(Image via Cheezeburger Network)
When sportswriter Pete Iorizzo recently married, several guests generously gave him and his bride checks as gifts. Ca-ching! Great news! While cold, hard cash is not the most romantic gift possible, it’s certainly a useful one.
Unfortunately, there was a catch when the bride headed down to Bank of America to deposit said checks in their joint checking account: the bank refused to accept the checks.
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A lot of crazy talk happens around weddings. One of the places where the talk gets craziest is about gifts. I’ll be the first to admit that gifts are tricky, sometimes. We’ve all given gifts that bombed, received gifts that made us cringe inside, and watched people open gifts that made us hold our collective breaths while we wait to see how the insult inside that pretty box is handled. But all in all, gift giving and gift receiving oughtn’t to be such a mine field. After all, most people genuinely hope the gifts they give will be enjoyable and useful to the recipient, and most gift receivers honestly want to be able to enjoy what’s under the wrapping. When it comes right down to it, we remember the horrible gift mistakes so much precisely because they’re fairly rare.
But because we’re human, we seem to have an innate need to complicate simple things. So let’s take a look at a couple myths about gifts that tend to complicate our lives and see what baggage we can unload right here and now to reduce bridal (and guestal!) stress.
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It’s been a while since we’ve talked about that white elephant in the room, wedding gifts.
I know the thought causes an amazing range of emotions from absolute joy to abject terror to… well… whatever it happens to stir up in you. Some people think gifts are the best part of getting married, while others would rather discuss having public rectal surgery than consider the possibility of more stuff in their lives.
Honestly, I don’t care which camp you’re in or whether you’re somewhere in between. This is not my concern. After all, I did my thing. It’s done. This isn’t about how you should feel about wedding gifts or whether it’s okay to want or not want them. This is about the practical aspects of handling this particular part of getting married. If you want pressies, that’s great. If you don’t want them, that’s great, too. But the fact is you will have to deal with the question, and with people who make choices that don’t necessarily match your wishes.
Here’s the deal.
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This week, I’ve been thinking about things I love – all the things I can’t get out of my mind, all the pretty pictures I’ve been saving in inspiration folders. That sort of stuff. And I thought it would be fun to share some of it with you in short bursts throughout the week so you can get similarly inspired! So I suppose you consider this NtB Loves week. Enjoy!
I grew up around nesting dolls, so how could I not love Matryoshka wedding favors? It’s a wedding favor that guests will be much more likely to keep, I think. More so than an armless bride with fire for a head or towel cake. What’s not to like? Matryoshka are cute and fun and decorative in a way that doesn’t require color matching, so make, I think, ideal wedding favors.
Matryoshka!
How could you not love these?
What do you think… cute or too kitschy?
Spices! And/or herbs. Your options are wide open: mini jars, a custom spice blend, paper packets, a single herb, custom printed labels, a simple ribbon, etc. Spice wedding favors are probably a safer bet than other types of edible wedding favors – which are by far your favorite kind of favors if the polls I’ve posted are any indication – if only because more of your guests may find a use for an unfamiliar spice than would like something like truffles or maple syrup.
Totally DIYable, def
Just too cute - it's wedding thyme!
And if you love the idea but want to take it up a notch, you can always pair your spice wedding favors with a mini ceramic mortar and pestle, squee!
Yet another way to spice it up a little!
Brides-to-be with a knack for canning can default to an easy DIY wedding favor in the form of homemade jam in cute wee jars. But just because you’re not particularly handy in the kitchen doesn’t mean you can’t have jam wedding favors – there are plenty of personalized jam wedding favors on Etsy and elsewhere, in addition to the less expensive non-personalized mini jams. Check out how pretty they can be:
When it comes to bouquet alternatives for the bride or for the bridesmaid, fans tend to pop into my head first – mainly because we gave our wedding guests fans as favors at our summertime Florida wedding. Yes, I know it’s the dead of winter – at least here in frigid MA – but that means it’s the perfect time to be thinking about (or losing ourselves in thoughts of) summertime weddings!
Fans for the bridesmaids can be as simple or as complex as you want them to be. Some brides choose rather plain sandalwood fans dressed up with ribbons or lace or even basic paper fans in pretty colors. Others go for something a bit more outrageous, like peacock feather fans or butterfly fans. Sound sweet? Under the cut you’ll find a taste of inspiration to help you choose the perfect fans for your bridesmaids.
