Friday, May 27, 2011

How I asked my bridesmaids...

I wanted to ask my bridesmaids in a special way, so although it took longer than I expected, I put these fun little gifts together and gave them to each of them...

The photos of the gifts in this post are of the "Will you be my bridesmaid" gift for my best friend from Alabama - we've been friends since sophomore year of high school -- hopefully she won't mind I've used her pictures. :) And I apologize they aren't the best quality... I took them with my phone camera.

First I went back through hundreds, and hundreds of of photos and collected the best ones of me and each of the girls. It was super difficult to narrow it down. Then I used Snapfish and created 5x7" photo books for each girl of photos of the two of us over the years. I tried my best to do it chronologically too - which was sometimes difficult as well.

Each cover had a picture of me and the girl and a friendship quote below it that I felt represented our friendship the best. For my friend in these photos, the quote says "Good friends are like stars, You may not always see them, but you know they are always there..." Her and I rarely see each other since she's in Birmingham and I'm here in Charleston - but when we do see each other, nothing has changed and we remain best of friends.

At the end of each book, I put in a photo of my fiance and I's engagement (if they were there, which most of them were) and a photo of our Save the Date boat. Then I created my own graphic that said "Will you be my bridesmaid? {pretty please}", with a photo of a girl wearing a navy dress (since they will be wearing navy dresses) and holding flowers. I created a version of the graphic with different color hair on the girl -- so each book had the photo that corresponded with their hair color... lol. My best friend Jenny has blonde hair, so her 'bridesmaid girl' image had blonde hair.

I wrote a special note on the back page of each book that basically said how much they meant to me, etc. and told them how honored I would be if they would stand next to me as I marry my best friend. The back cover just had a little small photo...

It's not a secret that I love Anthropologie -- and for a while, when you ordered from them online they put your receipts in these cute little draw string canvas bags. I collected them because they were too cute to throw away and being crafty (sometimes) I knew I might want to use them again.

So, I bought some cute stamps from Michaels and ink pads in our wedding colors. I decorated the bags with each of the girls' names and our wedding date.

Then I purchased a nail polish and lip gloss in a pretty, pale pink shade from Target - one of each for each girl.

I also wanted to give each girl a monogrammed koozie in our wedding colors -- I was feeling super crafty and wanted to create them on my own with fabric and ribbon I had purchased at Hancock Fabrics. It was quite an undertaking and I created one - which took me an entire Saturday!

And I needed to make 8... crap!

So I scratched the whole 'made by Christy' plan and reached out to fellow Charleston blogger and koozie extraordinaire, LAS Lowcountry. She has her own Etsy store and makes the cutest customized, monogrammed koozies. She found an adorable green fabric, and monogrammed each koozie in navy thread with the girls' initials. She had them finished and mailed to me in barely a week... and they were way better than the one I made in an entire Saturday, lol.

So I put the koozie, nail polish and lip gloss in the little decorated canvas bag and wrapped it up with the book in pretty tissue paper.

I gave each gift to the girls in person, or if they lived far away, I sent them in packages so they got them in the mail as a surprise.

Luckily every one said yes! Phew... :)

So now it's time to start looking for navy bridesmaid dresses.... any suggestions? I love Lulu Kate, but that's way over everyone's budgets. We're hoping for something lower than $200... which nowadays is so unrealistic..but we're going to try. But I would say we are looking for $250 and less....

Have you ever been asked to be a bridesmaid in a fun or unique way? How did you ask your bridesmaids?

16 comments:

Dana the indecisive dreamer... said...

That is such a cute way to ask them, I love it!! I always wanted to ask my bridesmaids in some cute way like that but mine are mainly family and my best friend so it was almost an unspoken thing!

jeny said...

So awesome and so sweet. Now I feel like I should have done something like this for my sister and cousins! I had Navy bridesmaid dresses and I actually got them at Target! While we were walking around downtown we got so many compliments! So don't rule Target online out. They have fantastic party dresses. Here is a link to my photographers blog posting about our wedding. http://shannonmichelephotographyblog.com/2010/05/11/jeny-and-john-married/

lil desiqua said...

That is SUCH a cute and sweet idea! Love how you individualized each girls' gift- all teh way down to hai color! And the navy that they would be wearing. Happy for you that they all said yes! I'm not married (or engaged for that matter) yet, so I don't have any ideas yet.

Have a great weekend!

Unknown said...

what an amazingly cute idea!

Anonymous said...

Try looking on J Crew's website or The Limited! They usually have really beautiful, simple, yet in your budget bridesmaid dresses. :)

♡ Mrs. BSK {Preppy Wife Preppy Life} said...

That is really cute! I will be blogging about how I asked my girls soon too! <3 I love how you did it! I definitely want to get everyone koozies too! (:

Unknown said...

This is super cute! I have been in a few weddings and never asked in a creative way like this!

megan said...

Such a great idea! You are so crafty! :) I love Lauren's koozie's, too, and bought a few as gifts for Christmas last year. I would check out J. Crew for bmaid dresses, their new line just came out. I have to order one soon and it's going to be like $200 so I'm holding out until a free shipping code comes around. :)

Christina said...

thanks for stopping by my blog! that's an awesome idea how you asked your bridesmaids! i love it!

Anonymous said...

in hindsight, i wish i had done something creative like this for my bridesmaids! but alas, all they got was a phone call.

great idea!

Caitlin C. said...

This is SO creative and so cute! I'm sure all of your bridesmaids loved it!! :)

Elizabeth | The Blush Magnolia said...

This is so so cute! How creative and how personal! Love these!

I did a post last week about how I asked my bridesmaids. You can see it here: http://elizabethann87.blogspot.com/2011/05/bridesmaid-invitations-diy.html

xoxo, elizabeth

erica said...

Oh my word! What an extremely cute way to ask! Very creative!

xo

Carly Messmer said...

That's such a cute idea! Photo albums and anything monogrammed are great gifts!

Cindy said...

I'm sure you've thought of it, but David's Bridal has tons of dresses in Marine (closest to Navy that they have, although they do have some in Navy) and I'm shocked at how inexpensive they are! David's is a good choice because they're everywhere, so even if your bridesmaids don't live near you, they probably have one pretty close to them! Here's a link to all bridal party dresses in Marine: http://www.davidsbridal.com/Browse_Bridal-Party-Bridesmaids-Shop-By-Color_pageNo-0?colorName=Marine

Happy planning!!

L.A.S. said...

I LOVE your "will you be my bridesmaid?" gifts! so personal and thoughtful! The photo book is darling and something that they can cherish for years to come. Also, HUGE thanks for the shoutout on my koozies! You're the best!