Weddingbee Blog

Let’s be honest: shopping for guys pretty much bites the big one; it’s so not anywhere near as fun as shopping for girls. What are the options? An electronic gadget, a tie or cologne? Girls are easy, give ’em some lotion, makeup and jewelry and everyone’s happy. Guys, on the other hand, are not so easy (and we women are supposed to be the hard ones to please, ha!).

So it took Mr Trail Mix and me a long time to decide on gifts for the groomsmen. We debated some of the customary gifts, such as a flask accompanied by a bottle of alcohol or a monogrammed overnight bag, etc. but ultimately decided that for our groomsmen, a “thing” just wasn’t the right choice.

And so we decided to go for an experience, instead. Namely, a sporting experience. Mr Trail Mix, in lieu of a traditional gift, is purchasing tickets to a sports event for each of one his groomsmen to attend with him.

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This gift is cool for multiple reasons:

1. It’s environmentally friendly! By gifting an experience rather than a thing, we’re using less resources and materials. Excellent!
2. Mr Trail Mix LOVES sports. Mr Trail Mix’s friends all LOVE sports (with the exception of one. Oh well).
3. It’s fun. For both the groomsmen AND Mr TMix. Double score.
4. Hopefully, it will be a memorable way for Mr Trail Mix to bond with his boys and spend some quality time with each of them, which in my opinion, is far more valuable than a “thing”.

So the Mister has been stalking sites like StubHub and eBay for the past few months, looking for the right tickets for the right dates for the right teams at the right times (which, let me tell you, has been a logistical nightmare but I think it’s finally all worked out).

Luckily, two of the groomsmen live in Miami, so tickets to either a Dolphins or University of Miami football game are in order. Since Mr Trail Mix lives and breathes football, particularly Florida football, this one shouldn’t be too tough for him to suffer through.

One of our groomsman lives in New York City and is a huge Atlanta Braves fan, so Mr Trail Mix purchased tickets to a Braves/Mets game in July.

My little brother is a huge soccer fan, so tickets to the New York Red Bull (that’s New York’s professional soccer team, in case you don’t live in a sports-obsessed world like I do) vs the LA Galaxy game have been bought for August (sadly, Becks will not be playing at the game, otherwise I might be forced to be the 3rd wheel on that one).

For a groomsman who lives down in the DC area, tickets to a Redskins/Giants football game are on the table and the final groomsmen requested tickets to see the Phillies baseball team play.

Whoof, it’s been a lot hassle and coordination to make these all happen but now Mr Trail Mix has all these sporting events to look forward to after the wedding.

I think this is a nice alternative to traditional groomsmen’s gifts, although I will admit it’s a bit pricey. Since we only have four groomsman and two ushers, it hasn’t been ridiculously outrageous but definitely not a cheap way to go. And I think it will be worth it.

How did you help your guy pick out groomsman gifts? Anyone else doing something that would be considered unique?