Want to make the bride in your life a gift she'll never forget? With a little ingenuity, you can create a keepsake memory box for her that she'll have to remember her wedding day by forever and always.
The General Idea
Take a beautiful, fabric-covered hatbox (the Victorians were crazy about them) and fill it with special wedding-day items that the bride can use, then return to aforesaid box for a lifetime of safekeeping. You can put anything you want in there, including something old, new, borrowed, blue; things she will actually use like a guestbook and pen or a pretty hankie. Our dear friend Molly was getting married, so we decided to put together an "ultimate wedding day dream box" for her, and here's what was in it.
The Box Itself
We chose a very large round hatbox covered with the prettiest ivory floral brocade. The reason we liked it so much: It was lined with satin so all the gifts looked like they were laying on a pillow!
Something Old
Okay, so we had some really funny photos of Mol from when she was a baby that we begged off her sister (the naked-in-the-bathtub kind) as well as her senior prom picture. We took one of her adorable school pictures and put it in a personalized picture frame with "She's all grown up now!" engraved on the frame, along with her wedding date. All of us signed the back.
Something New
In keeping with our flowery-Victorian theme, we placed a fancy cake serving set in the box for Molly and her new husband to play kissy-eatie-face. We assumed, after a good washing, she would return the cake serving set to her memory box.
Something Borrowed
Molly's mom gave us a beautiful lace hankie that belonged to Molly's great-grandmother. We attached a note explaining the significance. Molly carried it on her wedding day. Very sentimental!
Something Blue
We decided on a wonderful chiffon garter with blue ribbon. Keepsakes can sometimes be sexy, can't they?
Snapshot Memories
No memory box is complete without a good place to put wedding candids. This was Molly's own album - for her memories of the shower, the bachelorette party, and of course the wedding.
We ended up quite pleased with ourselves over and little memory box idea. It turned out beautifully, and just as we had predicted - when Molly unwrapped it, she started to cry.
Until Next time!
Jasmine
Jennifer Baumann is editor of Wedding Gazette, the resource for real-world wedding planning that's packed with info on how to plan your budget, how to avoid killing certain family members, exhaustive theme ideas, plus tons of resources on finding favors, necessary accessories, gifts for your groomsmen, and much more. http://funweddings.blogspot.com , www.fun.createswebsites.com
