Are you tired of giving the same old fondue sets, personalized towels, and kitchenware to friends and family when someone decides to tie the knot? How about a few ideas for unusual bridal shower gifts that’ll really make ‘em smile? Here are a few things you might just want to consider the next time someone you know and love is getting married. …

Spa Finder Gift Certificate

Now this is a bridal shower gift that you can present to the bride-to-be only or make it a double to include her groom. At www.SpaFinder.com, you’ll find gift certificates available for everything from facials to body wraps to (of course!) full-body massages. A gift like this can be used by the bride (and/or groom) before, during the honeymoon, or after the wedding.

Easy to personalize with the names of the recipient(s), these gift certificates come in all sorts of denominations ranging from $50 to $1,000 in $25 increments. These are accepted at more than 3,500 spas around the world, but make sure there’s one in the soon-to-be-married couple’s neighborhood before you shell out the bucks! And while you’re at the site, check out their candles, Harry & David assorted chocolate truffles, and other goodies created to pamper. You might want to buy a few things for yourself!

Custom-Created Oil Painting

You can give a bridal shower gift that will be cherished forever by having a custom oil painting done of the couple from a photograph. At www.WeddingShowerGifts.com, trained artists render remarkable likenesses in oil on real canvas for amazingly reasonable prices. Send them a picture of the bride and groom, and they’ll send you back a rolled canvas (no framing offered) of the subjects in your choice of prices and sizes: 8″x10″, 12″x16″, 16″x20″, or 20″x24″ priced from $90 to $470 plus shipping. From the time you send the photograph to them sending it back to you as a real oil painting only takes from between 15 and 20 days. The site also offers this service as a gift certificate.

Lottery Tickets

Now many people might frown on this as a bridal shower gift, but you’d be surprised at how happy the sight of them makes a prospective bride (or groom!). And if they win, well… You can bet they’ll forever be grateful to you for having been so thoughtful as to give them the chance to win big bucks in the state lottery! Buy them in a bunch – 20 or more – to make enjoying them that much more exciting. Put them in a small box, wrap elegantly, and then present it with aplomb. You just never know! You might be party to making someone a millionaire!

These are just a few ideas to get you thinking outside of the box – the bridal shower gift box, that is – and on your way to giving a gift that’s not only unusual, but always welcomed. So give it some thought! You’re sure to come up with some great ideas on your own.



By: Lynn Doxley

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The birth of a baby is incredibly special, and many people send gifts meant for the baby, from baby clothes, to golden spoons, but all these items are all for the baby. Often they forget to give a gift specifically for the mother until Mother’s Day!

There are so many wonderful gifts that one can give the Mother specifically. For instance, some mothers truly appreciate a spa visit, where they can have a true day off being pampered and prettied and come back relaxed and happy to the demanding task of mothering. It’s important for a mother to take care of herself so that she can then take care of others.

Because babies and taking care of babies takes up to 24 hours a day, many mothers must let housekeeping dwindle to a few stolen moments in a much-harried day. Thus, a gift of a cleaning service for the day will bring much relief to the overworked mother and surely will be totally appreciated. Who wouldn’t enjoy such a gift.

Another wonderful idea is mother’s jewelry. Mother’s jewelry frequently consists of personalized jewelry that contains the birthstones and names of her children. It becomes a keepsake that can be added to if and when she has more children. Each time she looks at this kind of mother’s jewelry she can reminisce about each child and you’ll often find such mothers caressing the birthstones lovingly in the future.

There are other kinds of mother’s jewelry of course, such as gold or silver charm bracelets. Any kind of personalized jewelry will make a wonderful impression on the mother, but do not forget to have the child’s birth date engraved on any jewelry you may buy.

Gourmet gift baskets are a unique gift for the mother, and there are companies that make a wide and exotic variety of themed gift baskets from delicate fruits fashioned into various flowers, to bath products, to scrumptious edibles. Gift baskets can provide an escape from the daily grind and delicacies a mother might never buy for herself.

All manner of gift certificates are available, depending on how much money you are willing to spend, such as beauty parlors, dress shops and such. However, hand-made gift certificates from you will be appreciated as coming from the heart. You only need to make tiny scrolls of various promises such as a night out at the movies, a home cooked meal, or babysitting certificates. Put them all into a tiny jar tied up in a lovely bow as a keepsake. What a lovely message of how much she means to you.

Every mother appreciates being taken out to a restaurant for breakfast, lunch or dinner, or even a special brunch or afternoon tea complete with dainty finger sandwiches and hot tea! Or, you can cook for her and invite her over! Or create some meals and fill her refrigerator and freezer for the days ahead.

With a little bit of creativity, you can give a gift that will be treasured forever.



By: Amy Carrington

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