Weddingbee Blog

Okay, he’s gone. Let’s chat.

Before Mr. Cardigan and I even got engaged, he was already boasting to me about how he knew the most amazing wedding gift ever for me, and he couldn’t wait because it was just so perfect. He went on and on about how he knew I would love it and that he usually has a hard time picking out gifts but our wedding will be easy because he just knows what the perfect gift will be.

Oh, thanks. Not like that puts any pressure on me or anything.

I have to confess: I suck at finding gifts for people. I’m kind of obsessive about finding the perfect gift, and I won’t settle for anything less. I usually do okay, I guess, but I never really feel like I can find anything good enough. So, knowing that Mr. Cardigan already had the perfect wedding gift planned for me really made me nervous. I began to wonder how I would ever find something even GOOD, let alone perfect.

Once I started to get serious about actually picking out a gift for him, I searched online for hours and hours trying to figure out what that perfect gift might be. I read blog posts, forums, and articles about groom gifts and none of them seemed good enough.

But then inspiration hit, as it usually does, on a completely random day when I wasn’t even thinking about picking out his gift. Suddenly, I knew exactly what to get him.

Mr. Cardigan’s wedding gift will be a VIP membership to Messina Hof, an amazing little winery here in College Station. We recently became kind of obsessed with Messina Hof and their ridiculous wine, and he’s been lusting after a VIP membership for a while now.

I love this idea because it’s a gift that will last a whole year (and even longer if we decide to renew it next year - only $50 to renew!) and it comes with so many amazing benefits. We get a free private tour for up to 20 people, 20% off of all the wine we buy at the winery, 5% off at their restaurant, AND an invitation to four all-inclusive (as in, all you can drink FREE WINE) events that are for VIP members only. There’s more to the deal, but those are the highlights!

I think Mr. Cardy is going to be thrilled with this gift, and I don’t think he’s expecting it from me at all!

Now that I know what I’m giving him, I’ve been racking my brain for a good way to present the gift to him. I think I’ve finally figured it out. Part of our VIP membership includes up to a case worth of free custom wine labels. I think I will design a label for him (or, you know, make Sister Cardy design one for me) and have them put it on a bottle of his favorite Messina Hof wine that’s too expensive to buy on a regular basis. Maybe the label can somehow reveal that we’re now VIP members? I don’t know, I haven’t figured out the details yet, but I know he’ll love it!

I was really happy once I finally settled on a good gift for Mr. Cardigan, but since the VIP membership didn’t fulfill the whole budget and I had a little extra money, I wanted to come up with something else to add – preferably something he could use on the actual wedding day.

Enter Etsy (where else?!). Mr. Cardy loves to dress up, and he has a couple of really nice suits, but he only has one pair of plain, boring cufflinks. So, I decided he needed a pair of wedding cufflinks! I searched for a while for the perfect pair, and as soon as I found these, I knew they were it:

(Source)

I love them SO MUCH! I ordered them last week and they’re on the way to me right now!

It took me a while to come up with something good for Mr. Cardy, but I think the wedding gifts I settled on are absolutely perfect. I can’t wait to give them to him – it’s been so hard to not reveal the VIP membership since I got it … I don’t know if I’ll last another two months!

Did you have a hard time finding a gift for your SO?