A Few of My Favorite Things

Having a wedding is sort of like an extended Christmas/Birthday season.  The gifts seem to just keep on coming!  The only weird thing is that you sign up for the gifts you want and you can see what gets purchased and when.  It reminds me of looking for our Christmas presents when my brother and I were little.  One year, we found them hidden in our parents' closet.  Thrilling.  I dislike most surprises because I find a lot of joy in being in the know, so the registry was super fun.  That said, some of my favorite gifts were strays from the registry.  Here a few of my favorite gifts:

Ice-cream Attachment for KitchenAid Mixer

 Source

Since I already inherited a KitchenAid from my grandmother, I was on the hunt for attachments that I could add to my registry and that I would be most likely to use.  I don't really envision me grinding my own meat regularly, so I went for the ice-cream attachment.  Not only did the giver send the attachment, but she also included an amazing recipe book as well.  I've already made 3 batches this season (chocolate peanut butter, chocolate custard, and vanilla bean).  Homemade ice cream is AMAZING.  I highly recommend this attachment because it takes up much less space than an independent unit and as a novice ice cream maker, I've had great success.  I also recommend the yummy recipe book (below)!

Source

I had been coveting the Cuisinart griddler/grill for years.  I imagined paninis and pancakes galore. I never bought it myself because I figured it was an unjustified expense since I already owned an electric griddle.  Then I dropped it on the floor breaking one of the legs.  Broken electric griddle = guilt free registry addition!  I use this appliance at least once a week, if not twice.  It lays completely flat so I can easily make 8 pancakes at a time.  I also used it all winter to grill chicken in doors.   Those smarties at Cuisinart really hit out of the park with this design and function.

 Source

We did not receive a Blu Ray player as a gift, but we used a generous gift card to Best Buy to procure a great model.  We gave our dvd/vcr player the old heave ho and hailed our new player with great fanfare.  Now we can watch movies straight from my Netflix queue or download them from Amazon (for much cheaper than the on demand feature with our cable company).  I didn't realize how much I would enjoy a piece of technology until I had choices again when it came to the age old question: "Feel like a movie tonight?"

Source

My absolutely favorite gift combined the heartfelt, creative, and practical.  Dear family friends documented our rehearsal dinner, printed photographs, and assembled an album for us.  They did this all on the wedding day so that we had it to enjoy on our mini-moon.  We were so touched and excited to see pictures from the dinner.  It was so crazy to think that the picture taken of us that night was on the last day we were not married. 

Our friend is super creative and resourceful.  She used the ribbon from her OOT bag to dress up the photo album cover.

Then she pieced together the rehearsal dinner invitation that my mother-in-law made as a title page.

Our welcome postcards even made their way into the album.  I love how happy we look.

The top photo is a bit blurry, but those are our friends with my parents and then the lower picture is just our friend and my mom.  When I was a baby, they spent their spare time dressing me up in costumes and taking embarrassing pictures of me.  Thanks Mom and Aunt Dana!

Tell me about your favorite gift (either received or given)!