A little reminder

Sometimes, you come up with a most perfect idea to add a personal touch to your wedding.  And then, sometimes, that jerk named reality rears its ugly head and tells you to take your most perfect idea and cram it.  And then, sometimes, you give reality the finger and figure out a plan b, completely amazed by your ingenuity and perseverance.  In your face, reality.

Not making sense?  Want more specifics?  Read on, my friend.

Many moons ago, I stumbled upon an ingenious idea.  Somewhere in wedding blog-land, I read that one bride had surprised her mother and the groom's mother with mini replicas of their own wedding bouquets.  I thought this was a super dee duper idea and quickly filed it away.  I imagined faces of shock and delight as I presented them with their flowers for our wedding that were perfect flashbacks to flowers from their weddings.

I started to do a little reconnaissance work.  I enlisted the help of Mr. Snow Cone's sisters to track down what flowers his mom carried on her wedding day.  The answer?  White roses.  Before the meeting with our florist, I casually asked my mom what she had carried on her own wedding day.  The answer?  White roses.  I was expecting them to have different flowers, making their bouquets distinctly their own, but I didn't give up.  I figured that with both mothers rocking white roses, it would be quite simple to execute this surprise - less stress about making sure the right bouquet gets in the right hands, since the bouquets would realistically be interchangeable.

Then we met with the florist, and quickly sorted out that the moms would be carrying ivory rose nosegays.  Close enough for government work, right?  I only saw two issues: my mom was in the meeting where this was decided, and white/ivory roses are so ubiquitous in wedding world that they may not carry the super-personalized memory that I was hoping to evoke in the moms.  After a few weeks of indecision, I gave up on the replica plan.  I had accidentally and coincidentally already achieved it, but I couldn't come up with a way to add some extra oomph and show it was intentionally sentimental.

But don't worry!  I found a new plan!  In a moment of what I can only call sheer brilliance, I figured out how to personalize the mothers' bouquets.  I didn't waste any time researching my options, deciding on the perfect selection, and placing the order.

Yesterday, I opened my mailbox to find a little envelope that contained this:

Pop off the lid, and you see this:

Pull out the tissue paper...

And, voila!  Bouquet charms!  I wanted the mothers to fondly recall their own wedding days when they look at their bouquets for our August nuptials.  So, I went ahead and ordered each of us a little silver bouquet charm, stamped with each of our wedding dates.  My mom's is the 1979 date on the left, mine is the 2011 date in the middle, and Mr. Snow Cone's mom's is the 1983 date on the right.  I ordered these from Etsy seller Karen Thomas Jewelry, and the final cost, including shipping, turned out to be barely more than 2 footlong subs.  I'm really pleased with how they turned out, and I'm hoping that these little charms help to make the mothers feel a smidge extra special on their children's wedding day.

What extra touches are you including to honor your parents and/or future in-laws?

(all photos personal.)