Wedding planning so far has been pretty fun. Once you take the stressful parts out (the guest-list and the budget, mainly) it’s pretty fun to design a day long party just for you and the boy of your dreams. It’s your one chance to celebrate just the way you want to, so personally, I’m taking it for all it’s worth. It’s gonna be a damn good party.

If you’re not yet aware, Bridesmaids are important people. If you’re lucky, they’re your nearest and dearest, the ones you’ll lean on in the weeks, days and minutes before the big day, so it’s important that you treat them well. The thought of Bridezilla rearing her ugly head already makes me quake with embarrassment, guilt and fear, and we’re not even close to the big day yet, so I thought it was time I started buttering my bridesmaid up good and proper in order to reap the benefits in the future. It was time for me to get crafty…

I love personalised and thoughtful presents, more so than your average girl. I pinned a picture on Pinterest months ago of a box filled with champagne and other little treats, which was decorated and used as a way to pop the question to a bride’s most trusted girls. I already have mine lined up, in fact I only have one, but she’s all I need. This gave me a little bit more liberty to splash the cash and do something a little special as I only had one lot of stuff to buy and prepare.

I started with a box (I got mine from Paperchase where you can find various sizes and prizes, I picked a pretty stationery box for £7) and I decided on a theme. After a bit of thought, I decided on “Planning”. This may not sound like fun, but I thought it was a nice balance of cute and serious – playing on the excitement of all that is to come, as well as pointing out that hard work is ahead of us! You could also go for “Celebration” (champers and party poppers) or “Pamper” (bath bombs and manicure sets), you could even do a variation for a Hen Do with false lashes, mini spirits and tiaras, or maybe tea bags, vintage headscarves and cupcakes if that’s more your style. I set about filling the box with all sorts of treats to help my Maid of Honour get to grips with her role in the wedding. I included:

- a week planner
- a cute keyring
- a big mug
- a pen
- some sticky labels
- a gel eye-mask
- hand cream + hand sanitiser
- a packet of tissues
- a pot of rosey vaseline
- post-its
- star shaped paper clips
- 3 hotel chocolat bars
- 4gig flash drive
- framed photo of us
- thank you card

I lined the box with tissue paper for plenty of padding. I had to carry the box quite a long way so I wanted to make sure the bits inside stayed put and didn’t rattle around too much. The tissue paper creates little crevices for everything to sit in and everything remains fairly steady even as you move it around. Next, I used post-its to write cute directions, descriptions and in-jokes on each item. For example: the mug was labeled with “when you need a cuppa” and the tissues “it’s an emotional time”. Below you can see the photo frame I bought and the bars of choc.

As we live far away from each other, it’s hard to keep my Maid of Honour updated on wedding plans. She can’t see updates in my real-life scrapbook too often, so I loaded a PDF onto the flash drive filled with links to my Pinterest wedding board and my Evernote Notebooks. This way she can stay updated as the plans develop, plus she can email me with any thoughts or pictures. One of my Evernotes is called “Anna’s Bridesmaid Look Book”, so if she sees something she likes, she’ll hopefully feel free to add it to the mix.

The PDF and thank you card outline the logistics like budget, style and dates, as well as a heartfelt sentence or two expressing my gratitude for the time she’s willing to give up by being my right hand man for the next year. Lastly, I used plain A4 paper to cut out letters and decorate the lid with *the* question (even though she had already said yes!). I used Sellotape but any glue stronger than Pritt Stick would work well. When I finished I was left feeling pretty pleased with myself, I must say. I hope she likes it! I would say that the entire budget for this was around £70 but as I mentioned earlier, I only have one lady to think about and I did go all out – more frugal brides could easily cut the costs without cutting the quality.

Next on my agenda for personalised presents are the wedding day favours, a bridesmaid emergency kit for the day itself (packed with plasters, snacks, safety pins, hairspray and more), and special thank yous to my mum and Mother of the Groom. I’m constantly on the look out for my wedding DIYs, so if you know where to find them, do let me know!