My two best friends in the world just got engaged! To each other! I’m so happy for them! 
Even though I am not ‘marriage material’ I share in their excitement.
Now comes the problem of the wedding gift. It’s so much easier when you don’t really know the couple, but I’ve known her since I was wee and him since middle school. They are a brilliant and creative couple and I’d like to do something really special for them. Any thoughts?
Yay for love! Yay for people getting engaged for love and not babies or family pressure or ‘because they should’!
This has stifled my cynacism for the moment. Can you tell?
Ah. In that case, I won’t say 'Bollocks to love! :mad: ’
I shot a wedding Friday. The guy performing the ceremony read from The Velveteen Rabbit. It went over very well, and the bride and groom promised to love each other until their eyes fell out.
It was very sweet.
How much do you want to spend?
Two people you know well deserve something special. You could find a good art photographer for some “less standard, more creative” portraits of them. You could give them a memory - a night at a Bed and Breakfast. You could go “heirloom” shopping - there are antiques available in every budget - and a $100 for a rocking chair and a lot of elbow grease can make for a very nice gift. If you are gifted, you could create something for them. On a real small budget you can give them help - most newlyweds have more work coming up than time - a home to set up may mean moving, gardening, painting, (drywalling, ripping out bathrooms)
Thanks for the suggestions, Dangerosa. I’m not sure how much I can spend yet, but I’m a handy and creative person with a lot of patience (notice I said patience, not necessarily related to talent) and I’d love to be able to create something for them, or have something made for them. I’d be willing to spend several hundred dollars if it was ‘the perfect gift’. They are financially well off, as are their families, so they aren’t in need of anything. Really what I want to do is get them a special gift that expresses how much I love them both and how happy I am that they have found each other!
If this thread doesn’t die soon, I’d like to hear from anyone who got an incredible, meaningful gift…Do you have something that you will always treasure? Is it because of the sentiment or the effort involved in getting/making it?
My two best friends got married 5 years ago. It was pretty cool - they still love each other just as much as before. Not a marriage I see as ending up in divorce
I just helped them move into their first house this weekend. Pretty handy when your TWO best friends marry eachother - your best friend duties get consolidated into one.hehehe
If they’re going to have a traditional wedding, you’ll probably be in it. I was the Maid of Honor at my friends’. I don’t think I got them anything ::sheepish::…at the time I was still in college and didn’t have enough money for a bridal shower, a bachelorette party, a dress and shoes AND a wedding gift.
I can guarantee you that they didn’t care that I didn’t get them a gift. My help with the wedding and my presence in it was enough.
Now, if you’re a guy and all you would have to do is rent a tux and get a group of fellas together at a bar for a bachelor party then yeah a gift is expected 
You have the unique fortune of REALLY knowing them so I think whatever you choose will be perfect. I suggest something not on the registry - they will get all the glassware and grill tongs they could possibly need.
When two of our dear friends married on one of the worst snows in record for Michigan, we took the time to honor them by hurling snowballs at them.
If they’ve both been your friends since way back, do you have pictures or other memorabilia from each or both of them that you could put together? Maybe make some kind of scrapbook or collage picture of them growing up separately, doing some of the same things, and then finally getting together? That may be quite hokey, but you know them and maybe you could do something like that to fit them and their style.