I am not one for traditional gifts. I have said before “I have just accepted that I will always be a giver. I continue to do it even if I never get anything in return. It’s my joy in gifting and then getting to do art in the process is like NEXT LEVEL JOY for me.”
So when I was asked to be a Maid of Honor TWICE in the same year I had some big ideas and even BIGGER gifts to give to my friends.
My first year of college wasn’t great. Coming from a class of 70 in high school that you spent 13 years with, is a huge change even if you are just going to a college 30 minutes away. My roommate was NOT my best friend, which anyone can tell you is stressful! So my second year, I chose not to live with her and try my luck at having the college picking a whole new suite for me. As scary as this was, shortly after I got an email from a young lady named Ashley.
“Hey Jennifer, My name is Ashley. I wanted to introduce myself. I was wondering what types of appliances you have or are bringing to the suite?” The e-mail goes on to find out some more information about me and about being roommates but the first day we met was while we were both setting up our room. I was jamming to either the Wicked soundtrack or the Glee cover of a Wicked song when she and her father and sister came in. We did cordial introductions and as she was saying goodbye to her sister, her dad had heard what I was playing and said, “Oh! You two are going to be good friends!” And he was RIGHT!
Lots of late nights watching Friends, going on photo-shoots,
eating pints of Ben & Jerry’s. We weren’t just “good friends” we were BEST FRIENDS! We would practice our ASL together or decide last minute to go to the midnight showing of movies! We would laugh in the dark as we were trying to sleep or get mad when our noisy neighbors would wake us up! Even during winter break we would go to each other’s family get-togethers. The next year we decided to live together in the same house during her SR and my JR year! We went on vacations together and perfected our harmonies to many songs while driving around (very few people enjoyed riding with us but we had a great time)!
When Ashley said “YES!” to her boyfriend in front of the Tree of Life at Disney World she came home and asked me to be her Maid of Honor (where I also said YES)! As her professional photographer/MOH, I knew I wanted to take their engagement photos, which we coordinated, at Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua, NY. Also, I took photos at her dress appointment, designed her invitations for her bridal shower, coordinated her bridal shower, made her bridal shower centerpieces WITH her engagement photos, made a Snap-Chat filter for the bridal shower, coordinated the bachelorette party wine tour, drove the bachelorette party on the wine tour, coordinated the joined bachelor/bachelorette bonfire after the wine tour, made personalized emergency kits for the bride and bridesmaids AND took pictures all along the way!
My friend Camille and I met on the bus on our first day of Kindergarten. Being friends with someone for so long, you really know SO MUCH about them
and you have seen every version of them (and unfortunately they, you..). All the laughs, tears, fast food trips, game nights, school dances, hair phases but…22 years of it! She met her boyfriend at the time at work. While she and I were on a walk at a local park I had told her that I was going to be Maid of Honor for Ashley and I said, “If someone else gets engaged this year, I don’t know what I’m going to do! I’m already so busy!” Within a week’s time, SHE WAS ENGAGED!! Isn’t that just how life works?
When Camille asked me to be Maid of Honor I was thrilled but when I told people what I had signed up for they all said I was CRAZY!! Thankfully BOTH brides were really understanding and respectful when it came to sharing the year and their MOH! We all even went to the same wedding expo and had a great time! As a gift for Camille and her fiancé I did their engagement photos too. And as her professional photographer/MOH, you probably guessed it… I did all of the same things for Camille as I did for Ashley (but instead of the wine tour we saw a Burlesque show)! Again, taking pictures at every event.
As mentioned before, I am not one for traditional gifts. Doing all of this work and documenting it WAS my job as their friend and WAS my job at their Maid of Honor. But it was my dream to give them something that encapsulated the whole journey through the 12-ish months since they were engaged until just before their wedding day to show how far we had come and how much we had done to prepare for each of their BIG DAY’s!
So, I decided to take a screen shot of their social media engagement announcement, add in all of the times we took pictures when we had coffee or a bonfire or went shopping through that whole year. Along with all of the pictures from trying on and finding their perfect dress to photo’s they might not have seen at the bridal shower to photos they definitely don’t remember from their bachelorette parties, (All appropriate incase they want to show the book to anyone in the future of course!) and bring them together in a book as a gift to open on their wedding day. Both books were so beautiful and both brides were surprised! Camille’s book ended with a picture we have always loved (the ballerina picture above) and Ashley’s book ended with a picture we took together on our first photo-shoot (also above) shortly after we had bonded over the Wicked soundtrack.
This was my second and third time being a Maid of Honor. All three times I was honestly so honored that each of them had asked me. I jokingly say that my friends are “Only allowed to ask me ONCE.” Not because I hope that they will ask me again in the future or that I want something bad to happen to their fiancé’s, but just as a joke that it is so much work and I will do it for them one time and NEVER again. But of course that isn’t true. I LOVE being a GREAT friend. I love thinking of things to that no one else does. I love party planning and taking pictures and I love making memories and lastly, I love my friends! The books were a perfect culmination of all of that and it truly was NEXT LEVEL JOY for me! I would highly recommend the time and effort this takes to see the look on your friends face as they are surprised with a once in a lifetime gift!
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