Sustainable Wedding: Gifts
As we mentioned previously we had several friends in our wedding party. They all played a big part in helping plan the day, pick-up items for us and of course be our support system on the big day. So we wanted to thank them. For the bridesmaids, I wanted to offer them a unique piece of jewelry that was locally made and had some symbols on it (and also matched their dresses in case they wanted to wear them on our wedding day). A good friend of my brother’s makes some amazing jewelry and so I contacted her to see if she could make some pieces. She was really excited for this project and after many e-mails back and forth and sketches, we landed on a design. She created five necklaces (5 bridesmaids) each with 5 silver concentric circles and 5 different coloured green beads. The idea behind it was that I had these five friends who were now all connected and our friendship was a closed loop, ever evolving but never ending. The green beads represented each of them and their different personalities. Put all together it made a beautiful necklace! I also asked our designer to make a special ring for my sister, my maid of honour. I am happy to say she wears it everyday.
For the groomsmen we went in another direction. Sustainable PF has most of his visiting time with these guys at our cottage. They all love to come but are usually without canoes and paddles to travel the 15 minutes or so across the lake to this cottage on an island. Now getting them each a canoe was of course not in the budget but paddles we could do. Sustainable PF found some great Canadian made lake paddles at an outfitter store. We then had them engraved at a local shop with each groomsman’s name and our wedding date. We also got ourselves a pair as our wedding gift to ourselves. And if ever one of us should forget our anniversary, it’s engraved the paddles hanging in our bedroom!
Now of course our wedding party were not the only people we wanted to thank on our wedding day. All of our guests traveled for our wedding and added something to our day, either by way of a great speech, a good toast, a big hug, etc. We decided to get our guests a mix of organic hot chocolate, coffee and tea. We gave each person a bag of one of these treats depending on what we thought they would prefer. Sustainable PF’s good friend Marc traveled all over Toronto to pick up 70 or so pounds of these goods for us – by subway and bus!
All in all the wedding party gifts and the guest favours cost us $970. I think most people will find this pretty reasonable. For our wedding party we feel we got some unique gifts that they really appreciated and will use for a long time to come. As for our guests, we had a lot of them comment to us after the wedding that they were really enjoying the beverage they had been given. Eventually that gift disappeared but we feel it had more value than say a candle holder or picture frame which may just end up at a garage sale some day.
Please check out the other parts of our sustainable wedding series:
We gave out plantable paper butterflies. They were a real hit. They were locally made and the following summer everyone had flowers on their garden that were from us. Not only did we help all the local insects get their nectar but we also supported a local company.
Your gifts sound pretty awesome too.
Great idea Miss T!
Our wedding favor was super cool–Handmade paper in the shape of a heart with embedded wildflower seeds! People could take them home and plant them in the ground.
That really is a cool idea. We got our rings from gold that had been recycled and the box that they came in was this seed stuff too.
Oh-after I wrote my comment I saw Miss T’s–great minds think alike:).