Wedding Tactics

Marc and I have a great idea for our parent gifts. (If you are one of our parents, please stop reading. NOW. Really. STOP.)

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…giving the parents time to think about leaving and not reading what is below.

… I was giving some thought to what we should give our parents as it is vaguely tradional for the almost-wed couple to give a few gifts at the rehersal dinner. Usually, a gift is given to all the attendants, members of the bridal party, and the parents.

I want to give our parents a little gift. I came up with the notion that we buy each of them, my mom and dad and Marc’s mom and dad a digital picture frame and we load the chip with 50+ photos of that specific family, pictures of each one of us as children, and then a few of Marc and myself together. I thought this was a great, unique and very special gift. Far more special than a Waterford crystal vase filled with Hershey’s kisses and hugs, accompanied by a note reading “Thanks for all your support, hugs and kisses, we wouldn’t be here without you.� That is not me. Or us.

Then! I started looking at prices for these so-called digital frames. HOLY HELL, they are NOT cheap, at least not from Brookstone. Then, I did some searching on Froogle.com and saw that you can get them for less than the cost of feeding five wedding guests. I think the digital frame with pictures specalized for each family is far better than, oh, say, a pair of socks that say Father of the Bride.

I happened to mention “parents giftsâ€? to my Aunt, who is very unmaterialistic and likes to tell me that I constantly flush my money away. She said that giving our parents a gift was unnecessary and a waste of money. But, I think it’s nice. Small or meaningful tokens are important, especially when given at such a special time as a wedding.

Some ideas for attendants gifts that the wedding websites are pushing aren’t so expensive, but also, aren’t too personal, such as:
A set of golfballs with wedding images on them:

I think it is important to thank the people who help you in your wedding planning, show you extensive support and love and spend their own money on traveling to your wedding. I want to give some small token gifts and few more serious “real meaning” gifts.

It isn’t easy to choose whe I get emails every other day telling me that some website has a sale on PINK MONOGRAMED FLASKS … I mean, dammit! I’m so excited, I better get seven of those now!

All this said, I think if you are going to give a gift, make it personal, and meaningful. Small gifts are nice ways to say thank you. However!! It isn’t required. The marriage license is REQUIRED, giving attendant gifts is not. See what I mean? There are a wide range of items in a wide range of prices. Do what you can and remember the end result and goal… a long healthy marriage.