Personalized Wedding Gifts

When it comes to customs, rituals, nuances and expectations weddings have just about every possible twist, turn and trapdoor you can think of, and just when you have it all sorted, you find out the bride or groom's culture stirred everything up again. We can't promise you won't end up toasting everyone with a swear word when the bride's brother gave you a crash course in Greek, but we will give you some advice so you don't completely bungle the gift giving portions of the night.

For Those attending as guests

When it comes to attending the wedding, outside the bridal party, your job is pretty simple, bring a gift for the couple, eat, drink, dance and don't make an ass of yourself. Really the only chance you have for making a particular mess of things (without the aid of alchohol). We've all heard the cliche about getting a bunch of toasters as wedding gifts, which is likely why the gift registry was invented. So before you lose too much hair over trying to find the perfect wedding gift check for a gift registry. If the couple has a wedding website, which is very common these days, click through there first, also check the emails they sent you if any, or even ask them if they've registered for gifts. If you find they have registered, then you can simply choose something from the list, and then mark it as purchased on the registry, so there are no duplicate gifts, easy peasy! However if there is not a registry, don't worry! Let's look at that now.

So why the toaster cliche? Is a toaster the perfect wedding gift? Of course not. Wedding gifts are traditionally items for the couple to use to "start their new life together". So things for the home like small appliances and kitchenwares are pretty logical choices to help them furnish their home. This is the tradition, but these days couples often have been living together for a while before they marry and may already have a well furnished home, and unless you give the proverbial "wedding china" ie a full set of matching dishes, your gift may just not match anything else in their home, and they will end up with a big mishmash of kitchenware, though this isn't the worst thing in the world, some items can get away with it better than others. A good quality cast iron pot or pan need not match anything else in the kitchen. The small appliances don't need to match each other either in most kitchens, but a gift of 3 of 4 plates or a half dozen pieces of cutlery is less libel to jive with anything else.

Remember the kitchen is not the only room in the home either, and the garden can offer as many options as the house (if they have one). If you opt for houseware when choosing a gift, remember not to decorate their home. A beautiful set of velvet curtains could be a wonderful gift, or a strong stylistic choice they may not agree with. A porcelain tiered serving tray is a much safer choice as it is not a permanent fixture of the room. There are two other things that are important to consider if you are buying houseware as a gift. Firstly whatever you buy, choose something of high quality, even if it means you must buy a simpler gift or spend a bit more. A wedding is a symbol of permanence and gifts should reflect this mindset of the bride and groom. Secondly Choose something that is duplicatable or unlikely to be chosen by someone else. The other reason the toaster is a cliche? Because no one needs more than one toaster. I can do with two sets of oven mitts, two, three, or four cooking pots, even of the same size, but there is no sensible reason to have two toasters. Keep this toaster principle in mind when choosing a wedding gift.

Non-houseware: As I mentioned earlier, hosewares were a traditional gift, but not everyone needs housewares as a gift these days. The truth of the matter is, most young couples these days would prefer a gift of cash, the only reason this isn't the norm is because guests can feel it's lazy on their part and hosts can feel it's greedy to ask. If you don't mind breaking this convention it's usually really a win-win. Apart from cash and housewares what can we choose? Are there still other options? You need to keep two principles in mind. Firstly the gift should be something that will last for a long time, as I mentioned above, and second the gift is traditionally something that both the bride and groom will use.

If you want to go outside of things for the home or garden, there is maybe the car? But things for a car would likely look pretty tacky as a wedding gift, you can also consider a "His" and "Hers" set, they are often in things like towels, backrobes, pillowcases or coffee cups, but they may come in clothing like caps or shirts? This could be a bit tacky but still generally in the acceptable area. Though it may not be a hard and fast rule, getting the bride and groom seperate gifts is generally a "risky" if not plain bad idea. The marriage is a symbol of union, but separate gifts, might be more symbolic of something else. You won't be crucified, but if possible try to avoid going down this path. Dispite what I just said, there are however, those who may need to buy gifts for the Bride or Groom seperately, let's look at those now.

Personalized Gifts for the Bride

When should you buy the bride a gift? Short answer, do not buy the bride and groom seperate gifts unless you are in the bridal party. The exception of course is if you are at a bridal shower which is the topic for another article (likely written by someone else). If you are the maid of honor or the parents of either the bride or groom, you may decide to get the bride a gift. If you are the groom, you probably shouldn't worry about getting the bride a gift, just focus on the wedding being a success. If you are the parents of the bride, something like nice photos of the couple in a fancy frame, or engraved jewelery are a good choice. If you are the parents of the groom your gift should say welcome to the family, something personal that tells a message such as engraved jewelery, photos on pillows or in frames, other items for around the house with engraved messages.

A gift from the maid of honour to the bride should be something personal, remember she chose you as her best friend to share her big day with, so your gift should highlight that friendship as well. Try to find something classy or thoughtful that sheds light on the long history of friendship you've had together. Even managing to find a photo from years ago would be a meaningful gift. Play off an inside joke or memory you have together. You gift needn't be expensive, but it should have thought put into it.

