I absolutely love throwing/planning weddings. I even once seriously considered becoming a wedding coordinator – even had business cards made. But alas, it is not meant to be for me other than through my own wedding dreams and the assistance of helping friends and family when they have planned their big affairs.

So when it was time for my baby sister to get married 3 years ago, I made sure I pulled out all the stops to make her big day as special as possible…including all the fun events and parties leading up to the big day.

One idea I came up with that I thought I would share with the blogosphere was our main gift to her at her bridal shower. We had at least 40 family and friends attend a luncheon in baby sis’ honor. For the months leading up to the shower, I became a nuisance to every invited guest…for I asked each person (even those who were invited and yet could not attend) to please e-mail me a photo of them with their significant other (or with the bride if they were single) as well as e-mail me a very brief message with their blessings or words of wisdom on being a bride, wife or making your hubby happy.

The very first gift that baby sis opened at her shower was the book we (I) had made her with everyone’s contributions.  Now she has a lifelong keepsake from her big day that she will always be able to read and remember those that celebrated her and ‘showered’ her with love, blessings and words of wisdom. 

In today’s day and age, just about anyone can easily make professional looking hard cover albums on internet sites…I prefer shutterfly.com.  This was the creation we came up with: 

Another take on this I’ve read about is asking each guest to make a scrapbook page and bring it to the shower to place in an album for the bride at the event. 
Now I know that most of you brides will most likely not tell your MOH’s and BM’s what to get you for your shower, but thought I would share this anyway as I know you will inevitably host or attend a shower in the future and might find this a thoughtful surprise for the guest of honor.  And maybe your BM’s follow your blog and might see this little post and be inspired?  It was so much fun to put together for her and so much more fun to watch her open it and browse through the photos of loved ones.   She’s not emotional like me, I would have bawled…but she really loved it.  Here’s a little 1 min video of her opening it up (sorry the first few seconds are a little blurry):
Do you have any special gifts or surprises that you have received or planned for a bride on her celebratory shower or bachelorette party?