AA Gifts & Baskets Idea Blog

Archive for the ‘Relationships’ Category

Wedding Party Gift Ideas

It’s a tradition that the Groom gives you a gift at some time during the rehearsal dinner. The gift is a thank-you for standing up with him at the wedding. Common gifts include money clips, wrist or pocket watches, fountain pens, tickets to a sporting event, lighters, key chains, cigar cutters, cigars, beer steins, or gift certificates to a sporting goods store or restaurant. It’s nice when these gifts are engraved with the date of the wedding and your initials. The gift then becomes a nice memory of the event in later years. (The engraving also ensures that you’ll keep it because it’ll be harder to “re-gift” the next time you’re in a jam. We’ll get into that later.)

Gift Recommendations

The Best Man or Groomsmen don’t customarily give the Groom a gift at the rehearsal dinner. Your wedding gift is your gift to the happy couple. If the surveys are any indication, you probably spent more than you thought you would at the bachelor party, so there’s no real need to add another gift to your list.

Wedding etiquette also offers a lay-away plan. Etiquette dictates that you have up to one year from the date of the wedding to give your wedding gift without looking like a heel. Personally, the one-year rule never worked for me. I always ended up waiting nine months, and then I had no idea if I sent the couple anything. It’s also embarrassing to have to ask the couple if you sent a gift because they probably don’t know or care by that point. On one occasion, I mailed two or three wedding gifts at the same time after many months of torture, and within two weeks I learned that two out of three were delivered to old addresses and/ or lost by the post office. My advice is to bring it with you and drop it off at the wedding.

Cash

If you give cash as a wedding gift, I am truly proud of you. As a former Groom, there’s nothing like it because you can do whatever you want with it-no strings attached and no waiting in line at the returns aisle.

Unfortunately, most people don’t feel comfortable giving cash because, let’s face it, if you want to spend less than $100 bucks, you can’t really give cash.You have to get a gift that looks like it might be worth a hundred. You can also get them a few gifts so it’ll definitely look like you went all out and hit the $100 mark.

If you’re over seventy years old you may want to pull the U.S. Savings Bond scam. (Do senior citizens actually think anyone keeps the bond for the hundred years it takes to reach the face value?) If you ever get one of these, run down to your local bank, cash it, and go get yourself a new CD, or maybe two if you’re lucky.

My husband has always been a bit of a prankster, especially when he was younger. I hear many stories from his family about the time he was dared by his older brother to set light to a full 44-gallon drum of Diesel. Or the time he sat up all night and waited for someone to go to the toilet in the dark, his mother half asleep was given the shock of her life when he jumped out of the shadows at 2am and yelled ‘rah’. My husband was always very mischievous and well known for doing naughty little things. One year at Christmas time he played a prank on his five siblings, by bringing out a bag of 20c lollies each and wishing them all a merry Christmas. Later on when they were all upset that he hadn’t got them a Christmas present he brought them all real presents out.

It is this spontaneity and fun approach to life that has helped make a marriage of 11 years enjoyable, every minute of it. I particularly like to tell the story of how he proposed to me on our engagement.

At that time in my life I was having a lot of difficulty, as my father was dying from an incurable form of cancer. I had taken my father and mother to visit his brother, who he had not seen for many years. It was a very long trip and I had to leave my boyfriend (husband) behind for 4 weeks to do the trip, which was over 1,000 miles long. I missed him terribly while I was gone and looked forward to talking to him every night on the phone.

Just before I was due home my boyfriend told me that he had bought me a gift, and he would give it to me when I got home from my trip. I couldn’t wait to get home to see what it was….

When I got home I was overjoyed to see him, and later on that night he told me that he had some bad news. The gift that he was going to buy, which was a beautiful golden locket with a sapphire stone in it, had been mistakenly sold. The sales girl was supposed to be keeping it for him, he apologized and told me that he didn’t have any gift after all. I told him not to worry, I was just glad to be back home and able to spend time with him again.

