Wedding Gifts: Shower Hosts!

The whole process of getting married is just so special! From the time you get engaged to when you say I Do, you are surrounded by love. We are so blessed to have some wonderful friends in our lives and while they were working hard on our behalf, I wanted to make sure I worked equally as hard to make sure they felt loved and appreciated for their efforts. This post is dedicated to those people and an ability to share some fun gift giving ideas for others looking for them.

Engagement Party Hosts - "Date Night" Recipe Basket

 

I cannot believe I didn't get a picture of this gift but I found a graphic on the wonderful world wide web that was similar enough to the gift basket created.

 

For our Engagement Party, we had some wonderful family friends offer to throw this celebration. These families have been apart of my life for as long as I can remember. I've cooked many meals in the Fulton kitchen and they know what foodies Max and I are so to make this extra special for us, they wanted to hand prepare all of the food for the event. They spent hours getting ready and creating a menu that served so many of our favorite things from pesto hummus and caprese skewers, to a crab remoulade and pork sliders. To thank them, I wanted to make something for them that was from our hearts, share something with them that is special to us. I had years of practice creating baskets of goodies for silent auctions, so I took that concept and applied it to their gift. I wanted to make each of the three host couples a "date night" basket with our favorite pasta recipe and everything they would need to make it. I filled the wicker basket with pasta noodles, ingedients for the sauce (including a mini vodka bottle), baguette bread, chianti wine and gadgets, such as a salad dressing emulsifier and cheese grater, stuffed it with crinkle paper and then wrapped with cellophane. I created a recipe card to attach, then used the back space to write a heartfelt message of thanks and affixed that as the gift tag.

Ladies Shower Host Gifts

For my Ladies Shower, I had four hosts that again I have known as long as I can remember. These sweet ladies have been dear friends of my mom and have watched me grow up. Having met all of them while growing up at University Park United Methodist Church, I wanted to gift them something that would reflect that. They led my Disciple Now weekends, taught me in Vacation Bible School and Sunday School, were chaperones on mission trips... these ladies each impacted my faith journey and were extensions of our own family for over 25 years. In Dallas we have the most fantastic store for home goodies and gifts called Sample House, where I found beautiful crosses and then paired with a candle for each host.

Couples Shower Host Gift

Mr. Max and I have some very special friends, the Rumplers. They have been a couple that has been apart of our relationship from very early on and they are apart of our wedding party. The Rumps gave us a lovely couples shower and we wanted to give them something fun in return. The store we purchased our wedding invitations through, Paper Affair, had a line of fun decorative cutting board platters that you could personalize. I was able to pick out a pattern and color that matched their home and have their name added to it. Liddy is a natural hostess so I thought this would be a gift I know she would appreciate. The week of that shower, I had a luncheon through work featuring the Pioneer Woman herself, Ree Drummond. I got to meet and talk with her, as well as the chance to buy her newest cook book and have it personalized. I put it all together in a basket with a floral arrangement.

Thanks again to our wonderful hosts, we hope you know how much we appreciate you!