Despite the fact that every wedding budget calculator ever makes mention of having a designated budget for gifting – I mean these people are devoting a little part of their life to your wedding. Between showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties, fittings and not to mention the big day… They deserve a little something. There’s absolutely no excuse for not gifting at least a little something to your wedding party and this was something we definitely wanted to do for our destination wedding!

A couple things to think about when choosing wedding party gifts:

Make sure they can use it again

This was a big one for us…. While they may be your bridesmaid for the day, they’ll be your friend/sibling/family for life (or so you’d hope). Try to stay away from something that says “bride’s bestie,” “bridesmaid,” or anything else that describes their title in your wedding, wedding party gifts don’t have to be cheesy, y’all!

Is it something they’ll be excited to get?

What kind of things are you actually excited to get? Hair ties? Bridesmaid engraved bracelet? Wine stopper? See what i mean… I don’t think any of those kind of things spark joy, at least not for me. Look at the gifts you’ve been given, find the ones that make you happy when you see them and capitalize on that.

Will they think of you every time they look at it?

Don’t get me wrong, every time I see a penis straw I think of my bachelorette party… Unfortunately, those might not make the best gift for your bridesmaids on your wedding day. Think sentimental. Jewelry from a reputable place, something related to their hobbies, those kinds of things.

Choosing wedding party gifts doesn’t have to be hard, but if you’re stuck on what to get, here’s a few ideas that will hopefully help.

Gifts for Bridesmaids:

Picking gifts for our bridesmaids was a whole other level for us. We had two bridesmaids (maid & matron of honor – but the matron of honor dropped out a month before the wedding, but that’s a WHOLE other story, for a different day) and two junior bridesmaids. Each of them being so, so different. We wanted something that meant something to them, could be worn multiple times again and would always make them think of us.

Jewelry they can wear on wedding day

We planned to get matching bracelets for my bridesmaids to wear on wedding day as part of their gifts. We snagged these really cute Kendra Scott bracelets in sliver and slate cats eye for an amazing price and it was a no brainer. The girls could wear them on wedding day because they were in our color scheme and could wear them over and over again after our big day.

Charms

If any of your bridesmaids have a charm bracelet, this is the perfect gift for them. My maid of honor had a charm bracelet that she wears almost every day, so I knew an engravable charm for her bracelet and a freshwater pearl charm would be the perfect gift to commemorate the day. On the engravable charm we wrote MOH and the date of our wedding.

Gifts for Groomsmen:

You’ll read my little rant mention below about the things I think you should not give your groom, but that rule doesn’t apply to groomsmen. These probably aren’t guys you’ve given gifts to a thousand times (supposedly guys don’t give each other gifts nearly as often as girls do, but whatever).

Funny socks

Obviously, if we got any of our groomsmen socks, they wouldn’t be able to wear them during our wedding (#BeachWeddingProz?), but some of these socks are too funny not to mention.

Decanter

A decanter is the perfect gift for your best man, especially if he is a whiskey drinker. We had actually already decided to gift Thomas’ best man this for his wedding (which was a few months after ours) so we held off on this as his best man gift.

Cuff links

A timeless watch

It’s hard to go wrong with a classic watch. Similar to how we picked bracelets for my bridesmaids that they could wear on wedding day, we did the same with the watch for the best man. We went with a simple Fossil watch and engraved a message on the back. Personalized, reusable and timeless – a solid wedding party gift for sure!

Gifts for the Groom:

I’m not judging anyone who has done what I’m about to say, but the whole watch thing is so overdone. Have you ever actually googled “best gifts for guys” or “gifts for the groom?” The number one thing you’re going to get is a watch, with cuff links close behind. Maybe some guys need that many watches, who knows. Thomas and I had been together for six and a half years when we got married. I have given him his fair share of watches – engraved, custom, fancy, chill – every kind of watch you can think of. He needs no more watches, EVER!

Tickets to something he enjoys

A few weeks before our wedding I surprised Thomas with tickets to the Texas vs USC game in Austin. The year before, in 2017 he gave up our tickets to the game in California because it was the only weekend we were able to get down to Gulf Shores to do wedding planning. I knew right then we couldn’t miss the game in 2018 in Austin. But, with the 2018 game being only a few weeks before our wedding, we “agreed” we shouldn’t go to the game. Little did he know, I wasn’t about to let that happen. So I surprised him the morning of the game with a wake-up call that included tickets to this coveted game!

Boudoir photo book

Never did I think I’d be advocating for this, but here I am. I did it on a whim and not only was it the most empowering experience, but Thomas absolutely loved the gift. There are tons of great ways to set up a DIY boudoir shoot (I tried this first) and get plenty of good images, especially if you are skilled in editing photos! I don’t care if you’re a size 00 or a size 22 – find a photographer that makes you feel good or a good friend you’re comfortable with and work it. Your spouse loves you for you (hopefully) so why not give them a book all about you?

Custom card

Obviously, you should write your husband a cute message on your wedding day. But it’s what you write it on that counts (or doesn’t). I had a custom card designed by our favorite graphic designer, Whiski Designs that encompassed everything Thomas loves!

Gifts for the Bride:

I feel like I need to put a disclaimer here. Thomas went above and beyond when it came to a gift for me. But, if you’ve followed us for any amount of time, you know this his completely normal for him.

As a groom, you should know what your bride likes/loves, what she’s been wanting for a long time, but didn’t want to buy for herself, continuing a tradition you’ve started… the list could go on forever.

Every bride is different, but being able to have something I can use every day, look at and always be reminded of our wedding day made both of Thomas’ gifts for me absolutely perfect!

