I’m so excited to share another DIY project and as well as the beginnings of our wedding planning journey! My fiancé, Riley, and I got engaged in November 2020 and we will be getting married in June 2022. As our engagement has been a bit longer, and in the middle of the pandemic, I found it quite challenging having to wait to do certain things. One thing I had a particularly difficult time waiting on was asking our friends to be in our bridal party. I knew I wanted to ask my friends to be my bridesmaids by giving them festive “proposal” boxes, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise by just plainly telling them beforehand. I tried waiting as long as all the wedding websites and forums suggest but as time went on I just couldn’t do it! It was far too awkward having to refer to “my bridesmaids” without saying my friends were one of them, or feeling like I needed to avoid the topic entirely. So, Riley and I decided to forgo the “rules” and just ask our friends when we wanted to!

When dreaming up my bridesmaid’s proposal boxes there were two things I was set on. First, I wanted to avoid including anything overdone or that wouldn’t be used again. As tempting as it may be to get matching goodies labeled “Bridesmaid” or “Made of Honor”, in reality they’re only useful once. The amount of bridesmaid paraphernalia I’ve seen at thrift stores is just sad. And while getting custom made gifts with your girls’ names is definetly a better option, I personally have a growing collection of these and figured one only needs so many bags or cups with your name on it.

Second, I wanted the boxes to feel festive and celebratory but unique to my style. While I pondered how to spice up the boxes, I had a separate DIY project I was working on: making handwritten cocktail receipe cards to drop off with a cocktail kit to friends during the pandemic. I had only made one of these when I realized why not apply the same concept for my bridesmaids? I would have loved to have brunch with all my girls and “propose to them” in person but between the pandemic and multiple girls living far away, it just wasn’t going to happen. A bridesmaid themed cocktail kit felt like the perfect solution to celebrating from afar and obviously was very on brand with my cocktail obsession. Creating a drink specifically for my bridesmaid’s was a so fun and the box felt much more special being able to share a passion of mine with my best friends. And so, I created The Bubbly Bridesmaid! See the full prosecco poppin’ receipe here.

My fiance’s and my style is very boho, as will be our wedding, so I wanted the boxes to reflect that. For wrapping I chose natural colored boxes with soft gold ribbon, dried pampas grass and a whispy feather. I also filled the boxes with champagne/blush colored box filler.

For gift itself, I included mini bottles of the cocktail ingredients and found some unique colored coupe glasses from Anthropologie that I loved as an alternative to traditional champagne flutes. With that, I made a cute handwritten cocktail recipe cards and little bags of confetti labeled “A Tiny Celebration” for an extra bit of excitement.

To make the boxes more personalized for each friend, I ordered mini polaroid style photos of us from Parabo Press and added them to the box on a photo clip stand. Last, I included “Will you be my Bridesmaid/Maid of Honor” cards and wrote each girl a letter detailing how much it would mean to me having them by my side on my wedding day. Here’s the full list of supplies for easy reference:

Bridesmaid Proposal Box Supplies:

• Wrapping supplies
  • I did: Box, box filler, ribbon, dried pampas grass, and a feather
• “Will you be my Bridesmaid/Maid of Honor?” card
• Cocktail recipe card
• Coupe glass
• Mini bottles of cocktail ingredients
  • I did: Prosecco, vodka, elderflower liqour, and raspberry simple syrup
• Polaroid style photos of my bridesmaids/MOH
• Photo clip stand
• “A tiny celebration” bag of confetti
  • Tiny plastic jewlery bags, confetti, cardstock

I was so happy with how these boxes turned out and my bridesmaids loved them! I highly reccomend “proposing” to your bridesmaids with this celebtory cocktail kit.

I’m still daydreaming about how fun it would be to have your friends over to surprise them with these boxes and then make the drinks in celebration! Or for far-away friends you could enjoy them together over Zoom while discussing all the fun wedding planning details! And of course you can use the glasses together the morning of your wedding while getting ready with mimosas.

However you choose to celebrate, this cocktail kit will without a doubt be a hit amongst your bridal party. Heck, you could even make a groomsmen version with a whiskey cocktail and cigars! (Hmm, now I’m wishing I would’ve thought of that one earlier, ha!)

Best wishes brides and bridesmaids!