Once I had my bridesmaids in mind, I wanted to ask them in a special and memorable way. So where do I go when I want to be inspired? Pinterest, of course. There are no shortage of ideas of ways to ask your bridesmaids on Pinterest. I ended up falling in love with this post and decided to try and recreate this concept with my poor crafting skills and lack of patience.
The first step was to get the cigar boxes. I was able to get them at Michael's Craft Store for around $7 each. (Helpful hint: Michael's posts weekly coupons on their website, which can be scanned at the register directly from your phone!) While I was there I also picked up most of the other supplies I would need such as card stock, paint, alphabet stencils, paint brushes and scrapbook paper.
I headed to my local paint store to pick up paint chips of the wedding colours. This is a great touch because it's free and it lets your bridesmaids see what colours they will be wearing!
The first step to making the box was painting. Like I said, I am not crafty nor am I patient (a deadly combination!) so I wanted to get this part out of the way. The Pinterest pin where I got the idea from actually came with a printable template which allowed me to mimic the way they had painted the inside of the box. I was able to print the template, trace it with a pencil and then carefully paint it with mint green paint. I repeated this task four times. When all the boxes were dry, I moved on to the hardest part - painting the letters with Martha Stewart alphabet stencils. I honestly thought this part would be easy because I did not anticipate the paint would bleed so much through the stencils. I was going for a crisp, clean look but ended up with something more....rustic. I was about to throw down my paintbrush in defeat, but my fiance (probably after seeing my devastated face) assured me it looked great and was from the heart so that was all the mattered. I assume "from the heart" is the sensitive way of saying "your friends will still be in your wedding even if your crafting skills suck."
After the painting was finished, I cut scrapbook paper and glued it to the bottom of the cigar box. I believe the original pinner used vintage handkerchiefs but I could not find these and figured the damask print of the paper was nice enough.
I wanted to add a little trinket so I found small rings in the wedding colours from Etsy.com and put one in for each of the bridesmaids.
Lastly, and what I felt was the most important part, was the wedding details. I wrote out four different cards containing all of the important information about the wedding. "Our Day" outlined the who, what, where, when and why of the wedding. "Your Role" described what I expected from my bridesmaids (basically just show up and have fun!). "Your Dresses" explained that I wanted all the bridesmaids to have a say in the dress they wore and "My Girls" went through all four of the bridesmaids, why I chose them, and why they were special to me. I thought this was a great idea as it allowed the bridesmaids to get a feel for the wedding, the other bridesmaids, and the overall theme.
To make it a little more personal, I found a free card template online and printed out a postcard for each girl, with a handwritten note on the back personally asking them to be in my wedding.
The fun part was asking each girl. Presenting them with a box, to which they had no idea what was inside, was exciting. Watching their faces light up, and to hear to them say "yes" was priceless. It was a more emotional experience than I thought it would be. There were some tears (from me and a few of the maids) because it really solidified how special our bonds were and highlighted our strong friendship and sisterhood.
I would definitely recommend doing something like this for your bridesmaids. Even an amateur crafter like myself was able to pull this one off, and I could tell my bridesmaids appreciated the effort I went to in order to make sure they knew how special they were to me.