Bridesmaids Gifts. What to Get & How Much to Spend

This post is about the girls who will be standing next to you while you marry the man of your dreams: your bridesmaids. Besides your fiancé and your immediate family, they are the ones who have seen you at your best and your worst. They're there for you when you want to go out for a night on the town, but they're also there for you, holding your hair back when you're hugging the toilet at the end of the night. When you need some time to vent about the fact that your guy never remembers to put the toilet seat down, they're there. 

So you want to make sure they know that you appreciate them on your wedding day. You don't have to give them anything crazy, just a little something to say "Thanks for helping me find the dress, put together the invitations, organize the favors, and putting up with my craziness for the past several months." Hopefully you haven't been too much of a bridezilla!

Some brides may wonder what to give, how much to spend, or when she should give them out. After some research, I've found the answers to these questions:

1. What Should I Give?

You could go two ways with this: 1. You can get everyone the same present, like accessories that should be worn on the wedding day, or 2. Go the extra mile and give each bridesmaid a different gift within the same price range. I'm a fan of personalizing things. You could do a combination of the two options and get your bridesmaids the same gift, but put their initials on it. For example, a monogrammed tank top, or a necklace with their first initial on a pendant. You should ask yourself: "Would I want it?" You don't want to give them something that's just going to get lost in a drawer after the wedding.

2. How Much Should I Spend?

There are a few things that a bride should take into account before she buys the gifts. She should determine how much of her budget she can spare, and consider how much her bridesmaids are spending for her. If you have bridesmaids who are spending money on a plane ticket, hotel room, dress, shoes, the shower, and other things, you should probably plan on spending around $100-$150 per girl. If your bridesmaids are local and and don't have as many expenses, anything around $75-$90 will suffice. You're definitely not expected to cover every cent they spend, but you should spend enough to say "Thank You." 

*Side Note: The Maid of Honor usually gets a more extravagant gift, since she's responsible for coordinating the shower and bachelorette party. Just something extra to say "Thanks for going the extra mile."

3. When Should I Give Them Out?

That's up to the bride. Some brides choose to give them out at the rehearsal dinner, while their closest family and friends are around; others opt to give them out on the wedding day during a private moment amidst all of the wedding chaos.

I'm Getting Married! Buy Me a Shot!

I'm going to a bachelorette party for a good friend of mine tonight, so that's what today's post is about. The Knot has provided a ton of great ideas for props, activities, and games for the big night besides the obligatory "Bachelorette" sash and penis straws. Here are the top 3 quintessential bachelorette party props:

1. The Tiara

A bachelorette party essential. You want everyone to know what to expect when they come across a huge group of girls screaming "She's getting married!"

2. The Dare List

A list of things that the bachelorette has to complete before the end of the night.

3. Male stripper

Enough said.

There really aren't any rules with a bachelorette party, it's really up to the bride. But here are a few things that should be remembered:

-It's not the best idea to have it the night before the wedding. The last thing a bride wants is to be hungover on her wedding day.

-The bachelor and bachelorette parties don't have to be on the same night. However, having them on the same night will leave no time for them to worry about what the other one is doing that night.

-Don't just assume that the bride wants a night of bar-hopping, flirting with strangers, and drinking till she pukes. Make sure she's comfortable with that type of party, or if she would rather have a day at the spa with the girls, or just go to a casual dinner for some girl talk.

-Always make sure the bride or one of the girls at the party calls the groom at the end of the night to let him know that his bride to be is safe and sound, and that he has nothing to worry about.

As long as the bride and the guests have fun, you can't really go wrong!

Reception Fun

I always thought that when you went to a wedding reception you had dinner, danced a lot, took advantage of the open bar, signed the guest book, and listened to a bunch of drunken toasts. Apparently there are a ton of other things that you can have at your reception to make sure your guests have fun. Pinterest, Style Me Pretty, and DIY Bride have posted some awesome ideas for receptions.

Put these coloring kits at tables where kids are sitting.
Ask them to make a card for the bride and groom.
This is a good idea to keep them from getting
bored during the toasts and speeches.

A s'mores bar for a winter wedding, of course.

Photobooths are the most popular trend at weddings today.

