Mother in law gift instead of flowers

manutd83

Right so, im getting married in a couple of weeks and the mother in law has requested no flowers to be given to her at the reception seen as she will only be in the country a day or 2,she said not to buy her anything but i want to get her something small, just as a thank you, anybody any good ideas, she does like jewellery, so that's an option,thanks

ABajaninCork

I arranged for flowers to be sent to my mother in London. Would that be an option?

Or maybe a nice pair of earrings, an Amazon voucher, scarf??

manutd83

The flowers delivered to England to her is a good idea but i was thinking of something that i can give to her at the reception

Milly33

Could get some voucher perhaps to have her hair done even that morning or pay for her hair to be done!! Something both usefull or nice. Or a beauty treatment voucher for the next day with you also.. It is probably so she will not have to worry about bringing anything back with her or that she has too much already so something sensible like that would probably go down a treat

Immy

We gave the mothers perfume at our wedding. Got them Channel no5. Gave it to them in Channel gift bags when the flowers are usually given.

manutd83

Im not the beauty treatment type meself but could be a good idea for her, her hair is sorted and paid for already, i think

ElleEm

Maybe buy her a piece of jewelry that goes with her outfit for the day.
I always find the giving of flowers to the mammies in front of everyone so cringey. It is so showy, "LOOK EVERYONE, WE ARE GIVING FLOWERS BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT EVERYONE DOES!". It doesn't seem special at all, and is so predictable. Having a private moment with your mam and giving her a personalised gift is much nicer.

Jerrica

I got my MIL a silver jewellery box and had the lid engraved, Newbridge do some lovely ones that aren't hugely expensive.

Typer Monkey

ElleEm wrote: »

Maybe buy her a piece of jewelry that goes with her outfit for the day.
I always find the giving of flowers to the mammies in front of everyone so cringey. It is so showy, "LOOK EVERYONE, WE ARE GIVING FLOWERS BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT EVERYONE DOES!". It doesn't seem special at all, and is so predictable. Having a private moment with your mam and giving her a personalised gift is much nicer.

I agree. The giving of flowers to the mammies during the speeches is so trite and expected now that it renders it meaningless in my opinion. It's the 'done thing' now rather than in any way thoughtful

manutd83

I find the flowers thing cringy aswell,i like the idea of the newbridge jewellery box,its full steam ahead on the wedding now,2weeks away and move country a month or so later,its exhausting,thanks all for your suggestions

snickerpuss

Also hate the giving the flowers to the mammies thing. What about my poor dad?! Was thinking we might bring them out for a meal in the weeks after the wedding as a thanks instead. Bit more personal.

kollegeknight

We decided against flowers as my MIL was flying back to oz the following week.

My mother is Irish and MIL lives in Australia so my mother got a print by an Aussie artist and my MIL got one by an Irish artist.

Both loved them.

ElleEm

kollegeknight wrote: »

We decided against flowers as my MIL was flying back to oz the following week.

My mother is Irish and MIL lives in Australia so my mother got a print by an Aussie artist and my MIL got one by an Irish artist.

Both loved them.

I think that is so lovely. Very personal and something that will allow them to hold onto the memory of when they recieved it.

Gatica

I think if you're not doing the flower thing, why bother with giving in such a public way at all?
Have something for for both sets of parents that you can give in private to them the morning of the wedding.

Jerrica wrote: »

I got my MIL a silver jewellery box and had the lid engraved, Newbridge do some lovely ones that aren't hugely expensive.

We got both mums an engraved jewellery box and put a little pendant on a chain inside, one was a pearl drop and the other got a crystal drop. They both loved them and I see them wearing them frequently. My hubby gave his mum the one for her the morning they were getting ready at the house and I gave my mum hers at the hotel in the morning when I was getting ready.
Though both live in Ireland, didn't see the point of flowers. We pretty much divided up the table flower arrangements between them after the wedding, so they already had half a dozen vases with flowers. They adored having them in the house to show off to the neighbours.

Berty

You may not like it, you might think it's dated and you might think it's showy but your mother/mother in law might love flowers, love the idea of tradition, love the idea of being the centre of attention for a few seconds and be very pleased with flowers.

Horses for courses.

If you were to give the woman something for the day it should be sentimental because she would always associate that item with the wedding. I always find Silver is a good item to mark occasions.

Milly33

That gives me an idea a silver coin.like the ones you get in Disney but they are gold. marked with the date and things like that..Oh suits you..Well said beer baron

Berty

Milly33 wrote: »

That gives me an idea a silver coin.like the ones you get in Disney but they are gold. marked with the date and things like that..Oh suits you..Well said beer baron

Be very careful giving coins on a wedding day because there is a tradition of the groom giving a bride a coin which is a symbol of everything he has. You are then giving a coin to a mother. So as far as the traditionalist in the room, who aren't close enough to figure out what the coin is, figure the coin the groom just gave the bride is being then given to a mother.

Milly33

OHHh his trying it on with me man!! haha never heard of that tradition now, learn something new everyday

lazygal

We didn't do the flowers thing. I hate it at a wedding - plus WTF are the mums supposed to do with them?! I also have a hatred of knick nacks and trinkets like coins, personalized crap and wedding specific things. We waited until we had our wedding pictures back and then made up photo books for both sides with 'their' photos. Around the time of the wedding I think we got them restaurant vouchers or something, I can't remember exactly. I have no time for hip flasks engraved with the date of the wedding or mother of the bride picture frames. Yuck.

Electric Sheep

lazygal wrote: »

We didn't do the flowers thing. I hate it at a wedding - plus WTF are the mums supposed to do with them?! I also have a hatred of knick nacks and trinkets like coins, personalized crap and wedding specific things. We waited until we had our wedding pictures back and then made up photo books for both sides with 'their' photos. Around the time of the wedding I think we got them restaurant vouchers or something, I can't remember exactly. I have no time for hip flasks engraved with the date of the wedding or mother of the bride picture frames. Yuck.

Totally agree. Most people have too much crap and clutter already, why add to it?

Gatica

Some trinkets may be a bit OTT, but neither one of our mums have a ton of jewellery boxes, just a couple of special ones and it was nice to add our one to their collection. My mum loves hers and keeps her small necklaces in it. Then again, I wasn't one of a dozen kids where I can see it getting repetitive.

kkcatlou

I was wondering the same as my Mam will be doing our flowers, so asking her to make a bouquet for herself just isn't right!!! My sister did the photo frame thing, so can't do that. Also not sure about the public display thing as other people have said - except for the fact that on a weekly basis my Mam is making bouquets for other people's mothers to be presented with so she might expect it and feel hard done by if she doesn't get publicly acknowledged!!

I'm usually not one for personalised or sentimental stuff, but I really like that jewellery box idea! We'll also be getting them photo books but I do think it's nice to have something on the day (just maybe not in front of everyone).

It would be cool to hear from mothers (not sure there's any on here) as to whether they liked the public acknowledgement or were mortified by it?!