Deja vu?

I know I have posted pictures of cufflinks on here before and if you frequent my blog you are probably experiencing deja vu. These are actually cufflinks we just ordered off of the awesomeness that is ebay (God bless you Pierre Omidyar) for our dads and FI. We thought we'd keep with the cufflink theme and order cool cufflinks for all the important men of the wedding. After all we wouldn't want the fathers-and most importantly FI-to have subpar flair on their wrists on such a momentous day would we? ;) The motorcycles are for my dad who has been an enthusiast since he was young and whose passion for riding just grew stronger after his midlife crisis. The acoustic guitars are for FI's dad who was a self-proclaimed hippie during college and apparently won over all the ladies by strumming a tune or two and still loves playing today. I ordered the baseball cufflinks for FI since he's a die-hard baseball fan and has been playing the game since he learned how to walk. I'm definitely glad we went the cufflink route even though initially I thought it was sort of overdone. This is something they can all use later and something that shows how well we know each of them individually!

Just gotta wrap it all!

The last part of the girls' gifts came in today so we now officially have all the bridal party gifts accounted for and in our possession. I think the monogrammed key fobs turned out really cute! Just gotta wrap all the goodies up and we're good to go! FI and I also decided on what to get our parents for their gifts to show our appreciation for all they've done since their help has been crucial in getting this wedding planned and paid for. Since my mother tends to read this blog from time to time though I'm not going to divulge that information here :)

Goodies for the bridal party

I finally got FI to sit down and pick a gift for his groomsmen. They're all very different guys and he didn't know what to give them so I'd been helping him brainstorm. We ran through the list of typical groomsmen gifts but personalized beer mugs were a bad idea since some of the boys are non-drinkers, pocket knives just seemed so boy scout-ish, money clips are lame when most guys just have wallets, and pricey fountain pens seemed like a waste. We finally came up with the idea of cufflinks. Now cufflinks to me also seemed cliche, but instead of making them all matchy FI is ordering each of his men cufflinks that represent them individually so they will have special meaning, and I'm sure his guys will be happy to wear them again later on down the road. I'm pleased to say I'm on top of my girl's gifts too. I got them all sets of pearls, those neat and oh-so-handy purse hooks, a little photo album to put pictures of all of our bachelorette and wedding shenanigans in, little mini bottles of lotion from Bath & Body Works, and monogrammed key chain wristlets I found a great deal on by searching ebay. Now we've just got to figure out what to get our parents!

Our first wedding gift

FI and I aren't registering for gifts and we've told those who have asked that we really don't need anything. We have collected a lot ourselves and have also been very blessed by our families. That doesn't mean that I wasn't excited, however, when my grandma bought me an early wedding gift that I've secretly wanted! I love baking. It's kind of a hobby of mine. I like trying new recipes, making co-workers goodies, and stealing those cupcake decorating ideas from Martha Stewart and Woman's World magazine. I sound old, I know haha I had always thought a stand mixer would be great to have in the kitchen to help me in my baking escapades, but it's one of those things that you want but don't need, so I never took the liberty of buying one for myself. Well my amazingly thoughtful grandma had heard me briefly mention wanting one and she just surprised me with a 6-speed Hamilton Beach model with 3 different mixing heads complete with a stainless steel mixing bowl with pour spout which is going to make filling cupcake and muffin pans much easier. Am I a bit of a dork for being so excited about a kitchen appliance? Quite possibly. But I'm a dork who's not going to have to wisk my own egg whites or knead my own dough from now on :)

A touchy subject

Ever so popular in search engines and seen almost daily in The Knot message boards is the question of how to ask for money as a wedding gift. Different sites and different etiquette specialists will all tell you different information, ranging from it's always a no-no to it's a common practice nowadays. FI and I have been shacked up together for the past two years and in that time we have gathered all the various items we need for our home. In fact our place is too small for the compilation of things we have! Yet the "wedding experts" will have us believe that we are required to go down to our nearest Target or Bed Bath & Beyond and get trigger happy with the scan guns rather than tell guests what we would actually like is money to put towards new furnishings (which are too pricey to expect one person to pay for in a registry) and our honeymoon expenses. We have stuff thrown in closets and in storage as it is, so why in the world would we need to register somewhere for gifts? Now I know it's not polite to expect gifts just because you're getting married and I would never make someone feel obligated to get me something, but let's face it-a lot of people who come to your wedding are going to want to bring a gift because they care about you. If you are getting married soon people have probably already started asking where you are registered or what they should get you, and if you haven't been asked directly they have probably discussed it with your family or bridal party. I want to urge my guests not to go out and spend a fortune on gifts since the reason I am inviting them to the wedding is not to be showered with household items, but to be able to share the joy of the day with them. But if they insist that they want to give me and my future hubby something, as many of our invitees have done, who am I to stop them? I know it's a touchy subject and some think it's a major faux pas, but I find myself falling into the category of people who believe it's perfectly acceptable to let people know you'd rather receive money than another coffee maker or random items that ended up on your registry just so you'd have something on your list for others to purchase. I think it's a far worse crime to register for frivolous "filler" items and have guests waste money on things you didn't need in the first place than it is to express that money towards a bigger goal is what you would prefer. I will not be including any registry information on my invitations because that is just common sense that you don't pull a tacky move like that, but FI and I do have a wedding website that I'll be posting information on to explain why there is no registry floating out there for us and that while gifts are not necessary, if someone wants to give us something a monetary contribution would be much appreciated. We're hoping we won't have to eat grilled cheese sandwiches in the months following our wedding just to pay off our honeymoon expenditures! So how am I going to sugar coat this request for money? Why, a poem of course! This may not be for everyone but I know my guests are not the type who would be offended and it's rather cute and witty if I do say so myself. I wrote most of it on my own and then brought in bits and pieces of other poems I'd come across online. It's funny and light-hearted enough to where it doesn't sound pushy, because that's not what I was going for. I really just wanted a fun way to explain why we aren't registering. Here it is if you'd like to use it (please remember to credit accordingly!):

This is where you would normally see
Our registry information,
But as we already live together
We find ourselves in a situation.
We started collecting long ago
All sorts of things for our home,
There are not too many items now
That we don't already own.
So don't bother with searching for a gift
And please just bring yourself,
For that would mean more to both of us
Than absolutely anything else.
If you're still set on bringing something
Just know your presence will suffice,
But if you truly feel the need
Help with our honeymoon fund would be nice!