himself with my gifts not only did I get to open a little turquoise box on my wedding day (every girls dream) to see the most beautiful necklace, he also got me a kindle for our honeymoon filled with books as he knows how I get through a book a day on average on holiday!

The Favours
Here in lies the drama, we originally ordered cake pops as the favours, mini brides for all female guests and mini grooms for all male guests. We saw the idea right at the beginning of our planning period and had them ordered for ages to arrive 2 days before the wedding. The problem being when they did, the courier decided to ignore the fragile sticker and they arrived looking like they had been stood on by a herd of elephants. The woman we ordered them from was on holiday meaning that they couldn't be re-made. Que mad panic looking for an alternative - we ended up ordering 100 plain vanilla cupcakes from Sainbury's of all places and decorating them ourselves with rice paper moustaches or bow ties for the men and edible glitter and pearls for the women. Theres always some drama!

The last of the wedding series will be focusing on the entertainment, decor and those extra special touches, stay tuned!


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