Weeks passed and we drove up to my parents farm to see them, while we were there, my boyfriend pulled me aside and told me that he had an early birthday present for me. It was about 2 weeks early, he produced a white paper bag from his pocket, I laughed at him and said “what a 20c bag of lollies?” He just smiled and handed me that bag of lollies, inside was a beautiful diamond ring, I looked at it and was breathless, it was so beautiful. “You know what that is don’t you?” he asked putting the ring on my finger, “of course I do” I gushed. I enjoy telling the story of how my husband proposed to me, it was very romantic and spontaneous, the funny thing was he had that ring ever since I had got back from my trip. But couldn’t get up the courage to give it to me, until he come up with the idea of giving me a 20c bag of lollies.

Memories can invoke very strong emotions. At a young age our memories take hold and later in life these can be sparked by sights, sounds, touch, tastes, and smells. Special occasions tend to hold the deepest memories, ones birthdays’, Christmas, first date, graduation, and matrimony, to a couple’s first born and then the cycle begins again in another’s memories.

The memory of ones wedding celebration marks a special passage of time. Ones own memories that were once exclusive to only you are now shared with another and the two become one in thought, emotion and in this way all future memories change and are never remembered again as exclusively your own. No longer is it “my” memories but “our” memories.

The yearly anniversary which now marks that sharing of time has such special meaning, over the years much thought has gone into the giving of gifts for a couple’s wedding anniversary.

Historically, Emily Post is considered to be the first person to publish an etiquette guide which contained tips on wedding anniversary special meanings towards the passage of time and gift giving to honor that passage.

Emily Post (nee Price) met her husband-to-be, Edwin Post, at a formal ball in New York City. Engagement, wedding, and honeymoon were followed by the birth and raising of her two sons but when old enough to attend boarding school, she turned her attention to writing. Emily Post’s romantic stories were quite successful, and she became a “traveling correspondent” crossing the continents.

In 1922, her book, “Etiquette”, topped the nonfiction bestseller list, and the phrase “according to Emily Post” soon entered our language as the final and only word on social subjects of conduct. Mrs. Emily Post penned in this publication traditional gift guide for wedding anniversaries that were fact based on heritage, but also included more modern gifts to suite the times, and creative ideas for thoughtful and memorable gift giving.

Mrs. Emily Post’s initial anniversary gift giving guide included the first, fifth, tenth, fifteenth, twentieth, twenty-fifth and fiftieth years of marriage.

Gifts in the early years of marriage were small remembrances, or tokens, such as 1st (paper), 5th (wood), and 10th (tin). In later years of matrimony, gifts gained value (which tends to correspond with society status and professional security), including 15th (crystal), 20th (china), 25th (silver), and 50th (gold).

By the time her publication was reprinted in 1957, the growing importance of wedding anniversary celebrations in America required more guidance and the traditional gift list had been expanded to include all of the first 15 years, and multiples of five thereafter. Additionally, as 35 years had passed since the original publication modern alternatives were again added and updated to include more socially acceptable gift options.

The traditional and modern anniversary gift guides have changed very little during the past half-century where traditional gifts are deeply rooted in heritage yet modern gifts greatly assist to offset cultural differences. The giving of a gift to your partner on the memorable occasion of shared thought is so symbolic that this guide has been developed to assist making the occasion truly one worth marking the passage of time from here. This guide offers suggestions for gift giving for both men and women and insight into traditional and modern gifts and offers purchasing opportunities from trusted merchants that assisted in producing this guide.

When I married my husband, he slept with his arms crossed over his chest. It seemed to me he was protecting his heart; it had been wounded and broken so many times. During his waking hours, he let his guard down. But, when sleeping, he still needed to protect himself, lest some threatening force invade and attack, catching him unawares.

Joe is an early riser. Typically he gets up before I do, quietly slips out of our bedroom, exercises, makes coffee, reads the paper, and then wakes me up. Rarely do I awaken before him. But recently I did. I marveled at how peaceful he looked. He was lying on his side, one hand underneath the pillow, the other just hanging down.

His chest was wide open, not needing his protection because he finally felt safe, open, and welcoming of me. In his sleep, he reached over and wrapped his arms around me. Like two spoons in a drawer, we lay there, side by side, a perfect fit. He let me in and I was part of him, safe, next to his heart.

He’s opened his heart. He trusts I won’t break it.