Gifts for the Moms:

A lot of people would say you don’t need to give your moms gifts, especially if they helped contribute towards the wedding. Well we think that’s a bunch of crap. Whether they offer financial support for your whole wedding or don’t contribute a dollar, they are still your mom, and in most cases, in some way, helped you get to this day. They deserve a gift. Don’t leave them out.

Timeless wedding gifts for mother of the bride & mother of the groom

To me, it’s a no brainer. Whatever you’re getting your mom(s) should be timeless. We chose to give my mom a David Yurman Chantelaine bracelet with a pearl stone because she absolutely loves David Yurman and the pearl will always remind her of our wedding at the beach. For Thomas’ mom we went with the classic Tiffany & Co Tiffany Twist Knot Earrings because they were simple enough to be an everyday pair of earrings but classic and somewhat nautical with the knots! We also did a group gift for both of our moms – a bottle of Dom Perignon Champagne. They both put up with us for over a year of wedding planning on top of dealing with each of us for 20+ years.

We really focused on our moms personalities and figuring out what would mean the most to them. We both agreed these were the perfect gifts for them.

When it all boils down to it, wedding party gifts for the people who helped make your big day special should be well thought out and meaningful. Hopefully some of these ideas will help you figure out what to get the people you’re sharing your big day with!

The post Best Wedding Party Gifts Ideas appeared first on Tastebud Travels.

We’re sharing our complete list of vendors, how we managed to find the best wedding vendors in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama and of course, some of our gorgeous wedding photos!

Social media has become one of the quickest ways to find just about anything, and wedding vendors are no stranger to that.

Instagram

Instagram is one of the best ways to find destination wedding vendors. We swear by hashtag and location searches on Instagram. We found both our photographer and videographer by using different hashtags. And found our rehearsal dinner spot by doing a location search!

Hashtag searches are a lot like searching for something on google, but instead of “best wedding photographer in Gulf Shores” it’d be something like “#GulfShoresPhotographer” “#AlabamaWeddingPhotographer.” This was incredibly helpful because we weren’t finding any videographers within our price range, so after expanding our hashtag research from #GulfShoresVideographer to #AlabamaVideographer we found a whole new list of videographers. We ended up choosing Wilt Productions as our videographer for our destination wedding even though they were located a few hours away from where our wedding was going to be.

Facebook

This one is a little hard to explain, but try to stay with me because it’s a really good way to find people – especially small businesses.

You’ll do a normal search on Facebook like you would for anything, but type in what you’re looking for photographer/videographer/cake/flowers and where dallas/austin/houston – whatever. (I typed in cake Gulf Shores Alabama) Once you hit enter or search, a new page will open up. From there, tons of options will begin to fill the page, scroll through and you’ll see tons of small and large businesses, just waiting to hear from you!

Remember – Facebook Messenger is kinda wonky. If you don’t hear back form someone within a day or so, i’d recommend commenting on their page and letting them know you sent a message, just to be sure.

Word of mouth

We had an amazing wedding coordinator who helped us with so many aspects. Having someone who was on the ground and could connect us with vendors for our destination wedding was one of the best things. Carol and her team deal with vendors in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama all the time, and she knew who tell point us towards and who to steer us away from!

Take your time

Finding a great vendor is like finding an oyster with a pearl in it. Okay, maybe not that hard. But seriously. Don’t try to rush it. Don’t try to rush any of the wedding planning process. Give yourself enough time to really sort through the masses of vendors that you come across. Heck, so many of them will take days (yes, days!) to get back to you, there’s no reason to rush through the process.

Even though we’re planners, we still had a few details left till the very end. We really wanted to host our rehearsal dinner at Bill’s by the Beach, but they were not very good about getting back to me and that left us stressing, in a major way. It ended up leading us to the most amazing rehearsal dinner spot in Gulf Shores – Sunset Cork Room. My mom and I were lucky enough to be able to stop in for dinner when we were in town for my bridal portraits two months before the wedding and we knew instantly it’s where we had to have our rehearsal dinner. If we wouldn’t have had the issue with our initial place, we probably never would have found Sunset Cork Room.

Cross-check popular wedding review sites

I mean this with the utmost respect, but y’all, if you’re so naive to think people can’t pay for their reviews or pay to be on the first page of the popular wedding review sites, you’re wrong. There are some great, incredibly descriptive reviews on sites like Wedding Wire and The Knot, but just like everything, you have to cross-check. Google, social media, other sites, they are all your friend when it comes to making sure a company or service hasn’t spent their marketing dollars trying to overdo it on one of those sites. This is going to take a little time, but it is SO worth it.

Our vendor list

Venue: Young’s Suncoast Rentals – Hangin’ 10 Beach House (We rented a big beach house for our family and friends for the week and got married on the beach in front of the house)

Wedding coordinator & officiant: Orange Beach Weddings

Photographer: Southern Shores Photography

Videographer: Wilt Productions 

Hair & makeup: Christian Burchfield Hair

Caterer: Culinary Productions

DJ: D’Jones Entertainment

Flowers: Coastal Flowers and Design

Rentals: Gulf Coast Events & Rentals 

Cake: Sugar House – Custom Cakes

Weddings are no joke (duh, right?) and the planning process is the most time consuming thing. Don’t rush through any aspect of it, take it all in and enjoy it.

We’ll have more wedding stuff up soon, but if you’re curious about our honeymoon, you can read all about our honeymoon in Antigua! And if you’re new around here, you can take a look at our engagement story, our unique Dallas engagement photos and our engagement story in DMagazine!

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions on how to find the best destination wedding vendors, especially if you’re looking for ones in Gulf Shores or Orange Beach, Alabama!

The post How to Find the Best Destination Wedding Vendors appeared first on Tastebud Travels.