As the happy couple, no doubt you and your partner realize there’s plenty of gifts that arrive when you get married. But have you given any thought to wedding party gifts as a way to express your gratitude to those who helped make you dream day a reality?
Just as others want to give to you as the happy couple, there are people who you – as a couple – will want to present with something as well. Traditionally, brides and grooms have given small gifts to the people in their wedding party along with others who play a role in their special day.
In the past, couples have often given gifts to the following people as a part of their wedding:
- The Parents of Each Person – Some couples have each person choose a gift for their partner’s parents. But this is also a wonderful opportunity for you to present yourselves as a unified couple to each of your families for the first time. Traditional gifts for parents include framed family photos, engraved keepsake boxes or matching pieces of simple, matched jewelry for each couple.
- Maid of Honor or Bridesmaids – These people have often given the bride – or brides – plenty of support, advice and all around help in the months leading up to the wedding. For their wedding party gifts, brides customarily choose a small piece of jewelry for their bridesmaids and then something larger or more sentimental for their Maid of Honor.
- Best Man or Groomsmen – As it is with brides, so too it applies to men. Traditional gifts for a groom’s team include Swiss Army products, high quality pens, desk frames and high end cuff links.
- Flower Girls and Ring Bearers – these roles are usually filled by children and so wedding party gift options lean toward more casual items such as a framed photo of the two of you from the wedding, a small piece of jewelry or a special book.
- Special Friends & Family – Even when a person doesn’t have a specific role in your wedding, their support may have been particularly important. It might have been the aunt who talked you down from your crazy tree when you had given up ever finding the perfect dress, or the friend who drove you all over the city looking for the bakery you thought your boss used for that amazing carrot cake a few years ago or even the cousin who came to the rescue with a van when you realized you were going to have to transport the reception venue chairs yourself. For these unsung heroes, give a gift that comes from the heart along with a letter expressing your thanks.
Giving gifts to these people is, of course, never mandatory or even expected. But for couples who are putting on a large wedding based wholly or in part on traditional approaches, it is well worth considering. The reason why goes well beyond tradition. Putting on a wedding is a difficult task for everyone involved. While the couple does, of course, shoulder the lion’s share of the stress associated with a wedding, it is THEIR wedding after all.
But the people who come out to support you emotionally, financially and through plain old hard work do so because of how much they believe in your wedding, in your future together. These are the people who have worked on your wedding with the same zeal, dedication and tenacity they would have used in planning their own. Without them, your day simply wouldn’t be the same.
Gifts for these people don’t have to follow traditional lines, but it should be something that comes from the heart. Matching pieces of jewelry have become a popular option for couples with a number of people they want to thank. The couple chooses a specific style or color palate – many LGBT couples, for example, opt for rainbow pride jewelry – and then they choose different pieces for each person using that same unifying design. The gifts share a common theme and, as the years go by, each of them knows they share this common thread with you – and with the network of support that came together to make your wedding a reality.
