Remember when Beth talked about big production proposals when she popped the question? Now she's here to show us the crafty pirate-y way she proposed to her “wedding crew.”
I know most people just ask their wedding party by phone or whenever they see them next. But since my partner and I share our friends, and I'm just as likely to hang with the guys as he is to grab a drink with the gals, it seemed really strange to divide up our pals by gender.
So, instead of bridesmaids or groomsmen we're having a Wedding Crew. Which, seeing as how 90% of us met via our Pirate Kickball League (underground/rebel pirate more than “yaaar!” pirate) we thought it was fitting to go with the pirate theme for this little project.
Plus, you know… rum.
Items used for the proposal gifts:
- Computer and printer
- Scrap (or new) paper with a nice texture and natural color
- Scissors or paper trimmer
- Glue or double sided tape
- Hole punch
- Natural style string, yarn or twine
- Bottles of BOOZE!
How to make these:
Start by designing your tags. I set mine up so that the front and back faced toward where I would fold the paper in half. This way each side would be right-side up once folded in half. On the front I put a little pirate inspired sea shanty which is the proposal, and on the back is the “Captain's Creed.” It outlines a few promises that we make to our crew if they accept the invitation — basically that we will try out hardest to be respectful of their time, energy and money. I think that can be a big worry for anyone who's being asked to fulfill a role in a wedding party.
Will you be our Companions?: Whovian wedding party proposal boxes
These wedding party proposal boxes were loosely based off the idea of those cute "Be My Maid" boxes that regularly pop up on Pinterest, as... Read more
Print your tags and trim them to size with a paper or photo trimmer (or scissors if you have a really steady hand for cutting straight lines).
Use glue or double sided tape on the back side of one half of your tags. I use a nifty crafting doo-dad that looks like a white-out wheel but instead dispenses as sort of double sided sticky strip. You can pick them up in just about any crafting aisle, school supply area, or scrapbooking section.
Fold your tags in half and press firmly. If you miscalculated and the two side don't quite match up you can trim the bit that hangs out or just say “fuck it” and move on. Remember, it's going to be attached to booze so nobody is going to care about a shoddy glue job.
Next, grab your handy hole punch. I have both the old school kind shown here where you use a hammer to tap the punch through the paper and a hand held chomper kind called a Crop-a-dial. Scrapbookers have the most awesome little gadgets that come in handy for all the weird projects I end up making!
I then used a corner rounder to give the tags a little polish on the corners. (But mostly just because I already have the gadget for making my business cards.)
Gather your pirate-themed booze bottles (we have a few larger bottle thrown in the mix to give to couples who live together instead of all little bottles).
Cut your yard/string/twine. You can make it just long enough to tie around the neck or handle of the bottle or you can go crazy and wrap it up to make sure it doesn't fall off.
A note about going this route for “proposing” to your wedding party:
I'm not sure if it's receiving a gift, or being proposed to, or the idea of a joint wedding party that was confusing… but when I gave these bottles to our friends, I'm pretty sure every single one of them looked at me after reading the tag and said, “Ooooh cooool! What does this mean?” So you'll probably have to clarify the situation.
Plus, because you're taking away the defined roles that innumerable books and blog posts have set forth about the expectations of certain party members (the maid of honor and best man taking the lead) you'll need to be sure that you're really good at communicating what you want or need from your Wedding Crew. And communicate a lot both leading up to the big day AND about who should be doing what at the wedding.
Hope this inspires you to do something fun for your crew if you have the time and the desire to do so!
Very cool!
Please note: This is also a great way to ask ME to do… anything. 😉
dude, YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES
Awesome post! And Kraken rum is amazing just so you all know.
Hey, I am interested in having a joint wedding party as well because we both share our closest friends. But, I was trying to think of a way that we could have them stand with us without having one group standing on my side and another on his side and basically just following the traditional formula. We really want to get the point across that they are a joint party during the ceremony. Does anyone have any ideas? We are not hung up on the arrangement of people following the traditional formula in anyway!
We are having the genders intermixed, standing around us in a half-moon during the ceremony. So Basically we will be standing in the middle of our friends.
Hey Michaela,
You can see how they just stood around us here:
We had them come down to the stage in any way they felt comfortable so some walked with partners or friends in groups of 2 or 3 but they could have all walked in together or as singles if they wanted to:
AND we only took fun photos with the group as a whole instead of pairing off or dividing along gender lines.
I loved everything about doing it this way and wouldn’t change it for the world. Hope that helps!
Thank you so much for this! You have totally inspired me. We are having a mixed group as well. Though we wound up asking them informally, I do wan to do something special to get this all kicked off on the right foot. I am putting together some gift bags and I borrowed a bit from yours (hope that is cool) for the wording. This is what I came up with for the gals. Still working on the guys, but I was so excited, I just had to share…
Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum.
Get ready to have a shit ton of fun
Just wanted to take a minute or two
To thank you for being part of our crew!
There will be no poufy sleeves and no bows on your butt
So then what do we expect from you? Here’s what:
Let us cry on your shoulders, tell us all will be fine
Take us out for a party; get us drunk that one time
Make sure we show up on that very big day
Eat with us, drink with us, and dance the night away!
We promise you hugs, we promise you shoes
And as long as it’s purple, the dress you can choose!
I have been trying to figure out how you made the rum labels for the bottles, not the tags. Was there a website that you used or did you make those labels yourself also?
Love the idea! Quick question, how did you get the text to be flipped to allow for folding down the middle?
Thanks!