Take A Theme And Run With It

One idea you can use if you are going to do a special gift for someone is to pick a theme and have it run throughout the gift. My sister, for instance, LOVES ice cream. You would never know by looking at her (she runs marathons, etc.), but this is what I mean when I talk about learning what you can't see on the surface about people (obviously she is my sister, so it's different, but the point is the same). Anyway, she got married last year and so for her engagement and shower gifts I used ice cream for the theme and it turned out great. Here's what I did:

1) For her engagement we got her custom ice cream from Ecreamery . You get to pick out the contents and name the ice cream. We called my sister's ice cream Jill Said Yes Crunch. I wanted to call it Chocolately Ever After, but it wouldn't fit. My sister said the ice cream was truly incredible. This isn't cheap, but it is truly an unusual and special gift that someone will adore.

2) For her shower gift, we got her the following:

Cusinart Ice Cream Maker (not exactly this one, but a similar Cusinart one)

A Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Recipe Book (my sister loves Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream)

A slightly more sophisticated Ice Cream Recipe book called The Perfect Scoop (which also had recipes for yogurt, sorbet and granitas).

A great ice cream scoop.

For her wedding gift, I went outside of the theme because there was something specific she wanted.

I was also able to integrate the theme into the toast she had me do. Instead of doing a normal toast, I wrote her and her now husband their love story as an ice cream fairy tale where she realizes he is the man for her because she loves him even more than ice cream. The reason this theme/idea worked as well as it did is because I used my ears (to listen), my creativity and my love for my sister to inspire me to doing something really unique. I challenge you to do the same.