Weddingbee

Hot on the heels of Mr. Cherry Pie’s post about his groomsmen gifts, I present my gifts for my bridesmaids!

That means no peeking, ladies!

Not unless you want to ruin the surprise. Err, surpriSES. Unlike Mr. Cherry Pie, I have several things in store for my bridesmaids. Some are more traditional and others are definitely different.

First things first. I’ve got to keep my girls warm and cozy. With the weather in Montana decidedly cooler on September evenings, they need something to wrap themselves up with. Personally, I’m a bolero type of girl, but apparently those are “out” this season unless they’re outrageously expensive. I despise cardigans, so I went the opposite route toward the more flowy, natural route… pashminas!

I could probably find these for cheap in Seattle’s International District, but I’ve never seen them in person. And I’m lazy (a critical distinction), so I ordered them online.

On eBay, cream colored pashmina wraps will run you anywhere from practically free to $10 apiece (plus shipping). I got six of these puppies in cream for $7.00 each including shipping. They arrived at my doorstep in less than a week and they are super soft. I got one for myself and tried it out at a wedding 2 weekends ago!

Whaddaya think? Do they match the dresses a’ight?

After looking around at other accessories, I decided that I’d really like to go the classic route and get my girls some pearl-beaded jewelry. I’m going to be wearing pearls with my dress, and I felt that they should, too! But I wanted subtle jewelry so that they didn’t look too dressy out in the middle of that field.

I found myself shooting down option after option for being too gaudy, too expensive, or too cheap looking. I couldn’t find anything quite right. These pretty earrings and bracelet from Redot came pretty close…

…but I wasn’t into the shiny crystal beads, or thrilled that toggle clasps cost an extra 6 bucks. I’ve never been into beading, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to price out what it would cost to make jewelry myself.

There’s a totally awesome bead store near where I work and live that lists prices for EVERYTHING on their website (and has free shipping, by the way). So I knocked out an item list including Swarovski pearl beads, beading wire, headpins, french hooks, clasps, and tools.

All told, it only cost me $75 to make five bracelets and matching pairs of earrings, way less than half of what it would have cost me to buy something similar online.

I was anticipating some sort of DIY disaster, but nothing bad happened. It was actually RIDICULOUSLY EASY AND FUN to make all of the jewelry. I’d never beaded before in my life but I sat down, turned on some tunes, and had all of them made in a couple of hours. I even used differing sized pearls for individualized designs and made them different lengths for their wrists. How satisfying!

To help my bridesmaids get extra pretty on the day of, and to help alleviate some of those stressful costs, I’m also offering each of them $25 to defray the cost of nails, hair, or makeup. Several of my maids are in college, and this little bit of extra help was just the right incentive for them to get some much-needed pampering!

Finally, my ladies are getting a lovely keepsake for their homes. The superwoman extraordinaire who is acting as our officiant, making our wedding signs and table numbers, and who designed our photo save the date cards is also a painter and ceramic artist! She has graciously agreed to sell me some of her dipped birds at a low price for my lady friends:

(Ours are the simple, multicolored birds in the middle, not the narrative birds or branch birds.)

What do you think? Will my girls like their gifts?

What route are you taking with your bridesmaid gifts?

• Blister in the Sun
• A Taste of 1000