 Miles and miles of land separate my mother and me. The long-distance phone calls and emails cannot compare to being able to see her whenever I please. So when it comes time to ship off a gift, I want her to feel as if I am standing in front of her, delivering it myself.

As the month of June neared, I prepared for one of my most intense gift-giving times of the year. Besides Father’s Day, the month brought both of my parent’s birthdays, as well as their anniversary. By the middle of the month, I would have satisfied 3 out of 4 big dates on the calendar, leaving my mother’s birthday to focus on. This year, I tried to think of gifts she would not only use, but also find comfort, delight and relaxation. She recently quit smoking and I wanted to keep her on track and make sure she was surrounded by welcomed distractions.

My mother always starts her day with a cup of coffee and by night, falls asleep beside another. I went to the gourmet food section of one of my favorite stores and began to browse the coffee aisle. There were many tempting flavors to choose from, including Raspberry to Chocolate Mint, as I relentlessly read all of the bags. In the back of the bunch, one particular selection rewarded me for my uncompromising focus.

If I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again- sometimes the perfect gift finds me even when I least expect it. The day after Mother’s Day, my mother and I were having a conversation about her visit with my grandmother. She brought over her usual gift, accompanied by coffee and biscuits. By the end of her visit, she said she left with a delicious taste upon her lips, as they had sipped several shots of Kahlua. I know the doctor mentioned that alcohol may provide comfort for my grandmother’s arthritis, but for me, it was hard to swallow that my Nana and mother were sitting in her living room, consuming alcoholic beverages on Mother’s Day. I’ve never seen either one of them drink in my life.

So when I pulled the Kahlua-flavored coffee from behind all of the other interesting flavors, I felt I had struck gold. It was the last and only bag of its kind. I wasn’t looking for that particular flavor; didn’t even know it existed, but the warmth and happiness that overcame me at that moment was overwhelming. I couldn’t wait until she opened her gift.

On her birthday, I called early because she always waits for me before opening gifts. I could hear the tear of the box and crinkling of the wrapping paper. She was quite pleased with what she found inside. The gift brought her back to the Mother’s Day Kahlua, which then turned into a flood of teenage and college memories I had no idea existed. Although, I was miles and miles away, the coffee talk made me feel much closer, providing me with much-needed satisfaction and comfort.

My Dad always said to us that he didn’t need any gifts. He told us that he was the man who had everything! What a lovely thought considering he had 5 stepchildren, and a new born baby (me) to provide for.

He was an Abalone diver by profession, this particular year his boat had been tipped over by a shark. My father’s boat had been ruined, and he was lucky to have escaped with his life. My father was left with no boat and no income. He had begun working as a deck hand for a friend who was also an Abalone diver. Mom and Dad made some extra money by selling abalone shells as ashtrays to tourists, to buy Christmas presents for all of us kids.

Times were tough and we ate a lot of fish. Although through this ordeal, our Dad remained cheerful and never once let it get to him. His usual saying about being the man, who had everything, was said at Christmas time. When his stepchildren tried to glean some type of hint on what he might like for Christmas. My stepsister who was well accustomed to hearing this, set out to find the perfect gift for the man who had everything!

This could not have been a very easy task, considering her budget was below $2. She never mentioned another thing about finding a gift, and wouldn’t tell anyone even our Mom what she had found. No matter how hard they all begged.

Christmas morning finally rolled around, and everyone was exchanging gifts. When it was my stepsister’s turn to give her gift to Dad she produced a small longish rectangular box, rapped in red paper. My father carefully tore away the paper to reveal a black box with gold writing on the top, it said “For the man who has everything” when my father opened the lid there was a little brush in there, a lot like a makeup brush only smaller. Inside the top of the lid it said, “for the man who has everything, a belly button brush.”

My stepsister not only found a unique gift for our Dad, but she also managed to make light of a hard time. Gifts don’t have to be large or expensive to make an impact on others. My parents still to this day talk about the belly button brush, for the man who has everything. It is displayed on their mantelpiece with pride, still to this day, this occurred over 25 years ago.

If you know a man who has ‘everything’ ask him if he has a belly button brush. After that Christmas my father really was the man who had everything.