Everything For The Bride

I’m the best man (and brother) and have already organized the purchase of a large, group gift from the wedding party. I still want to purchase another gift that will be memorable for years to come.

my uncle is getting married next summer and my husband and I, along withh my parents and my brother and his girlfriend are all travelling the 18hour car ride to go tho the wedding. I was thinking as a gift I would make him a homemade photo album for the wedding…I make really nice silk covered albums. is this a nice gift to give him? this is his 3rd wedding…(his future wifes 4th) so they arent registering and I know he would not accept money or a fancy gift from me and hubby (he would never take money from his neices or nephews like that) my parents are also going to give either a nice gift or some money from all of us, but is a photo album a nice gift from me and hubby?
I’m not even sure if they are having a photographer, but even if they are, there is a 2 day party after the wedding at her parents cottage so there will be plenty of pictures from that to put in there.

I’m the maid of honor in my brother’s upcoming wedding, and I don’t really know the bride all that well. She just wanted to keep the wedding parties as family-only so none of her friends would feel put out. Well, the traditional MOH tasks are still falling on me – a woman who hardly knows the bride! (PS there was no turning the job down or the world would end).

At the moment, I’m trying to plan her wedding shower. The small and reasonable guest list has now jumped to over 40 people, very few of whom are actually close friend, and ten of whom aren’t even invited to the wedding!

Personally, I find it super tacky to a) throw over 40 people at me and expect me to finance this party, b) expect gifts from all the party members (even the ones not invited to the actual wedding), and c) invite ten people to a wedding shower -expecting gifts- while making it known that they are not getting a wedding invitation.

I tried to gently tell the bride that we should put a ”no gifts” notice on the invitations of those not coming to the wedding, but her mother got all huffy and insisted that this party was ”payback” for all the bridal showers, baby showers, etc. that the bride had ever gone to. She’d bought presents for those people, now it was their turn to buy presents for her.

While I don’t really want to argue with the bride, I find this beyond tacky and beyond rude. I also heard the bride say she wasn’t doing her wedding the ‘etiquette way’, she was doing it ‘her way’. I’m all for bending the rules, but…come on!

How would you feel if you were invited to the wedding shower of a woman you:
a) didn’t know that personally (say, you were on her softball team or were a distant coworker)?
and/or
b) didn’t receive a wedding invitation from?

Would you attend? If you attended, would you bring a gift? How would you feel about being expected to bring a gift as ‘payback’?

How should I handle this? I’ve made and addressed the 40 invitations as per the bride’s orders, but this isn’t sitting well with me. I don’t want this tacky party to be a reflection of ME.
There are no other bridesmaids. There’s me, and my 18 year old baby sister. She can hardly be expected to pay for anything – she is still in high school! My brother and his fiancee are in their mid-30′s, and still expected my parents to pay for their wedding (which is his second, I should add), host their showers, etc. The bride got a ,000 inheritance from her grandmother specifically to pay for a wedding – please explain to me how one cannot fit in this budget?
This is the kind of control freak woman I can’t stand, and none of this behavior started to manifest until after she had a ring on her finger. Blehhhhhhhhhhhh.

He is 15 yrs old. The hair is neatly kept. He is not a trouble maker. In fact, he is a straight A student. Ranked 23rd out of 972 students. She is a nice girl, but I think she has over stepped the line with this request. I am the step mother of the groom, and the 15 yr old is his 1/2 brother, my son. They asked him 6 months ago, and the wedding is not for another 6 months. The 15 yr old told them where they could go. lol… I think they should have mentioned that when they asked him to walk in the wedding, and he could have had the option to turn it down then. I know its the brides special day, but this, in my opinon, has nothing to do with messing up her day. All he is doing is walking a brides maid up the isle. Yes, she is on the spoiled side, and gets what she wants. Well, according to the 15 yr old… NOT THIS TIME!. His hair should not affect her day. She is not making the brides maids cut thiers. What do you think?

groom’s side of the family because of space issues, but can you invite the rest of the women in the grooms family ONLY to the bridal shower? Is this wrong? If it is acceptable, how do you do so without hurting anyones feelings for not including them in the wedding /reception?
The mother of the bride has picked the church and hall and they are small, but nice, but in doing so, this eliminates MANY of the grooms inlaws that SHOW-UP to just about any function. How can they be included in the festivities without inpeding on the brides moms plans for a small wedding and reception. Plus —if they are offended, they may choose not to attend the grooms brother’s high school graduation party which will be aout 7 months later. How do you make everyone happy? Hate to see the couple or brother short changed….these are supposed to be happy times…

Just wondering if there is a formal title toward your daughter-in-law’s siblings. In both instances, the bride’s brother asked me what I would be to them. I told them I thought the groom’s brother became their brother-in-law, but that I didn’t know that I became anything other than a friend. Is there a specific title for the parents of one spouse toward the siblings of the other bridal spouse?

Ok, so my fiance and I have been engaged for 6 months and are beginning to prepare our wedding. An aquaintance/friend of ours got engaged a couple of weeks ago and have begun planning straight away. We have had a particular date set for a while and the other bride has gone and booked on our date and is now telling people that I’m trying to compete which is really not me…to the point of it kinda being funny. I don’t really mind sharing the same date. We have separate venues and it would only affect a handful of guests who would be invited to both. The only problem is that my brother is a groomsman and the other groom wants him in the wedding (my brother will of course be at ours) but he other groomsmen doesn’t seem to want to put the foot down with his bride. My question is…how do I deal with this situation? How do I deal with the bullying? Do you think the other groom will put his foot down? I’m very easy going usually but the bullying and being made to feel is making me feel uptight? Should I just brush it off as there problem and how do I do that? Thanks in advance.I know it’s a long bunch of questions but any help/advice is appreciated.
By "being bullied" I mean writing nasty things on facebook. Not being bullied into doing anything. Just being bullied in general which just doesn’t feel right. I’m not bothered about our ‘guest clashes’…whoever comes comes…it’s about us getting married and that’s all that matters. Thanks for the advice so far! It’s great to hear other opinions

My brother has decided to get married and they are kinda young. But they didnt registar anywhere for gifts and their wedding is next month. She said they needed bedroom or kitchen stuff the most. Whats a good gift for them?

My brother is getting married and i want to get him and his fiancee something funny/weird as a fake gift. preferrably something seperate for each. So when they open it later on after the wedding i want them to be like "wtf" then start laaughing. any ideas?

My brother-in-law is engaged to a girl he met while teaching in Korea. I am planning her bridal shower now and am looking for ideas for an event that will celebrate their upcoming wedding as well as introduce her to our friends and family. Her English is good, but I don’t want her to feel overwhelmed by too many questions. She’s never even visited the States and will only arrive a few months before the wedding. Does anyone have ideas for activities, games, themes, etc that will make her feel welcome and help us all get to know her better?