Will You Be My Bridesmaid? Boxes to Pop the Question!
It seems like my Facebook news feed has been flooded with engagements these past few months. If it seems like yours is, too, it is probably because its "engagement season." According to The Knot, the holiday season is the most popular time of the year to get engaged and it looked like a few more couples out there found themselves engaged after this Valentine's weekend.
After you enjoy your post-engagement bliss and show that ring off to anyone who will look at it, it's time to start the wedding planning. One of the first things (other than venue) that you might start to think about is your wedding party. Once you have decided how many bridesmaids you plan to have and whether or not you'd like to have a personal attendant, the asking can begin.
Now, you can certainly give them a call, send them a text, or shoot off an email, but you can also get creative!
Pinterest is full of ideas for asking people to be a part of your special day. You can get labels for wine bottles, glitter up some champagne bottles, or pick out some special jewelry. What I ended up settling on was my own version of the bridesmaid box. There is no one right way to put together a box like this. A quick search on Pinterest will show you the variety of options. I saw everything from band-aids to nail polish to mini photo frames with a picture of the bride-to-be and the friend.
I decided to go with a bridesmaid/personal attendant survival kit of sorts. First, I ordered some kraft cardboard boxes from Staples. I ordered in bulk and plan to use the remaining boxes for Welcome Kits for our wedding guests.
Each of the boxes contained the following items:
A decorative wooden letter to represent their first name
A bottle of champagne with a straw tied on with baker's twine and our wedding date
A first-aid kit filled with band-aids and advil (you know for blisters and perhaps blistering headaches post-bachelorette party)
Chocolates
A wedding color pallet
I got the decorative wooden letters at Michaels and they were already a nice gold color, so I didn't need to spray paint. However, you can buy unfinished wood letters at craft stores and paint them any color if you can't find what you're looking for.
I stopped at a local liquor store with a large selection to look specifically for these mini Friexenet bottles. I loved that they were black and gold. They looked classy and were easy to write the date of the wedding on with a metallic Sharpie. I picked up the paper straws and baker's twine at Michael's as well, although these two things are everywhere right now!
For the "first-aid" part of the kit, I picked up some band-aids and mini tubes of Advil. You can find these at Walgreens, Target, Wal-Mart, etc. I also found little burlap bags in Wal-Mart's craft section (a hidden gem full of reasonably priced crafty stuff!). Dollar Tree can also be a good place to find first-aid type items.
To show the ladies what I was planning for my wedding colors, I took one blogger's suggestion and swiped some free paint swatches from Home Depot. I picked the colors that were closest to my vision and cut them into circles. I used a hole-punch and tied the pallet of Copper, Burgundy, and Grey together with some twine.
For filling, I got the crinkled basket filler at Michael's. To help make sure it doesn't crunch down flat, it's a good idea to put a piece or two of tissue paper or newspaper crunched up underneath before adding the filler over the top.
After I filled each box, I tied it up with some pretty burgundy ribbon and slipped in a card with a handwritten note. These cards were a free printable from Paper and Lace, but I wanted them on nice cardstock, so I sent them over to the Staples copy center and they came out great!
For the ladies living out of town, I boxed them up and shipped them off. For local ladies, I had everyone meet for dinner at a local restaurant with a cozy, candlelight vibe. I arrived early and set out the boxes at each table setting. It was a fun way to kick off the wedding excitement and the boxes got rave reviews from their recipients!
