"Will You Please Be My Bridesmaid?" Boxes

After getting engaged, I couldn't wait to invite some of my closest girl friends to be my Bridesmaids! I was so excited and a part of me just wanted to call them up and say "Will you be my BRIDESMAID??????" The other part of me, though, wanted to do something to make it special and memorable for them too! Sure, it's "my wedding" and "my day" but having been a bridesmaid in a few weddings, I understand an appreciate the time and responsibilities that the title holds. I was on a mission to come up with a way to let my friends know how much I appreciate them, and especially appreciate the time and energy they will more then likely be putting into helping me make my wedding happen! The internet is filled with tons of wonderful ideas, but when I stumbled across this wonderful blog post: Something Turquoise: DIY Will You Be My Bridesmaid. I was immediately inspired by this wonderful gift box that Jen created, and started thinking of ways to make it my own, and to be a really personal gift from me to my girls. First step was to find the boxes. For those of you who don't know, we are planning an aquatic themed wedding, so I thought it would be fun to find a treasure chest like box to give the girls. As for what goes inside, I loved the tank top ideas, but those things can run almost $20 a piece online! Plus the reviews are all over the place on the fit being too small, too big, too short, too long...talk about inconsistent. I decided to skip on the champagne, but thought some sort of bath fizz or oil would be fun, and usable! As a final personal and creative touch, I decided that I would make cards with a note inside to each girl, with an illustration of them on the front. That way no one box was exactly the same.

My quest for the right box was not easy, but one day I stumbled onto SunshineCrafts.com and found these wonderful treasure chest shaped paper mache boxes! Plus, the more you buy the more you save. They were just the right size for this project, and shipping was fairly quick! Since I wasn't happy with the price or reviews of the tank tops I found online, I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands. I purchased really nice tanks for around $5 each at JCPenny and ordered these beautiful rhinestone appliqués on Amazon from Jubilee Rhinestones. She shipped super fast and even included spare rhinestones and a test appliqué! So now for less then $10 I was able to make beautiful shirts for each of my ladies!


The bath accessories were a bit harder to find. I remember as a child, my mom would take me to a store that sold bubble bath in these little pillows that would dissolve in your bath. The pillows came in different shape, like hearts, stars and dolphins. After many hours of scouring the internet, I finally came across these adorable dolphin shaped bath beads from American Soap Company!!! I ordered a bunch as well as a couple hundred of the bath pearls, as I thought they looked like bubbles and would accent the dolphins. Too keep them safe and also from leaking on the skirt and card in the box, I wrapped them up in little plastic baggies, then placed them in some off white organza drawstring bags I picked up in the Fabric District so as to make them look more decorative!

Initially I had planned to used some blue scrap fabric I had laying around to wrap up the shirt and bath beads before placing them into the box, but found that it really didn't look as pretty as I had hoped. In digging through my tissue paper, I realized I had an abundance of white tissue paper. So I pulled it out along with a sponge, a trash bag, a paper plate and some blue acrylic paint. I cut the sponge into a fish shape, laid out the trash bag on the floor with the tissue paper on top. Squirted some paint onto the plate, and began using the fish sponge as a stamp to decorate the paper so that it wouldn't look so plain anymore! Once I was done with a sheet, I took some skirt hangers, pinched the paper in the clips and hung them up in the bathroom to dry.

While the papers were drying, I took this time to get the seashells I picked up ready. Josh brought out his power drill and taught me how to use it, and I drilled a hole into each shell so as to make them easily attachable to the final product.

At this point, the papers were dry, so I cut them in half and then folded them to match the width of the boxes. It was now time to put everything together. First I put in a long piece of blue netting into the box, followed by the fish paper, then I folded the shirt and put it in so that the "Bridesmaid/Maid of Honor" was facing up. Next I put in the organza bag of bath beads, then folded the paper up and over the shirt and baggie, and tied the netting into a bow, trimming the excess. After that I placed each girls card on top of the bow, and gently closed the box. I then took more of the netting, and some cream and pink ribbon and used it to tie a big bow around the box as well as to keep it closed. Now it was time for the seashells! I took 2 per box and sewed them to the ribbon at the base of the bow.

I had so much fun putting each box together, and am so happy with how they all turned out. I just imagined each of my friends faces and how happy they'd be (and they were) to received this gift. I think it was especially special for my friends who are long distance, as it really made for a much more memorable moment then me just calling them or asking them via txt. Each of my wonderful friend, Joie, Erin, Katie, Steph, Candice, Katrina, and Irena, mean so much to me, and I feel so blessed that each of them will be standing beside me on Josh's and my special day. I'm really looking forward to the wedding, as well as all the fun crafts leading up to it! Here's a final display of the boxes.

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my blog. I hope you're having a wonderful day!

<3 Hannah