Wow! As you may have deduced, I have officially asked all members of my wedding to participate in their respective roles! I feel relieved that the decisions have been made, yet anxious because this gets the wedding ball rolling! Anyhow, I decided to DIY every aspect of my small gifts and so I am sharing them with you today!
As you can see, I have a few different styles of gifts as I created different gifts for the various groups of friends! I am asking three girls, my sister and two of my closest friends, to be Bridesmaids (my sister being the Maid of Honor). Within this group I asked my close family friend, essentially my little 'sister', to be a Junior Bridesmaid. Finally, I have asked five of my dear friends throughout many times of my life to be a part of my House Party.
For the Bridesmaid boxes I purchased unfinished Cigar Boxes from Michael's. While there, I bought
- tan paint (used to paint the top of the lid only),
- blush paint (used to paint everything else on the outside of the box and then the inside of the lid),
- gold glitter paint from Martha Stewart's craft line (used on the inside of the bottom i.e. where the goodies are).
For the inside of the boxes I purchased some gift stuffing to help keep things in order as I had to transport and mail some of them. I stopped by my local Home Depot to pick up some more copies of the paint swatches I had decided on for the color scheme and then tied them together with some hemp string. Underneath the color swatches is a picture frame that was given to every girl who I asked to participate in the wedding (see the House Party photos for a picture of the frame along with the little note inside of each). I picked up some Essie nail polish from their Spring 2014 line in the color 'Spin the Bottle' as well as some gold chocolates and a gold gel pen, just for fun!
Next, I painted three small clothespins gold, waited for them to try and then hot glued them to the very top of the inside lid. I created two notes, the first can be seen above which asks the girl to participate in whatever role being asked as well as a short note, the event details and letting them know that the attire will be determined at a later date. Underneath this note is one of the same style listing out my Maid of Honor, Bridesmaids and Junior Bridesmaid, as well as House Party members with a short personal note to each regarding our special friendship. I printed them out onto white card stock and clipped them in the clothespin once it had fully dried!
Right before I was ready to tie these bad boys up and send or hand them out I picked up a macaron for each box, tied it up with a square of cellophane and bakers twine and placed it in the box.
Next, I painted three small clothespins gold, waited for them to try and then hot glued them to the very top of the inside lid. I created two notes, the first can be seen above which asks the girl to participate in whatever role being asked as well as a short note, the event details and letting them know that the attire will be determined at a later date. Underneath this note is one of the same style listing out my Maid of Honor, Bridesmaids and Junior Bridesmaid, as well as House Party members with a short personal note to each regarding our special friendship. I printed them out onto white card stock and clipped them in the clothespin once it had fully dried!
Right before I was ready to tie these bad boys up and send or hand them out I picked up a macaron for each box, tied it up with a square of cellophane and bakers twine and placed it in the box.
As you can probably see, the box for my Junior Bridesmaid has the same contents as the Bridesmaid's boxes it is just in a different container. I purchased a small wooden berry box from Michael's craft store as well as a paper flower scrap booking sticker to add a younger touch. Then I dotted the trim with alternating gold and blush paint and filled it up to the top! (This one was hand-delivered since it was not in an enclosed box and it was not necessary that I mail it to her.)
Now, for the House Party I needed to send most of them through the mail so I wanted something that was less likely to get ruined. When I was brainstorming, I came up with the frame idea which eventually spread to each girl's gift! I purchased black frames for the House Party gals and carefully opened the cardboard packaging so I could take apart the frame and write on the back of the paper insert. I put the frame back together, carefully placed it back inside the box and folded it back up!
Next, I shopped around for some cute blank notecards or stationary that I could hand-write each girl a sweet note on. I settled for a box of blank notecards that provided "Amore" and "Bonjour" in a chalkboard style but only used the Amore for this project. They were from a local gift store but I may be able to look up the company name if anyone is interested! Once the notes were finished, I calligraphed each girl's first and middle name on the outside of the envelope in gold ink as well as their name's on a kraft paper tag using white ink.
Next, I shopped around for some cute blank notecards or stationary that I could hand-write each girl a sweet note on. I settled for a box of blank notecards that provided "Amore" and "Bonjour" in a chalkboard style but only used the Amore for this project. They were from a local gift store but I may be able to look up the company name if anyone is interested! Once the notes were finished, I calligraphed each girl's first and middle name on the outside of the envelope in gold ink as well as their name's on a kraft paper tag using white ink.
I tied these up using some of the pink bakers twine I had and slipped them inside cushioned shipping envelopes! Hopefully my friends will be as excited about these as I was while making them!
Feel free to comment or message me if you would like a full tutorial (i.e. paint colors, exact steps, techniques and logistics) for any of the three variations or simply have any questions!
Until next time, Kate.
Feel free to comment or message me if you would like a full tutorial (i.e. paint colors, exact steps, techniques and logistics) for any of the three variations or simply have any questions!
Until next time, Kate.