When Ross let me in on his plans to propose to my sister, I was so, so excited! Since I knew my family and I were going to be part of the proposal in some way, I knew we’d see Ross and Leslie on the day of their engagement and started brainstorming engagement gift ideas.
My mom and I joined forces to pack a basket full of wedding-themed gifts and wedding planning materials to give to them on the night of the proposal.
We had a great time putting it together!
Last week, I stopped by Hobby Lobby and picked up a basket, paint and craft supplies to dress up the basket.
I wrapped the handles of the basket in yellow chevron ribbon and personalized the basket with Ross and Leslie’s initials. Then my mom and I filled it with lots of fun goodies!
In the basket:
- Champagne
- Champagne flutes filled with candles
- Bridal magazines
- Wedding planner (large and pocket-size)
- Fun wedding/engagement-themed stickers
- Picture frame with “R Heart L”
- 4th of July-themed Christmas ornament (since Ross proposed on the 4th)
- Decorative letter “C” (the first initial of Ross’ last name)
- Box of Mexican wedding cookies
- Mini electronic wedding countdown timer
- Date idea jar (see below)
My favorite part of the basket was a craft project I worked on that Leslie and Ross can enjoy throughout their engagement.
A date idea jar!
Since I know that dates can fall to the wayside during wedding planning, I decided to jot down 12 inexpensive date ideas for Leslie and Ross to enjoy throughout their engagement.
On the first day of each month, they’ll select an envelope from the jar and pick a day that month to do the designated activity.
I stuffed 12 mini envelopes with different date ideas since I know many engagements last about a year, though you could easily do more or less. (This could also make a fun Valentine’s Day or anniversary gift for your significant other!)
Ross and Leslie seemed really excited about the idea and I hope they have a blast on the dates!
Congratulations again to Leslie and Ross!
Question of the Morning
- What is one of the most memorable inexpensive dates you’ve ever been on in your life?
When Ryan and I first started dating, Ryan told me to wear a t-shirt and comfy sweatpants and took me to Target to pick up a half gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream, mancala and a DVD and we had a cheap but incredible date night at his apartment. We ate the ice cream right out of the container and had a blast. I also love our budget-friendly Valentine’s Day tradition!
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Julie, what a a thoughtful and fun gift!
My favorite cheap date is one my boyfriend and I do regularly. We hit the store to pick out a puzzle. We end up spending hours together working on it an have a great time doing so!
What a beautiful and thoughtful gift! I love how you get your craft on girl ;).
My most memorable date with my main man of almost 3 years now is going up to a restaurant named Cold Spring Taverns up in the remote mountains of Santa Barbara for Valentine’s Day. Kyle had remembered me remarking about how cute a pair of mittens that form a heart when you put your hand together on Etsy were and secretly jotted down the name of the user. He made an account and ordered them a month and a half in advance with express shipping and gave them to me with roses and a stuffed animal giraffe (I’m OBSESSED with those critters!). It was so thoughtful and perfect and dinner was candle lit with a rustic cabin atmosphere. I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time and telling him how perfectly everything was!
What an amazing gift! It is so thoughtful of you to take such beautiful care of your sister. I’m working on a post on my blog about making reusable grocery bags, and felt really pleased with myself – seeing your crafts, I suddenly feel a bit…well, less crafty. 😉 Beautiful sisterhood, Julie!
That sounds really cool!!!
What a wonderful idea! I’m going to pin this so I remember it for the future! 🙂
That is the greatest idea! That was such a thoughtful idea to include the 12 date ideas! I can only imagine how hectic it must get trying to plan a wedding.
When my hubby and I were dating, we once took a walk to a local Chapters store and ended up playing checkers at one of their tables for over an hour while laughing and chatting. My wedding band now has diamonds and sapphires in a checkerboard pattern that always reminds me of that date! 🙂
Such a nice gift!
You are such a thoughtful sibling!! And creative! I don’t know about “inexpensive” but some nights we put away the cell phones, iPad, turn off the tv, and either play a card game or go for a walk together sans-media. It’s so nice and needs to be done often!
What an amazingly thoughtful gift!!! Your sis and BIL are very fortunate to have a gal like you in their life! I MUST steal this idea. 🙂
That is too cute! I absolutely love this idea…. makes me wish I knew someone with an upcoming engagement!
This is so cute and thoughtful! The next time I know someone that get’s engaged I am SO doing this! Our favorite inexpensive date is to order a pizza, get a DVD, and “veg” out on the couch in our pj’s. A fancy dinner does not always make the best dates 🙂
Love everything about this! It came out great. What a great idea!
This is such a wonderful idea! what a great surprise that Ross included everyone in on the surprise so that you could plan these great things for your sister! Definitely something she will NEVER forget!
Nothing to do with the post, but I saw on the Today show that they’re making a TV channel for dogs! I thought Sadie might enjoy that if ad gets anxious while you’re away!!
what a cute idea, this is awesome!