Personalized Gifts for the Groom

Buying a seperate gift for the groom is not generally necessary. If you are a close member of the family like a parent or sibling of either the bride or groom and decide to buy the groom a gift, you can go for either cheeky or sentimental, depending on the groom and your prefernces. You can get the groom something engraved with a nice message, such as a watch or flask, or you can get a funnier message, or even a semi jokey gift that you know he's likely to appreciate. The major gift should always be for the couple, not either the bride or groom individually, so if you do get them something, focus on telling one message, not on giving something too fancy.

Personalized Gifts From the Bride and Groom.

Even though you emptied out your savings account buying fish or chicken options for 500 of your closest friends and family. Even though you've already spent 8 months planning details down to the pastor's cufflinks, I'm afraid they're still a couple more tiny details to consider. Even though you'll be getting a big stack of gifts to take home for yourselves, there are a couple you'll need to be handing out. The gifts you give are simply a thank you for those that helped you both make the whole day possible, and with all the stress you've been under, you can probably respect the value of all that help, so a little thank you isn't asking much. You should planning on giving gifts to the parents of both the bride and groom as well as all the bridsmaids and groomsmen.

Personalized gifts for Bridesmaids & Groomsmen

For the Bridesmaids and groomsmen, it's pretty customary to get the same gift for all of them (that is the same item for each bridesmaid and the same item for each groomsman). That acctually is great news for you, as it saves you from trying to pick out something overly personal for each of them. Just play more off gender, and get the guys something masculine, like engraved flasks, or beer mugs or growlers. You can put their names on them, or just print the wedding date or something cheeky like "I survived so and so's wedding". Really the best bet is just something nice like a leather wallet, a bottle of cologn, a pocket knife, etc. With a simple message engraved on it. For the bridesmaids, the logic is pretty much the same, get them something like a compact, bracelet, perfume bottle, handbag, notebook etc. with an engraved message. You can go with their names, the wedding date, or a small personal message for each.

Personalized Gifts for Parents of the Bride and Parents of the Groom

The other gifts you should get are for both sets of parents. Parents have a tendency to love us unconditionally, but it's better to be on the safe side and get them something from the heart. If your parents were highly involved and helped extensively, or even paid for the wedding, you should put some extra effort into the gifts, if they were less involved, you can get away with a bit less, the gift is mostly a thank you to both your parents. The most important thing is a heartfelt card. This is not a good time to sign a halmark card with some quote from mark Twain on the inside. You should try for at least two or three paragraphs in each card, and put some time into it, this should take more than one draft, and people will be reading it. The card should be a thank you for everything including raising you, if wolves raised you, you probably wouldn't be getting married right now, so let's assume that helped a lot. Besides the card, this is a good time to choose a gift that presents well.

I would recommend a custom gift basket, buy a nice wicker basket, fill it with colorful wrapping paper, purple is a great choice as it convey's elegance, and fill the basket full of several gifts. Some great ideas to include are a bottle of spirit they like, some artisan chocolates, a small piece of engraved jewellery for each, such as a pendant, necklace, earrings or bracelet for mom and a watch, wallet, necklace, cufflinks or pocket watch for dad. Some nice items for the bathroom, such as lotions artisan soaps, bath bombs or potporri, even perfume cologn or after shave could be a nice touch. Something like concert tickets or a spa day (if you think mom could manage to get dad to go), would be a great touch. Try some scented candles or confectionary like macaroons. You can boost your gift basket to the next level by decorating around the gifts with things like flowers, shredded wrapping paper, or even pinecones, acorns or leaves. It's best to focus on presentation, and make sure you buy quality items, the classyness of a gift basket plummets if you toss a couple snickers bars in. If you go for only one gift, it may be best to get them one thing each, get something high quality, functional and engraved, such as some of the items I suggested above.

Personalized Gifts for the Ring Bearer and Flower Girl

The Flower Girl and Ring bearer are generally the two most discerning and distinguished guests at your wedding with nuanced oppinions when it comes to ? just kidding, they are generally children. Here you have two kids that are helping in your wedding day and it's nice to get them gifts to say thank you. While they might just want toys and candy, it's best to get them something a bit more classy as it's a wedding. A nice necklace or earrings (if she wears them) for the ring girl, or maybe a nice journal or notebook are good as they will last a long time and she won't out-grow them. For the ring-bearer, he might like a compass or notebook. Something like a swiss army knife could be good too if his parents approve. Even a watch or wallet could be a hit, and all the gifts I've mentioned above can be engraved to give them a nice message too look back on many years later as an adult and remind them where they got the gifts. It's not a bad idea at all to sneak in a bit of chocolate or candy with the gift as well, or even a stuffed toy if they are much younger, just try to keep it classy.

Planning a whole wedding is stressful enough, with all the ettiqute to follow and cultural norms to adhere to. We hope this guide helped take some of the stress out of buying gifts either for the lucky couple or for those special guests if it's your wedding! With your wedding shopping handled, if you are looking for a personalized gift for other events keep us in mind! We make custom video games that make a great gift and can be sent anywhere in the world! Tell you own story and live your own adventure! Click here to learn moreand be sure to subscribe to our newsletter below to get our best tips for personalized gifts for every occasion!