With five each of bridesmaids, groomsmen, flower girls and junior groomsmen, we had a rather large wedding party. I wanted it large--I almost wished I could have asked more friends to be bridesmaids and more little girls to be flower girls, since there are so many people I love dearly! But John thought it was best if we kept it at five each, and he is wise. The front of the church is only so large. :-)
One thing I didn't realize was that a large wedding party would add to the expense of the wedding to an extent. We needed a lot of bouquets and boutonnieres! We also needed to have gifts for all our attendants, and I wanted to have something thoughtful and nice to give to each one without spending an exorbitant amount.
It seemed like a practical thing to give my bridesmaids jewelry for the wedding. One day I complimented one of my students on her necklace and she told me that she'd made it! I learned that our art teacher held weekly jewelry club meetings after school, and after speaking with her personally, I got myself invited. :-) She was excited to help me come up with gifts for my friends, and after chatting and looking at some pictures online, she went home and made a prototype necklace. The next time we met, we adjusted the design a bit, and she taught me how to make them myself.
Using Swarovski crystals, silk cord and mostly sterling silver elements, I was able to make jewelry from nice materials for less than they would have cost to buy. I made them matching earrings as well, Mom stitched up some jewelry bags out of leftover dotted swiss, and I felt happy about the personal touch involved.
There were a few afternoons after school when John helped me with my jewelry-making. Once we got on a roll, I decided to make our mothers little bracelets to match their dresses, and to go along with the pashmina wraps we also purchased them.
I was really excited about our gifts for the little girls, and owe everything to my Mom. She made them all doll dresses to match their dresses! We found pretty little suitcase-boxes at the Christmas Tree Shop on sale and the dresses looked darling inside.
Little boys were harder for me (I think boys are always harder to buy presents for!). Theknot.com had some good ideas in their online shop, but I think it's hard to judge quality online. John and I visited G. Williker's in Saratoga with our junior groomsmen in mind and found some wooden pop-guns that we liked. There were only one or two in the store, though, so John went home and ordered five online. You can imagine our distress last October when we found the carton of pop guns in a closet in John's parents' house! Somehow they got overlooked on the day of the rehearsal and got handed out three months late!
With our wedding date fast-approaching, I started to be a bit concerned that John still had nothing for his groomsmen or our dads. I shouldn't have worried. We went to the mall together, and within an hour, our shopping was done! John's a good shopper. And God blessed our efforts! We bought father/son and father/daughter Willow Tree figurines for our dads, and John found exactly five small digital picture frames for his friends. He took them home and loaded them up with pictures of him with each of them. A nice blend of the techie with the homemade, eh?
No comments:
Post a Comment