wedding-something: Gifts for the (Special) Guests

Mr. Turkey and I both love giving gifts. We pride ourselves on trying to think of new and different things that fit the individual's personality. Gift cards are a last resort.

In fact, we're that couple that often has trouble waiting to give gifts. Mr. Turkey said that if my parents didn't have my wedding day gift in their possession, I would have received it months ago.

Handsome Brother Turkey delivering my gift / taking Mr. Turkey's

So, when it came to gifting our special guests, we did a LOT of thinking (bridal part gifts in a separate post). To remind you, we had 14 gifts to give:

Parents of the bride

Parents of the groom (x2)

Grandparents of the bride

Ceremony readers (x4)

Ceremony soloist

Slideshow “artiste”

We'll start with the readers. They represented 3 different groups / relationships for us (one of my college friends, two of Mr. Turkey's college friends and my cousin) and so a standard gift didn't seem to make sense. Instead, we decided to give them each something that had a little more meaning.

My college friend lived in Philly for several years during grad school and met her husband while here. We lived close by and had a lot of fun during our years together in the City of Brotherly Love. So, we gifted her with something that would keep those memories alive (she now lives in Germany).

Mugs and a hanging picture from weheartphilly.com

Mr. Turkey and his college friends had a tradition, dating back several years, where they would go to the Philadelphia Eagles - Washington Redskins game together every fall. One is a Redskins fan, while the other 2 root for the Eagles. To commemorate all the games (and thank them for reading), we gifted them with personalized mugs.

Mugs included their last name + the logo of "their" team

My cousin is a few years older and a big fan of pictures. In fact, his house is full of frames of friends and family members. We knew that having a photo from our wedding would be something he'd like in his home. So, we gifted him with a simple frame from Things Remembered and plan to send him a photo of his choosing from the day.

The frame included a message from us

Our other two special guests (aka talented relatives) received "thank you" gifts centered around big life events. Cousin N was about to head to Italy for a summer program, while Cousin L just received her license.

A Kate Spade passport holder

A change purse / ID holder from Coach

For our parents and grandparents, we went the more traditional route. We gifted each of them with a frame listing our wedding date (and included an engagement photo as a placeholder) and, eventually, an album of the day.

The parent albums were 45 images, the grandparents' were 25 (based on a suggestion from our photographer)

Lastly, we did a little something extra for my parents, since they were the hosts of our wedding. But what do you give someone who has given you so much? We chose something that would be a memento - of the wedding and what their support meant to us.

It was a little kitschy, but we thought it would be fun to give them something to say thank you for helping us "tie the knot".