Looking for a surprise present for your daughter and her husband-to-be? Here are 9 things to make their life together better. They require some thought but not necessarily a lot of money. They can be ideal add-on gifts if you are helping to pay for the wedding or stand-alone gifts if you are on a tight budget.
- Monogrammed bed linen
- A night out every month
- Subscription for a new leisure interest they can both enjoy
- A course to take together
- Membership to a gym
- Outdoor activity gear
- Tools and plants to start a garden or window box
- Subscription for a food or wine club that delivers
- His and hers fitness trackers to keep them in step
Monogrammed linens
Buy sheets and pillow cases, table napkins, towels or his and her bathrobes at modest cost then get them embroidered with their initials. Online companies selling linens often offer this service or you can take the items to a local seamstress who does machine embroidery.
Think about what style interior your daughter favours – have a look around her current home. Would she like the monogram in a French scrolling style which works well for a shabby chic vibe as well as a posher Paris apartment style. Or does her decor suggest she prefers a more minimal look? Then choose a monogram with a simple style with clean lines that is easily read. Everyone loves new sheets and towels but having them personalized makes them into a very special gift they will keep forever.
Much-loved UK company Soak and Sleep will monogram at the very reasonable price of £5.99 for up to 16 characters. They have 7 fonts so you’ll be able to match one to your daughter’s home style. Click here to see their styles – you’ll need to select then give them a call to confirm – I’d be so grateful if you use the link to get to the website then mention I’m Mother of the Bride if you decide to ring them.
They offer a wide variety of bed and bath linens at unbeatable prices. A friend bought their 600 thread Egyptian cotton sheets and loved them. Here they are on the Soak and Sleep site. I also bought these sheets for my daughter and made up her bed with them while she was on honeymoon!
A night out every month
Even though the couple are likely to be spending more time at home together once they are married it’s important that they schedule evenings out. You can help them remember to do this by giving them a year of gift cards.
If they have a favorite local restaurant call in and ask them if they offer a gift card service – if not they may still be able to work out a way of you pre-paying into an account that the couple can access when they visit. Tesco and most other UK supermarkets sell the The Restaurant Choice gift card which includes many of the British High Street restaurant chains including Jamie’s Italian, Café Rouge, Ask and Pizza Express. You can buy cards in multiples of £25 in store only.
The good thing about giving a gift card is that the couple, who may be on a tight budget for a few years after the marriage, can’t put your money into that bottomless pit called ‘housekeeping’. Frankly, you are pushing them into a night out in the sweetest possible way!
The first year’s subscription for an interest that brings them together.
Couples are often keen to take up something new that they can do together. Ask a few sneaky questions to find out what they might be interested in. Going to the theatre? There are normally annual subscriptions at a reduced rate available. Art galleries and museums have ‘friend’ or member subscriptions – these offer access to private viewings and talks by specialists too. It’s a perfect way for them to mix with people of all ages outside their usual circle of friends. Once they’re married they may find their lifestyle and priorities no longer fit in so well with single friends.
Tate Modern on the South Bank in London offer gift memberships for two people at £120. The couple get access to a Member’s Room (always a treat to have somewhere in central London you can take a rest from shopping), free entry to all the exhibitions and a discount in the shop.
A course
Learning something new together can be fun and revealing. Do your research to find out what would appeal to both of them. Dog obedience training? Cooking? Book-binding? Web design? Upcycling? Painting? Leather craft? DIY? Dry stone walling? Search online for local resources and ideas. You’ll find inexpensive locally organised adult education courses and private enterprises running introductory training programmes. Book them into a course that runs one evening a week or choose one that runs for a weekend. Try Floodlight as a starting point. I searched for Interior Design and got 75 courses around the UK.
New York and all cities in the USA offer masses of interesting courses. Why not start here with the Time Out guide and booking service. Places such as the Brooklyn Brainery will blow your mind with their array of courses.
Remember you’ll need to make sure your daughter and partner are available for the dates you want to book.
A membership to the gym
It’s so easy to find excuses for not getting fit. But if you enrol them both then they can keep one or more evenings a week always clear and give each other the needed nudge to actually pick up their kit and head out to the gym. The great thing about a gym is that they don’t need to have the same levels of fitness to spend an evening working out together. Or one can attend a class whilst the other swims or lifts weights. They’ll finish their session in a great mood as exercise has this effect on the brain. How nice to head home together, tired but de-stressed and happy.
They will probably already know which gym locally they would prefer so steer the conversation to get the name of it without letting them into the secret of your surprise present.
Equipment for an outdoor activity.
Before they got married the couple probably met up in bars and restaurants for a date. As they got to know each other better and started saving for the wedding they may have developed a Netflix bingeing routine on Sundays. With a wedding comes a sense of a new start. They may have been promising themselves to spend more time outdoors. So find a discreet way of asking them what they think of cycling, camping, walking/running, bird-watching, outdoor photography, or sailing. Or indeed the masses of other outdoor activities that people do today. They are all great ways of keeping healthy and make a good break from the stress of work.
People love buying sports and activity clothes and equipment. So you certainly won’t have a problem finding items to buy for them. Go to a specialist sports shop or look online (link is to Amazon) once you’ve sussed out what activity they might take to.
Tools and plants to get a garden going.
Even if it’s only a box perched in the kitchen window or a tiny herb garden in three or four plant pots, watching things grow that they’ve planted will bring the happy couple closer together. Many newly-weds start a vegetable patch once they have a house with a garden. But they can still do that even if they live in a flat. Allotments, once the preserve of retired guys, are now full of young people with ideas on organic crops.
A membership for a club that delivers.
Food usually ranks pretty high up in shared interests once people marry. If they are coffee aficionados or would-be wine buffs there are clubs you can sign them up to which deliver to their home. Look online for what might be fun for them. Because items are delivered there’s a much wider selection of specialist foods available than in local shops and notes, recipes and other goodies come too.
An excellent wine club with tastings, dinners and more in London and around the UK is The Wine Society. The one-off membership fee is £40 then the couple get £20 off their first order.
For couples who love fresh pasta with glorious sauces there’s The Pasta Evangelists with subscriptions starting at £13.90 per week for as many weeks as you like.
Fitness tracking bands for him and her
It’s amazing how their number of steps will increase once they start comparing. Keeping in step can only be a good thing! These watches run from about £30/$35 upwards. They track activity, calories, steps, heart rate and sleep. Oh yes, and they tell the time and let you know when your phone picks up a message too!
Here’s the link to a selection of fitness trackers on Amazon.com. Price compare them and look out for discounts.
I bought a mid price fitness tracker from Huawaei and have been very pleased with it. This link takes you to the current model which has a few extra features than when I bought it.
Here’s my review of the fitness band I purchased via Amazon and why I chose this one. (Spoiler alert: Easy to use!). I used the band for 2 years every day before I wrote the review – so it really is based on experience not other reviews.
All these ideas take a little bit more effort and investigation on your part than just purchasing something on a list. But they can all be tailored to your budget, however large or small that is. Many mothers of the bride feel their daughter may already have enough ‘stuff’ but these gifts all enhance the daily life of the couple in a personal way – so much more fun than a toaster. And that’s what most of us mothers of the bride want to give the couple – opportunities to grow even closer.
