I love shopping. For me. For other people. Doesn’t matter. And I also love my bridesmaids. So it’s no surprise that I am having such an awesome time searching for the perfect gifts for my favorite friends.
The problem? I love my bridesmaids so much that I want to get them so much stuff! But my poor wallet can’t handle buying everything they deserve. Enter you. Want to see what I’m considering? Want to tell me your favorites?
But first…a message to my bridesmaids. (I’m pretty sure they don’t read Weddingbee, but with my luck, today would be the first day they visit the site.) 
Now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s get down to the good stuff. I’ve got several ideas for what to get my bridesmaids. I want the gifts to be things that they love but things that also remind them or me of our friendship.
Lauren is selling a three-tier dessert stand. She is asking $30.
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Other great items for sale:
yessy82 shares a photo of her oversized wedding-day bun.
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There are a few problems with having a tiny groom.
One is that I had to be very conscious when choosing a dress not to buy one that was big, poufy, and “overpowering” that would make me look huge next to him.
The second one is the difficulty I faced when buying a pair of shoes.
I used to wear heels all the time. In fact, five years ago I had a pair of shoes that were my “comfy shoes.” Shoes I would put on when others had been hurting and I would sigh in relief—and they were three-inch heels. I wore them daily and walked happily in them.
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Personal photo
I recently wore those shoes again…they left me in agony.
I haven’t worn heels properly in almost five years, and in that time my feet have adjusted somewhat. It also doesn’t help that in this city I walk everywhere (an absolute minimum of three miles a day), and it just isn’t possible to wear anything that isn’t comfortable, which has led me to become a certain type of person…
I can’t decide if I’m really excited about figuring out all the logistics for the wedding or completely overwhelmed. The obsessive side of me is screaming ORGANIZE ORGANIZE ORGANIZE THIS IS AWESOME. Whether that is a good thing for my sanity is yet to be determined…
Let’s talk facts. The week of the wedding is going to be insanely busy—there’s no way around it. The original plan was to hold the rehearsal dinner out at the venue. They have a number of pavilions available for rental around and near a lake and walking path.
Since we are having a plated dinner at our reception and the thought of free-for-all seating scares me, our guests are going to be given a spot to sit, and I’m happy to report the Sword table assignments have been completed! Of course, our guests are free to sit anywhere at said table, but for the purposes of allergies, and because let’s face it, people like to sit by the folks they know, everyone was assigned a specific table in advance.
And it was so easy that I’m scared it was too easy. If you’re looking for a quick way to design your table chart, here’s a break down of how my system worked and a rough estimate of how long everything took me.
First off, I have to give credit to Mrs. Mink’s post here because her ingenuity was what inspired me to do the same!
By putting some effort in ahead of time, Mom Sword and I were able to create the table assignments in a quick 20 minutes. We started with the tables that we were more certain of and went from there. Once Mr. Sword arrived home from Kansas City he reviewed our table assignments, made a few slight changes, and with that we were done!
We probably spent a total of 35 minutes making the seating chart and I firmly believe that it went so quickly because of the preparation I did ahead of time.
The only thing I had to buy were the little post-it notes to write the guest’s names on, the other stuff, scissors, paper, and a pen were all found in my house.
I wrote every single wedding guests’ name on their own post-it note. Color didn’t matter. This part probably took close to 45 minutes but I did it while watching TV, so it flew by. Once they were all finished I stuck each name to a piece of paper and set it aside.
Toasts are one of my favorite things about weddings, and I’m not talking about burnt bread. I love hearing what the bride and groom’s friends and family have to say about them. And, now that I’m a sap, I’ve been known to tear up at wedding speeches, even when I’ve only met the bride and groom once before.
I was really looking forward to our toasts because, hello, it’s a whole speech about me. Oh, and Mr. Unicycle. I mean, what’s better than having someone tell a captive audience how great you are and how cute your relationship is? Answer: nothing.
After everyone simmered down from the reception entrances, my maid of honor kicked off the toasts. (To watch it in action, check out our video at the 17:15 mark.)
Photos by Jennifer Shaffer Photography
“First I’d like to thank [The Unicycles’ parents], and everyone who has done so much to help Kari and Chris celebrate their special day. Kari, it’s finally here. It’s your day. It’s your special day.” [I think she was quoting me.]
“I know that quite a few of you are looking around at the flowers and centerpieces thinking “I wonder if that’s one of the ones I made?” Kari and Chris, if there are this many people who love you enough to be willing to help you craft your wedding decorations by hand, I think it’s safe to say that you won’t have a difficult time finding a babysitter. You can literally look around this room and see how much love and support there is for this couple.”
