Wedding Recap: Our Bridesmaids' gifts

We had a pretty big wedding party--Four bridesmaids, four groomsmen, four flower girls, a ring bearer, our parents and, according to Filipino tradition, six sponsors. We decided we wanted to give everyone thank you gifts for their participation and help. This also included gifts to our ceremony readers, wedding shower hostess gifts and thank you gifts to people who helped us out for free (our MC, the family friend who made our gorgeous ceremony flowers, etc).  That's 29 gifts! Even if we spent $20 a gift (which hardly buys anything these days) it would have really killed our budget.

But thanks to connections at work, blogging, online discounts, bargain hunting and giveaways, I was able to score some really awesome gifts for everyone on our gift list for under $300! First up, our bridesmaids' gifts. My bridesmaids really helped us out, whether with planning, performing tasks, hooking us up with great vendors or giving us a generous amount of money for the wedding. So obviously I wanted to spoil them with nice goodies! Instead of going for one expensive gift (which I couldn't afford) I decided to go with a grab bag full of smaller awesome gifts. Sure, I may have gone overboard with the gifts...but I really wanted to show them how much I appreciated them!

Each bridesmaid got a small clasp clutch purse from brands such as Lena Lime Studio, Amanda Pearl (thank you Merci New York!) and Stila Cosmetics.

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Lena Lime clutch purse for my MOH

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Amanda Pearl clutch for my Matron of Honor (her's was actually pink)

I purchased two Stila makeup clutches from Beautycrunch.com for my 2 bridesmaids (both for less than $22 each)

I filled each purse with makeup from Stila, Urban Decay, Loreal, Senna, Sephora and Clinique.

 I also scored some beauty products from Moroccan Oil, Loreal and Morning's Mist Country Store through connections at work and sponsors of my blog.

 

 

They also received handmade soap from Morning's Mist Country Store and Sweet Sally Soaps (thank goodness for blog giveaways!).

 

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 On top of all that, they received handmade Hawaiian jewelry from Kreations by Kawai: and this Hawaiian jeweler on etsy

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The blue Tahitian shell pearl necklace I gave to bridesmaid #2

 

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The Lotus Flower Necklace for my Matron of Honor

 

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The Opihi shell necklace I gave to bridesmaid #1

 

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The Opihi shell necklace I bought for my MOH

And, wait, there's more!  They each received genuine pearl earrings:

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Guy and Eva mother of pearl earrings for my MOH

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 Mother of Pearl earrings from House of Peltier for my Matron of Honor

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 Freshwater pearl earrings from Dazzling Jewelry and Pearls for Bridesmaid #1

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 and Freshwater Pearl Earrings from Bellalu and Me for Bridesmaid #2

I put their gifts in cute lauhala bags I ordered from Ailana Kai, an online shop based out of Honolulu. Each tote was only $2.50 each!

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So, for four grab bag of goodies for each of my bridesmaids (including tax and shipping), I spent a total of $120! A huge thank you to my blog sponsors and blog giveaways!!!!

I also gave my MOH and Matron of Honor extra gifts for being so helpful and hosting our wedding shower. I gave my MOH a bangle bracelet from Guy and Eva:

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And my Matron of Honor received a handstamped mother of pearl necklace with each of her three daughters' names from The Vintage Pearl

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And since my mom helped my ladies put on a nice party, we gave her a gift certificate for a free massage at a nearby spa. Total for all 3 hostess gifts? $30. For realz. Enter those giveaways!!!

Coming up: Our groomsmen's gifts

Shower us w/ your love: Our Wedding Shower/Bride's night out

Ah, yes, we have returned home from our honeymoon and as we start getting settled into married life, I've realized...I haven't blogged -- really blogged -- since right before our wedding shower. That was more than 2 weeks ago, yo! So, to make up for lost time, I'm starting where I left off, culminating in wedding and honeymoon recaps galore!

So, to start off, let's talk shower shall we?

First, I insisted on couple's shower. I don't feel comfortable being the sole center of attention. Besides, I've always felt like this wedding was our wedding, not some me, me, me lovefest. The shower also fell on the weekend on my fiance's birthday, so it became a shower/birthday party. I let my mom and Maid and Matron of Honor take over the shower planning completely, which they insisted on doing. The only thing I did was give them addresses for the paper invites and email addresses for the evites. Oh, and I did win these cute shower paper invites from a blog giveaway:

Amanda from Dawn Correspondence customized this design for our wedding shower

I told my MOH and Matron of Honor not to spend too much money on the party, either. I think they pulled off a fun, cute event on a limited budget very nicely! The shower was a laidback, intimate affair with a few of our close family and friends. My MOH organized some fun games, including wedding taboo (which the fiance and I totally kicked ass in since --ahem--we're pretty knowledgeable on wedding stuff by now), a couple's trivia quiz and this game:

Those are my nieces trying to grab as many safety pins (closed of course) from a bowl of rice blindfolded. Actually a lot harder than it looks. The adults played, too, but the kids pretty much showed them up! I thought my MOH was pretty generous in prizes, too -- Coffee Bean and In N Out gift cards and 2 movie passes!

Playing Wedding Taboo

My MOH also made this wedding scrapbook for us and had guests write notes of advice and well wishes to put in it:

My Matron of Honor made these cute favors for guests to take home:

 

My niece admiring the pretty bouquet my Matron of Honor (her mom) arranged.

And there was food...lot's of it!

And there was cake -- a wedding shower/30th b-day cake!

Afterwards, we opened gifts...just some advice for folks attending a bridal/wedding shower: if you're going to give a naughty gift to the bride, let her know before she opens it...chances are, her mom or dad might be right there as she opens it (yes, it did happen!)

And later that night, my MOH and Matron of Honor took me out for a mini-bachelorette party at nearby Sevilla's for drinks and salsa dancing:

The day was such a lovely day and my fiance and I were really happy with how it all turned out. We gave our hostesses each thank you gifts: a massage at a nearby spa for my mom, a bracelet from Guy and Eva for my MOH, and a handstamped pearl necklace (with names of her three daughters) from The Vintage Pearl for my Matron of Honor.

Next up: Rehearsal Dinner recaps!