Wedding gift ideas?

[Ryan Sparreboom]

Hey all. My sister will be getting married later this summer (August). I spoke to her and her fiance about building something for them for their wedding gift. I wanted to make sure it was OK with them.
They are more than happy to receive something hand made by me, but had no real ideas for me on what they want or need.
SO.... I appeal to my fellow woodworkers.
Any wedding gift ideas for me? They are a young couple so something modern. Not anything too complex or ornate. My skills are moderate I'd say. I don't mind spending a bit for materials and have some time to complete.
Maybe you have built a similar gift? Maybe you've seen something, or maybe you've been wanteing to build something that you don't mind sharing the ideaa?
I'm open to all ideas at this point. TIA.

Ryan

[Ben Fleis]

I can't find any images of the one I have in mind, but you could do a kitchen spicebox with small pull out drawers, etc. But it would be a lot of work... if I find the one I'm thinking of I will post a link to it.

-b

[Ed Barnes]

I recently made this for a wedding gift.

Ed

[Dell Littlefield]

Clocks are always a nice gift.

[Chris Ricker]

I made a "memory box" for a gift recently, just a small box for wedding mementos, pics ect. maybe 8 X 11 or so. I had a brass name plate with the couple's name and wedding date engraved and put on the top. it was well received

[Pat Germain]

How 'bout a very nice hand made frame of exotic woods surrounding one of their wedding invitations? That's not too difficult, it would look great and likely have sentimental value for your sister and her beau.

[Rob Diz]

I had a close cousin get married last june. I had been wanting to make a demilune (half round) table using bent wood laminations, so that's what I made. Actually, I made four to get some economy to the scale of my project. I gave her one, kept two for myself, and one is with my in laws.

I essentially followed David Marks' plan - a very nice intro to bent wood laminations and to using plastic resin glues. And with a nice resawn curly cherry top, the tables look great as well.

It was a fun project, and something new for me

[Jamie Buxton]

A couple of times I've given couples a gift certificate for one piece of furniture. I make the certificate from wood, so it looks like I'm serious. My idea is that right now they're too focussed on getting married to think about furniture. That's why they can't give you any ideas of what they'd like. But later on, they may get to decorating their nest, and come up with an idea for you.

[Ryan Sparreboom]

Thanks for the ideas so far guys.
I really like the idea of a small table of some sort, maybe a hall table.
Jamie, I also REALLY like your idea of a "gift card" for a future project of their choice. Excellent idea.
Keep 'em coming!

Ryan

[Chris Kennedy]

If they have a house (more importantly, a yard), you could make them a bench. I made one for my wife's grandmother for her 85th. I adapted a design from Popular Woodworking for a Shaker bench. The sides were originally solid panels with an elliptical cutout. I replaced the elliptical cutout with the shape of a swan (her maiden name was Swan and she likes swans as a consequence). If you are clever, you can think of something to replace the cutout with that is more appropriate for the couple.

Cheers,

Chris

[Kevin Godshall]

We have a lot of quilters in our background, so I have been fortunate enough to have been able to build quilt racks for wedding gifts. Depending on the situation, either a free standing one (traditional) or a wall hanging unit.

[Scott Mark]

Long story short. This is just a frame again, here's the long part. My wife and I put up a 8x10 picture of ourselves and then surrounded it with a much larger piece of that foam core material they use as backing in the framing business. We put it up in just inside the church on an easel and at our reception with a pen and invited people to leave a little message or just sign it. Note: Make sure the ink from the pen does not run. We used a pen on a string so we wouldn't have multiple blacks and blues. I'd give you the name/type of the pen but my wife is the sketching artist and knew what to get. I can't draw a straight line to save my life so artistic pens are not something I worry about.

We ended up with a really nice keepsake that will forever remind us of the people there that day. We switch out the center picture every so often. We're still waiting for me to get around to putting a frame on it. None-the-less, if you could do just the framing and provide the idea that might be a good start to a follow up project.

C. Scott Mark

[scott spencer]

Find out what style they prefer. I've made clocks, hall table, and a hall bench as wedding gifts, but you could also make some nice lamps, night stands/end tables, blanket chest, or a coffee table.

Good luck!

[Ralph Barhorst]

I made one of these for my nephew and his wife. The plans are from Norm. http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct.php?0104

Here is a picture of the one I made.

[Brian Kent]

This is a nice symbolic gift from a very simple pattern in the bandsaw box book: