The Gifts.

Guess who got her wedding pictures back??? That's right folks, THIS GIRL! I got the discs on Friday night and me and the husband snuggled up on the couch with a fire blazing in the fireplace, a drink {or two three} in hand and popped those bad boys in to the PS3 so we could go through the pics on our TV. All I can say is Sara Jayne did not disappoint!!! Because we're real life buddies and she knows that I am a picture spazz she gave me a little bonus and gave me 1673 AMAZING images! Seriously...SOOOO many pictures, all of which are FAB, except of the ones of me laughing, I am not a cute laugher. AN-Y-WAYs, I have a lot of sifting and organizing to do before I can start composing these beloved wedding posts, so you're going to have to wait a little longer. But, to tide you over, here's what we did for Wedding Party gifts. 

The week leading up to the wedding the thing I was most excited about {besides the whole getting married thing} was to give our wedding party and our parents their gifts. We spent a lot of time trying to come up with creative and meaningful gifts, and I was beside myself to give them. 

The boys were actually really easy. We knew instantly what we wanted to give them. All of the boys in the wedding have a team {most college football and a couple baseball} that they are just obsessed with, like obsessed to the point where it's ridiculous. So we decided to get them all grill sets with their favorite teams on them. 

Our best man is a die hard Buckeye fan. 

The boys loved them! And hopefully they'll get a lot of use out of them.

For the girls, it took a little longer to decide on something. I knew I wanted to get them tote bags and I knew I wanted to get their jewelry for the wedding.
After a lot of searching, here's what I came up with:

I got all of the girls a zebra tote bag and had it embroidered with their first name. I chose a different font for each of the girls to really personalize it. 

 Obviously, I had to get myself one:

Then I got each of the girls a b&w polka dot makeup bag and had it embroidered with their first initial in the same font as their bag. Cute, right? 

I also grabbed a bunch of day-of essentials to fill the make-up bags: 

Gum, Lotion, Deodorant, Lint Rollers, Aleeve, Keelex, Chapstick, Shout Wipes and Bandaids

As for the jewelry, I was working at Mary Kay's Bridal and found these in one of the designer's catalogs and HAD.TO.HAVE.THEM!

horrible pic...these are way prettier in person.

They looked AMAZING with the bridesmaid's dresses and I think they girls all liked them.

Finally, my most favorite part of the gift were these personalized champagne flutes by FizzyArtist.

They were a huge hit and we used them the morning of the wedding to have a little champagne toast!

Our parents, were definitely the trickiest. We really wanted to get them something personal and meaningful but seeing as there are eight of them we had to be budget conscious. We decided we wanted to get a gift for each couple versus each individual parent. The hard part was coming up with a gift that all eight of them would love and appreciate. After a lot of thought we figured that the one thing all eight parents have in common is that they love to cook and are really good at it. We decided to compile a list of all of our favorite recipes and combine them in to a family cookbook. The hard part was getting all of the recipes...turns out our parents don't to like to share their secrets OR like to write down actual recipes. BUT, after A.LOT of begging, plotting, some stealing, cursing and cooking I was able to put together all of our favorite recipes with pictures {that was a feat all it's own}. Then we personalized each of the books by adding family pictures in between the chapters. Here's a preview of the book we did for my dad and step-mom:

Our parents absolutely loved them. All of the hard work was totally worth it once they opened them. 

What did you do or are planning to do for your wedding party?