You can write or put together some lovely favors as thank yous to your guests. Even better, you can get your wedding guests to write some wonderful things for you that you can merely compile. People like receiving little books that are personal.
- Write a book of Wedding Guests: List the friends and family members who were invited to your wedding and say something wonderful about why you're grateful for each of them. Print it out (half sheet sizes), "bind" it with ribbons in your wedding colors and you have a wonderful gift.
- Solicit Love Stories: Gather love stories from your ancestors or from other older successful marriages. Try to find out what made those marriages work (you don't need to know them if they have a great story). Put them together with pictures of the couple and give people some new love stories to read and live into. This is a book that certainly everyone in your families is going to be thrilled to receive. (Be a little careful here. Pick longer marriages and older couples, you don't want to make friends who are single feel left out.)
- Assemble a cookbook from your community: Solicit recipes from all your guests. It'll be good for you to have as you're starting out your married life. And I haven't met anyone who doesn't like to have new foods to think about, whether or not they cook. And this might be a great chance to get Aunt Millie's snickerdoodle recipe!
Then help make these gifts meaningful by talking about their meaning at your wedding ceremony. Include your commitment to your community in your wedding vows. Then enjoy the support you've created as you live into the marriage of your dreams.
