In late September, I attended a wedding at a Christmas tree farm.
Maggie, the bride, had made her own bouquet of funky white buttons (photo below by Erika Ellis). She and her intended had strung many, many feet of paper flower garland for the reception.
You should know that Maggie writes a fantastic craft blog full of projects explained so well that even I could make them. I like to think of myself as a creative person, but I knew that for Maggie, I was really going to have to put my thinking cap on, down a quad-shot coffee beverage, and pace around. Once I learned that the couple were planning a honeymoon in Paris, though, I knew where this gift was headed.
My first stop was a bookstore, where I found City Walks: Paris, 50 Adventures on Foot by Christina Henry de Tessan. The guide is a deck of cards, each with a map of a walk. This beats carrying around a dorky guidebook in your fanny pack any day! A pair of small Moleskin journals (his and hers!) would allow the couple to record their impressions of the city without adding much weight to their gear. And they’d need a bottle of French wine to drink while planning their itinerary (obviously).
Perhaps the riskiest part of the gift were tiny toiletries from the Body Shop. That store puts me in a trance, so that I think I’m making the world better with my purchase of eyeliner. Shampoo might not be a symbol of love’s longevity (don’t think of South Pacific here). But I knew Maggie would read the shampoo as a symbol of my excitement about her trip.
The last piece of the gift were the Ninjabread Men cookie cutters (the desired effect is pictured above) from Fred kitchen. I’m guessing that a person might feel safer entering into a lifetime commitment if one knows that ninjas have got one’s back. I wrapped the gifts with maps and newspaper and assembled them in a brown paper shopping bag (no, not a grocery bag. It looked like a plausible container for gifts).
Maggie’s big day was sunny and hot, real Indian Summer. The program booklets she and her man had made included a crossword puzzle and a teeny golf pencil, in case we wanted something educational to do till the nuptials began. On every seat waited a bottle of water. Maggie had thought of everything.