Many new couples receive more picture frames, candy dishes and candle stick holders than they can possibly use. While these are all lovely gifts, they are also very common and not likely to stand out very much to the new couple. On the other hand a gift that is truly creative is likely to be well appreciated by the bride and groom.
A collection of board games can be a very creative and useful wedding gift. Many couples enjoy entertaining and having a number of their friends over for dinner, drinks and conversation. While this in itself is a great deal of fun, introducing board games can be a competitive way to spice up the evening and bring laughter into the gathering. Everyone enjoys playing their old favorite board games and many people also enjoy experimenting with new games. Giving the couple a collection of board games as a wedding gift can lead to many nights of fun for the couple and their friends.
Theme baskets also make wonderful creative gift ideas. In creating a theme basket you are only limited by your imagination in what to include in your basket. You could create baskets that are cooking related, sports related or travel related. The key to creating a theme basket that is not only creative but also appropriate for the couple is to keep in mind their likes and dislikes. The couple that eats out every night of the week may not enjoy cooking and would therefore not appreciate a basket full for recipes and kitchen utensils, however, the couple with season tickets to a particular sport may enjoy a basket filled with DVDs from a championship series as well as memorabilia from their favorite sports team.
A couple is likely to receive countless picture frames on their wedding but you can put a twist on the idea of giving a picture frame to turn it into a more creative wedding gift. One way to do this is to purchase a large frame and insert an inexpensive print that the couple will appreciate or a blown up picture of the two of them. This creative gift stands out from the traditional picture frame because it includes a photo and is ready for immediate display. Many picture frames remain in the box for years while the couple tries to decide on the perfect picture to display in the frame but giving the couple a framed portrait or print eliminates this dilemma.
Another creative gift for a wedding is a personalized calendar. Many office supply stores will create a calendar for you if you provide them with the twelve pictures that you would like to include in the calendar. This creative gift idea can be created by an office supply store for a relatively low price or the wedding guest may opt to create the calendar themselves on their own computers. It is very simple and many word processing programs offer calendar templates. This creative gift idea is sure to be appreciated by the new couple for its practicality and originality.
There are many companies that will create a print that has the appeal of a watercolor painting from a photograph. Giving a gift certificate for this service can be a very creative gift idea. You may choose to give the gift certificate with instructions for the couple to redeem the gift certificate to have a water color likeness created from one of their favorite wedding pictures. If you have a copy of a picture that is flattering to both the bride and the groom you may want to arrange for this service using the picture you have in lieu of giving the couple the gift certificate. The one caveat to giving this gift is to allow enough time for the print to be created and returned to you so that you don't have to present your gift to the bride and groom after their wedding date. If you plan to attend the wedding in person, it is appropriate to have the gift for the bride and groom either at the wedding or else scheduled to arrive via shipping prior to the wedding date.
A couple that already has children may appreciate a gift certificate stating that you would be willing to baby-sit for the couple's children once a month for the first year of their marriage. This creative gift is extremely useful for the couple because it allows them one night a month to go out and enjoy themselves.
Creative wedding gift ideas don't have to be expensive but they are often widely appreciated. A creative wedding gift is likely to stand out from the more traditional gifts. Creative gifts are also likely to be greatly appreciated by the new couple.
Creative Wedding Gift Ideas
We hand out cigars during bachelor parties, of course - in fact, it may be hard to imagine the tradition without one. Ditto bachelorette parties, with their air of carnivale and tit-for-tat debauchery. As for the birth of newborns, the practice of lighting up a stogy to celebrate a new arrival has been firmly entrenched by the centuries.
But cigars as a wedding gift? Sure!
After all, the consumption of tobacco has deep roots in history as a way of celebrating rites-of-passage. We've already mentioned the cigars that new fathers (and, these days, mothers) pass out among friends, and the role cigars have in honoring the about-to-be-married. Digging deeper, consider the potlatch.
Ancient Native Americans living near the Pacific Northwest Coast once observed this ceremony, in which significant life events were observed via the exchanging of gifts and sharing of wealth. Among other things, tobacco was often exchanged in these ceremonies - which are still kept by Native peoples in increasing numbers.
But besides that, there's practicality to consider. Think about it: you're the two- or three-hundredth guest to RSVP; the bride and groom's closest friends, relatives, and hangers-on have already bought the coffeemakers, dining room sets, wall hangings, silverware, cookware, outerwear, underwear, and minor kitchen appliances that it's occurred to you to buy as a wedding gift. Your wedding gift idea bank is overdrawn. You need a creative gift idea.
This problem is especially pressing today, as more and more Americans wait until slightly later in life to get married. When two thirty-somethings tie the knot, there's often at least a household-and-a-half, even two households, to combine. Many prospective wedding-gift buyers start out with a bride and groom who, for all practical purposes, already have two of everything.
There's just one thing they're likely to be low on: calm. The ramp-up to a wedding is, for many, long, grueling and tiresome, full of little disasters (the caterer who quits; the previously-simmering family feud brought to a boil by some trifling disagreement) that test the patience and commitment of even a deeply loving couple.
The big day itself is, often enough, not unchallenging, what with last-minute mishaps, and the sudden way that the seriousness of the commitment itself sometimes sinks in. The great American filmmaker Robert Altman perhaps said it best when, in discussing his own black comedy A Wedding (1979), he remarked that he'd never been to a wedding that wasn't, at least in part, a disaster.
So what you need, as a well-intentioned wedding guest looking for the right wedding gift, is something to help the bride and groom stop and savor the moment - a slightly formal luxury, fitting the moment. A box of premium cigars fits the bill exactly. In fact, with the increase in the popularity of cigars over the past fifteen years, cigar smoking has become an equal-opportunity luxury; women are more often found, today, among the new smokers of cigars than at any time in history.
At least half a million American women smoke cigars, according to a 2002 estimate by the Cigar Association of America. That number makes sense in a country where - according to demographic research by Cigar Babes, a nonprofit organization for women cigar smokers - women make 85% of buying decisions, start 70% of new businesses, and buy 50% of the products classified traditionally as "male."
Cigars, then, should be a staple wedding gift, and they're always safe. (If one of the other party guests also buys cigars, it's OK - the bride and groom can smoke yours after the other box is gone!) For those of you new to the world of cigars, here are some basics:
1) Choose good cigars. (A wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime event!) Buy well-made, hand-rolled, long-filler cigars from a quality cigar outlet or online store. The better the cigar, the better the taste, and the more permanent the memories.
2) Speaking of taste: the outer wrapper (which gives the cigar its outer color) generally tells you how the cigar tastes. Darker outer wrappers mean sweeter taste; tan- or lighter-colored cigars are drier.
3) How to smoke: Cut off the cap of the cigar, then, using a wooden match or a butane lighter or other full flame (not a paper match), turn the end of the cigar in the flame a full 360 degrees until every part of it is lit. Don't inhale - this isn't a cigarette! Pull the smoke into your mouth and taste it thoroughly without allowing it into your lungs. Remember, it's about the taste.
Both Angela Sorros & are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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