homemade wedding gifts

[jessaroo]

I have 2 weddings to attend this summer.
Any ideas for homemade gifts?? I would like something that was not too involved.

[luv-my-boys]

this is something I did for my SIL's wedding, you can probably make it as involved as you like. I scrapbook so it was very involved but you could probably buy a premade album scrapbook that already has embellished pages and just insert the pictures yourself. What I did was take pictures throughout the day that the photographer may have missed (which they did) they were the *little things* candid photos of her getting dressed, the *getaway car* all decked out, the centerpieces in the hall and whatnot. She loved it, I gave it to her after the wedding. They had a open present lunch the following week so thats when I gave it to her.

[gwen's mom]

We made 6 bottles of wine for a close friend's wedding with labels that indicated that they were to be opened on the couple's 1st, 5th, 10th, 25th, 40th and 50th anniversaries. The lables also included quotes from famous people intertwining wine and love.

[LaLaLaLa]

A family friend and neighbor of mine went to my childhood home (which my parents had recently moved out of) and asked if she could have some flowers from the garden that my parents had planted. Pansies, I think (I'm not yet a gardener). She then pressed the blossoms and arranged them in a beautiful frame on a pretty background.

It's a bit of my pre-married home I can carry around to my new married homes. The blossoms have been hanging for nearly nine years now, and they still make me smile.

[notjustmamie]

The last wedding gift I made was a glass vase filled with pretty stones and a bit of bamboo. I used glass paint to decorate the vase and double checked with the couple ahead of time to make sure I could arrange to give it to them when they could open it, rather than having the plant out of water for days while they were on their honeymoon.

I also have worked on a crocheted afghan, but that was pretty involved. A less complicated pattern than I had selected might not be too much trouble, though. You could also whip up a quick fleece throw and some pillows or something like that.

Other fun ideas:

• making a clock out of a plate from their china pattern (or from on old one you find at a thrift shop, depending on your price range)
• making them a pair of paint-your-own pottery mugs
• putting together a selection of mix-in-a-jar dishes (if you search online for recipes, you can find enough variety to do a complete meal: soup, entree, side dish, and dessert)
• starting a kitchen herb garden (or maybe just a kit with seeds and hand-painted pots)
• mixing up a selection of massage oils or creams
• making them a pair of matching hats, scarves, or slippers
• designing coupons for a homemade-cookie-or-candy-of-the-month club (of course, that would require you to bake them cookies all year)
• making beaded wine charms
• painting a personalized wooden welcome sign for their door or entryway

[junipervt]

a big stack of cloth napkins that match the kitcheny colors they picked on their registry. all you have to do is cut squares & turn & top stitch the edges. You could add a few dish cloths embelished w/ the same fabric. Then tie it all together w/ some pretty ribbon.

[jessaroo]

thanks for these ideas. I will be travelling with the gifts or shipping them so the wine is out due to shipping costs.

[Smokering]

Mum embroidered some gorgeous tea towels for a wedding gift for a friend's daughter (a smallish gift, she doesn't know the daughter hugely well, but a very nice 'token'-type present). The kitchen colour was red so she found some pictures of cherries and strawberries online and embroidered them onto the towels, added rickrack and they were beautiful!

I once hand-painted a ceramic plate for some friends which they liked very much. I did it at a ceramic place using a squirty-bottle of special ceramic 'ink' used for writing and drawing lines, and I just covered the whole plate with the names of famous literary and historical 'couples', whether romantic or just people who went together. So Antony and Cleopatra, Merry and Pippin, Han and Leia, R2-D2 and C-3PO (the couple were geeks)... and then the couple's name 'hiding' somewhere in the middle.

They got divorced. I assume they must have had some ceremonial plate-smashing ceremony or something, because who'd want to keep that after splitting up? So, moral of the story, only make something intrinsically couple-ish if you're fairly certain they're going to stay together... and crikey, if that isn't a cynical attitude to have towards wedding guests I don't know what is.

Beastie cloths often come in handy too, and are very good for shipping - a big square or rectangle of gauzy, floaty fabric trimmed with nice craft fabric and/or embroidered (like with a few bees here and there, or whatever), big enough to cover a kitchen table to keep the flies away. You could make placemats, coasters, napkins or whatever out of the trimming fabric, to match.

[dds07]

sew an apron and oven mitt
make homemade vanilla and cookie/brownie mix

[griffin2004]

I made a counted cross stitch sampler in the double wedding ring quilt pattern (or whatever that pattern is called!) with their names and the wedding date below it. The groom, a sort of rough and tumble guy, was really touched by it.

[4evermom]

I saw the idea someplace to use that glass etching paste to write the couple's last name on the bottom of a glass baking dish. It could also be done on a glass serving plate. Then your dish is already labeled if you go to a potluck.

You do it on the wrong side of the dish so the food surface is left alone, using stencils. Make sure to invert the stencils so the writing looks right from the top side.

[OTMomma]

I made a towel cake for my brother's wedding- there are instructions on line- but basically you take a set of towels, roll up the 2 bath towels as the bottom layer, 2 hand towels as the middle layer and 2 wash clothes as the top- I also filled the middle and top with some napkins to make them a bit bigger. I then tied each layer with string, and hot glued ribbons around them. Dd and I made soaps that we put around and on top of the cake to look like frosted flowers. This gift works well if you have time to set it up on the gift table or somewhere for the couple. In my case, we were doing a post reception at a place with no decorations, so I set it up there to add to the festivities. This was quick and easy to do.

I LOVE 4evermom's idea- I am totally doing that for Christmas!

[Ruthla]

DD1 and DD2 made crocheted "bride and groom" dolls for the last wedding they attended. This was a fairly involved gift though, not "quick and easy."

[baglady]

Someone gave me one of my invitation framed and matted and I love it. I suspect she had is professionally done, but it could be a DIY project. I was thinking of doing something similar for my sister.

Another idea would be a really prettily framed picture of the church/location where the wedding is taking place.

[sunanthem]

I've been thinking about this recently, since I plan on making gifts for my friend's wedding. One of the things I plan on doing is getting a premade cutting board at a craft store, then using the dremmel tool to write the couple's name and wedding date on it. A good sanding and natural finish and that's it! I was planning on putting it in a basket w/ some goodies I've made like jams, spices and chocolates.
I was also thinking of making a felted photo album cover with a photo album for them to fill.