Christmas gifts: For the bride & groom to be

My brother-in-law is getting married next year. The wedding isn't until September, but I couldn't resist getting at least the future bride something wedding related for Christmas. I mean, she's ordered her dress already. Besides, she's getting an emergency kit for brides, so I can hardly give it to her for her wedding, that would be a little late. And since I don't know much about her except that she's quite different from me, I figured this might be something she would like:

I got the little pouch from Juliane's Dawanda shop >>myownstyle<< and then filled it with a few things she might need on her big day: some mints, a small package of dried fruit candy for something sweet, an emery board plus clear nailpolish, super glue and a stain-remover pen just in case. I also added a vintage lace hankie.

Now she's got something old (the hankie), something new (the kit) and something blue (the pouch). I'm so excited about this that I'd actually love to keep it.

As much as I love giving handmade gifts, I know that I can't do that for everyone, and I usually only do it when I know people well and know that they appreciate handmade things (unless it's something small like gifts for neighbors and such where it's the thought that counts). So following my Christmas strategy, if I can't make a gift, I use strategy No 2 and buy something handmade.

So you're wondering what I got for the future groom? Well, something completely wedding unrelated. I mean, we're talking men here, right? I'm sure he's excited about getting married, but excited about every last wedding detail nine months before the big day? I don't know. What I do know is that he doesn't like drinking his coffee from regular travel mugs. So I got him his own, porcelain travel mug. Complete with a silicone lid and a personalized felt cosy:

It's from lolilu, Katrin's Dawanda shop, and although I could have had his name printed on the cosy, I chose the word play "Morgähn" (a combination of the German words for good morning and yawning... nevermind).

I don't get to see my brother-in-law and his girlfriend very often and when I do, I usually have my kids in tow which means that it's hard to complete a sentence, let alone conversation. So I'm really happy I found two gifts that I love giving.

Anyone else out there who gets more excited about finding gifts for others than receiving presents?

Have a great weekend,

Swenja

PS: Sunday is the first Advent Sunday. And I don't have a single bit of decoration up yet. Also, I made two batches of cookies and haven't gotten any pictures of the second recipe. And the kids and I made Christmas crafts and, you guessed it, I haven't really gotten proper pics yet, at least not of the result. Sigh. But I'm off next week so maybe I still have a chance to get their Advent calendars ready, take some pics and finally post about all of this. Wish me luck.