Steve has always been an incredible gift-giver. He’s the type of person who hears potential gift ideas in conversation and then stores them away for the right opportunity to give the perfect gift.
Even before he and I ever met in person, he had flowers delivered to my desk in New York City. And all throughout our dating relationship and engagement, he always had the most special gifts for me. I knew that he would definitely be going big on our wedding day, and boy was I right.
I’ll always remember seeing the stack of Kraft paper boxes tied up with grey ribbon that he put together for me.
Each gift played in tribute to the traditional wedding rhyme “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”. Each ‘something’ was explained in a handwritten note from my groom in beautiful calligraphed envelopes.
The “Something Old” was a book he made for me of all our old Facebook messages we sent back and forth. These messages, which I initially titled ‘NYC Visit’ began before we met. For some reason, with time zone differences and busy schedules, Facebook had been a way for us to get to know each other, fall in love, argue and resolve conflict. All the good, the great, the bad and the ugly is printed in this book.
You may notice that there are no photos of my “Something New”. Let’s just say it was new and it was lacy… but the “Something Borrowed” that Steve chose were our vows. Our wedding vows were a combination of traditional wedding vows that we liked and borrowed for our wedding. Steve had our vows hand-painted in calligraphy and framed for our home. When opening this gift, I became completely overwhelmed with emotion and had to set it aside to avoid too many tears. It was just so sweet.
“Something Blue” was custom stationery that Steve had made with my new initials, last name and new address in a navy blue design. He also included a selection of blue vintage stamps for decorative postage.
For the gift I chose, I knew I wanted Steve to open up something that was wrapped to match our wedding. It’s kind of funny how similar our gifts to each other ended up looking. I wrapped up a watch in Kraft paper tied with an assortment of neutral colored ribbons in various textures. The finishing touch was a tag that I had (secretly) hand calligraphed by the talented Christy Schroeder that read “to my handsome groom”.
I love these photo of our curious flower girl helping Steven open the box and reading the instruction manual.
Receiving and opening a gift before seeing one another that day was a great way to just stop for a moment and remember the gift of marriage. It helped us to really focus on what the day was all about as we fully gave ourselves and committed our lives to each other. It also left us both with special treasures that will always remind us of that day.
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