Here are some gift basket suggestions that are especially suitable for either the bride of the groom that you can make to give as wedding or bridal shower gifts. You can be smart and frugal like Martha Stewart and make your own wedding gifts. When you substitute items, as shown below, you can save money too and help make frugal wedding gifts on a budget.
Honeymoon Picnic Basket Spring Wedding Gift
Material needed to make the basket:
- 1 deep wicker basket or an actual picnic basket with a hinged lid
- 1 yard of red and white checked napkin fabric
- red plastic cutlery and plates
- Clear plastic champagne glasses
- Checkered paper napkins
- woven wicker paper plate holders
- raffia or red gingham ribbon
- strawflower or a silk flower
- romantic music CD
- a bottle of wine or sparkling cider or even sparkling water
- plastic bag filled with homemade caramel corn
- plastic bag of homemade cookies
- gourmet picnic items such as bagel chips, biscuits, beef stickers, summer sausage, sweet or Dijon mustard, pickled asparagus, cheese (preferably the kinds that don't have to be refrigerated), fudge, and candies
Once you have gathered all of the items you need to make up your basket, place the items in the basket in such a way that they seem to be bulging over the top. Decorate the handle of the basket with a raffia box and strawflower or red gingham ribbon and silk flower.
Honeymoon Beach Basket Spring Wedding Gift
Materials needed for your basket include:
- Use the same materials listed for the Honeymoon Picnic Basket above and add these items.
- Suntan lotion
- Small shovel and pail
- two beach pillows
- two beach towels
- Frisbee
- Sunglasses
The beach pillow is a project you can make on your own, just like Martha Stewart. Buy a yard of plastic fabric. Fold it in half and sew the sides together. Turn and then sew or glue Velcro across the top. Put a sheet of instructions inside of the pillow, explaining to the bride and groom that they are to put sand in the pillow when they go to the beach. This way they can just fill it when they are at the beach and be emptied and folded back into the basket when they leave the beach.
You can make inexpensive beach towels too by purchasing two 3-yards lengths of terry cloth that you finished on each end with Bias tape or by turning under and stitching the edges with our sewing machine or by hand.
Live or Silk Plant in a Basket Spring Wedding Gift
This is a simple wedding gift idea that makes for a very attractive party gift that everyone will "oooh" and "aaah" over. Take any live or silk plant you find on sale and nestle it down into a basket filled with tissue paper. Add a large raffia or crinkle ribbon and you will have a gift that definitely looks more expensive than the few dollars you have invested on it. If the plant is one especially selected for the yard or window box of the wedding couple's new home or apartment, you might want to add a garden trowel or a pair of colorful garden gloves.
Gardening Supplies Spring Wedding Gift Basket
If the engaged couple loves to garden and you know this for a fact, what could be more appropriate than a basket filled with gardening supplies?
Walk into any discount nursery and let your imagination run wild. In addition to the rowel and garden gloves mentioned above, how about seeds, fertilizer spikes, snail bait, rose spray, potting soils, or small garden tools, such as pruning shears? You might want to add a book on gardening in with your spring wedding gift basket.
Spring Love Wedding Gift Basket
Line a basket with a homemade bear rug and then fill the basket with massage lotions, bubble bath, scented candles, chocolates, and a CD with the couple's favorite romantic music.
You can make the bear rug out of ordinary velour or synthetic fake fur fabric. Cut a bear rug design out of the fabric and then hem the edges by hand or on your sewing machine. You probably want to make the rug large enough to roll out in front of the fireplace for the couple to lay on. Then you want to roll the rug up to insert into the basket.
Gourmet Coffee Spring Wedding Gift Basket
This is a perfect idea for the couple who is really into gourmet coffees. Shop for a variety of coffee beans on sale at Starbucks, Green Mountain Coffee shops, Dunkin Donuts, or you could even use Maxwell House or Folgers coffee. The cheaper brand come in so many flavors these days that they are almost gourmet themselves.
Purchase the coffee beans in bulk if possible and then bag them up in small plastic bags and tie computer-generated or hand written tags to them with the names of the coffees written on the tags.
Line the basket with a colorful napkin or placemat. If you feel like splurging a little or know of another guest who may want to go in on this gift with you, add an electric coffee bean grinder and a couple of coffee mugs. A coffee grinder usually costs about twenty dollars in a retail store but sometimes you can buy them online at Amazon.com much cheaper and get free shipping too.
Soup and Comfort Spring Wedding Gift Basket
Fill a napkin-lined basket with several packages of soup mixes, such as Mrs. Grass' Onion or Homestyle Vegetable or Campbell's Oriental Ramen Noodle Soup Mix and then add a couple of crockery soup mugs. You can get these at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Crate and Barrel, or also online at Amazon.com.
A clever trick is to purchase plastic packages of uncooked beans or split-peas right off your grocery store shelf, open them and re-package them into your own clear plastic bags. Label each bag and tie with raffia bows. Top them off with your own homemade soup recipe card. If you don't have a recipe you may find one on the package of beans and then you just have to recopy the recipe. Tie the recipe card to the neck of the bag.
One of the most colorful and interesting ideas for this comfort wedding gift basket is to buy the fifteen bean soup mix from the store and repackage it. It will look like you spent a lot of money but actually you were just being Martha Stewart again and being clever and frugal.
If you are invited to a bridal shower you will want to bring a gift. It is an age old tradition that you give some type of present to the bride to be. Wedding gifts are not always the simplest things to buy because you want to make sure you are getting something both the bride and groom can use to start out their new life together.
It may be hard to solve the problem of just what a suitable gift might be, and even if you come up with a few great ideas, trying to actually locate what you are looking for can even be more of a hassle. Using the Internet can be a great time saver because so many businesses are now selling online.
Even though wedding presents are given to the future bride you should also consider the groom too. A gift that is designed to be for both of them will often times be loved even more than one that is meant solely for the future bride. An example of a gift idea that might please both the bride and groom would be wedding picture frame or photo album to hold their wedding photos.
Where to Look for the Ultimate Wedding Gift
Once you have made a decision on what sort of bridal shower gift you would like to get, you need to figure out where you are going to go to buy it.
Bridal shower presents are available wherever you may look, both online and offline at traditional stores. There are shops which deal specifically with wedding supplies and gifts. These stores put great emphasis on gifts which are established as long time best sellers. The gifts you will find at these wedding and gift specialty stores may include coffee sets for two, china, cake plates, knife sets, linens, and more.
Don’t forget about the discount stores when you are searching for bridal shower presents. Depending upon what it is you are searching for, you might be able to find the ideal present in one of these stores. How about purchasing a a group of items from various shops and creating your own special gift basket. Gift baskets make wonderful wedding gifts.
Shopping online is both economical and convenient. Because you can sit at home and shop when it is convenient for you are getting an added bonus. There is a lot of competition among online wedding businesses that sell everything from wedding favors, to wedding invitations, wedding decorations, or even the wedding dress. Yes, you can even get your wedding dress online. Because of the competition for your dollar you will find deep discount if you do a lot of searching online.
After you have found something you want and made the decision to get it online, do a search for coupon codes for that specific online store. You can often find a coupon for free shipping or a percentage off of your total order. This can save you even more money. Make certain that you know just what you would like to buy first for the bridal shower gift and shop around prior to buying the wedding presents that you like the best. There are so many option for shopping these days that you don't have to just stick with the traditional store down the street. Use both traditional brick and mortar stores as well as the Internet to find the best bridal shower gift.
Labels: Bridal shower Gifts