A Picture (Frame) is Worth A Thousand Words

When I had to get a wedding gift for Bride #1, I was really torn. Many of my friends were giving money or a gift from the registry, but I felt like I wanted to do something a little more special. I love Bride #1 to death, but she can be quite particular and I didn’t want to get anything she didn’t pick out herself.

I then came up with the perfect combination of the two. I picked out an expensive 8x10 picture frame that she registered for. It wasn’t quite as much as I wanted to spend, so I also ordered a smaller version in the same pattern. While at the wedding, I made sure to take a great vertical picture of the bride & groom. (As you can guess, I am quite the amateur photographer at the weddings I go to, and feel the need to capture every minute.) As soon as I returned to New York after the wedding, I ordered an 8x10 of the newlyweds in black and white and a 4x6 of the bridesmaids to put in the smaller frame.

I’ve given and iteration of this gift to many of my brides since, but nothing beats the way Bride #1 received her gift. You see, the couple lived together in New York, but their wedding was in Cleveland. They left for Ohio about a week before the big day, so they gave me a spare key to their apartment, just in case they forgot anything they needed (which they did- Groom #1 forgot his iPod and seriously needed it for the honeymoon!). So, while they were baking in the sun in Hawaii, I had the pictures printed, I put them in the frames, wrapped them, and delivered them right on to their coffee table.

As soon as they walked in to their apartment for the first time as husband and wife, they were so surprised to see a gift waiting for them. They were even more shocked to see their own wedding pictures in the frames. They were absolutely thrilled! I told them that they could be placeholders for the professional prints; I just wanted them to have some wedding pictures up until they were able to order the real ones. But Bride #1 loved the gift so much, she left the picture I put in, and last summer when I was at her house in Cleveland (they’ve since moved back to the Midwest) almost 3 years after her wedding, the picture I took still resided in the frame. She said she likes it that way, because it was more meaningful, since I took the picture. Awww….

That set the bar pretty high for my future brides. And while I wasn't able to get in to anyone else's apartments, I did always make sure that the frame was waiting either in their mailbox or with their doorman when they got home from their honeymoons. They all loved coming home to such a special gift.

If you like this idea, but can’t find a frame on their registry, just pick out something classic they might like, and if you can get it engraved with their wedding date on it, even better!

Do you have a favorite “go-to” wedding gift you like to give?
Happy Bridesmaiding!