Who Wears the Cake?
Whoever has more money in their glass gets a face full of cake.
You can use the money as extra cash for your honeymoon,
or if you're feeling philanthropic,
you can donate the money to a charity of your choice.

Cute photo idea that guests can do throughout the night.

Each bottle represents a year.
Guests write notes and slip them in whichever bottle they want.
The couple opens the bottle for that anniversary.

If you're an Instagram addict like me, this is an awesome idea.

A Wish Jar.
Guests write and sign wishes and give advice to the couple.

Winter Wonderland

I would love to have a winter wedding. The idea of getting married while there's snow falling outside around the holidays is so romantic to me (but with our luck, the year we get married we'll have 2 inches of snowfall all winter). The holidays also happen to be my favorite time of year. I love giving gifts, snuggling in front of a fireplace, and holiday parties. I also love winter colors. Deep, rich reds and blues, accented by gold or silver are my ideal holiday shades. 

Here is some winter wedding inspiration courtesy of The Knot and Style Me Pretty.

Gorgeous shot. Probably really hard to recreate.

Perfect favors

I love the touches of gold. Subtle and not overwhelming.
The feather against the contrasting burlap table runner give a nice "city meets country" feel.

I absolutely love the tented ceilings. The lights are great too.

The silver tablecloth, crystals, and white flowers are great colors for a winter wedding.

I love this center piece.

Tree branches painted white are a great, easy way to add a winter feel to the wedding.

Not a huge fan of the tablecloth, but I love the ornaments hanging from the tree branches over the table.

Pinecones are a winter staple.

This is a great coat to wear over your dress when you're taking pictures outside.

You Mean I Can't Just Throw Some Roses in a Vase?

Wedding flowers. This is definitely one of the wedding aspects that is meant for the bride to oversee. My fiancé couldn't care less about floral centerpieces, bouquets, or anything having to do with flowers. I could pick some tulips from someone's yard, throw them in a glass vase, and stick them on the center of a table, and he wouldn't know the difference. 

Depending on how important they are to you, you're either going to spend a little or a lot of your budget on flowers. Being a stickler for details, I place a lot of importance on the them in a wedding, so I don't mind spending a little more money to get the centerpieces or bouquets that I like. With that said, I know absolutely nothing about wedding flowers. I don't know what terms like biedermeier, pomander, or nosegay mean. (I'm a vocab freak, so you can bet your butt that I'm going to learn) All I know is that calla lilies and orchids are my favorite flowers. How they will be arranged and incorporated into the wedding will be decided by me with a lot of help from a florist. 

Thankfully, The Knot has provided a list of 15 wedding flower mistakes to avoid submitted by florists and event planners with a ton of experience. Below are a few of my favorite tips:

This one may be a little hard for me, since I'm such a control freak. But we'll make it work :)

Some people may find this idea tacky, but it actually makes a lot of sense. 

I like this idea, especially since my favorite flowers are on the pricier side.

This is very true. I'm all about minimalism, so the less cluttered and 

more coordinated a table looks, the better.

(tips and images from theknot.com)

VIPS #2

If you don't know what VIPS means, refer to this post. This week's VIPS is one of the most informative wedding planning sites I've looked at. The Knot should be one of the first websites a girl goes to when she gets engaged. Not only is it a great resource for planning your wedding, but it's a great place to look when you just want to find inspiration from other weddings.

One of my favorite features of The Knot is their "Just Engaged"section. It gives a list of the 10 things you need to do first after your groom-to-be pops the question. Items on the list include picking a date, setting a budget, and getting engagement pictures taken.  

Another great section is The Knot community. It's a series of message boards where brides from all over the country can post anything from pictures, to suggestions, to reviews. The boards can also be viewed according to geographic location, so it's easy to find suggestions on local vendors or venues. 

The Knot has an amazing library of images that you can view for inspiration. They have over 35,000 that are sorted by wedding color, style, season, or even flower so that you can narrow down your search and find what you're looking for without looking through thousands of pictures. 

There are a ton of other features that I could write about, but that would just be tedious and would spoil the fun. Once we decide to actually start planning and looking around at different options, The Knot will definitely be one of, if not the most, useful site for me.

(all images from theknot.com)