What a great idea! So cute! I am making a year of dates basket for my friends for their wedding gift. I was wondering what your dates were? Just trying to gather ideas!
I’d love to know what the dates were as well!
I love this idea and will definitely be stealing it for a Valentines Day gift. My fiance and I do ‘date night’ every Friday where I cook dinner (he usually is the cook) and make a new dessert that we enjoy with some wine and a movie at home. Its our favorite way to unwind after the work week and go into the weekend happy 🙂
What were some of your date ideas?! This seems like an awesome idea!
How sweet! I remember how excited I was to finally have a reason to buy bridal magazines. haha It’s the little things, right?
I remember the first semi-date with my hubby. We went to a party together in college, so it was extremely inexpensive. We had a blast though!
That’s a lovely gift! My Maid of Honour put together a shoebox full of goodies to get started on my wedding planning and was so much fun to look through!
I love your Date nights idea. What ideas are in the envelopes?… 🙂
I love that idea! My sister just got engaged as well!
One of the best, most inexpensive dates I’ve been on was when my fiance packed up a picnic and told me to bring a towel and we drove to the nearby beach. We sat there drinking rum and cokes and eating egg salad sandwiches. I didn’t think I could love him more!
Oh and I LOVE the idea of wearing sweatpants and picking up a gallon of icecream for a movie!
This is such a cute idea! Your sister is lucky to have someone as thoughtful as you for a sister! I hope someone I know gets engaged soon so I can steal this awesome idea from you 🙂
What a great gift!! When I got engaged in February, my mom get me The Knot planner, and I LOVE it!! Tell your sister to make sure she looks at the budget page – it’s got a really nice pie graph that tells you what % of your budget should be spent on certain things (like flowers or decorations), and it has been super helpful. Another great gift that I got (not that you need ideas because yours are already great) was a box of thank-you cards someone ordered from Etsy for me that said “Susie & Ryan” on the front. Having personalized cards is awesome, and they’ve really come in handy when I needed to thank people for engagement gifts!
Love that card idea. Definitely going to do that next time one of my friends gets engaged!
This is perfect!! My best friend also just got engaged on the 4th of July, so I will be crafting away for sure!!
Your craftiness is extremely impressive. Really.
Was your sister a huge part of your own wedding planning?
That is a great gift idea! You are so crafty!
Such a good idea! One of my most memorable (fairly inexpensive) dates was packing up a cooler, beach towels, and an umbrella and road tripping to the beach for a day! We spent the whole day laying on the beach and eating the delicious lunch/snacks that we packed. It was awesome!!
What a thoughtful gift, so cute! The best inexpensive date I had with my fiance is one of the first dates we went on. We went to this really old drive-in (that cost like $5 for the two of us) and we got a bunch of snacks and sat there and watched old movies. It was so much fun and we ended up being there for like 4 hours because they kept showing movies and didn’t kick anyone out!
That is SO cute! I remember the day after I got engaged I ran out and bought a bunch of wedding magazines!! We do cheap dates a lot! Most of the time, I just love when we take hikes or walks together. One of my favorite date nights was when Sonic came out with their hot dogs, we went to get a Chicago dog ( not many places in CO have Chicago dogs!) followed by a round of mini-golf!!! We had so much fun!
Love the basket and date jar!
I love the date night ideas! I’m totally stealing this! 🙂
Oh my gosh what an amazing idea! I love the date idea jar (and am borrowing it please!) So thoughtful, adorable and creative.
How incredibly thoughtful of you to do for your sissy! That’s so clever and what an adorable basket!
This is so personal and adorable! You are an amazing sister!!
-AJ
FitTravelerAJ.com
Everything, including the basket, looks so cute! And big congrats to Leslie and Ross–is it too soon to be excited for their wedding? 😉
That is adorable! The best inexpensive date I’ve been on was in high school. He set up a mesh tent in the back yard to keep bugs out, built a small fire, and had my favorite Chinese take out.
I want to make that framed ‘R <3 L' for my boyfriend! Love it! Where did you find the letters and heart…? Thanks so much for the idea!!
What a wonderfully thoughtful gift from you and your mom! I did something similar for my husband ~ gave him 12 dates each in an envelope. The last day of the month he opened up the envelope and we picked a day for the following month to have this special date. It was so much fun researching, planning, and creating these dates. I wanted so much for him to know how much I think of him and love him so. It blew him away and he loves them so much. The dates were from no cost at all (we picked a project needed to get done around the house, unplugged, and worked together & accomplished and then bbq afterwards) all the way to costly (we went to the Tim McGraw/Kenny Chesney concert). I really like your idea of the $15/2hrs and get back together 🙂
That is so cute! All of your projects make me wish I had just ONE crafty bone in my body. BUT it doesn’t exist. darn! I bet they love it!
That is so thoughtful. I would love to have received such a sweet present.
Aww, I LOVE this!! What a great idea- so creative. Your sister is one lucky and loved lady. 🙂
This is such a cute idea! I especially love the date night jar and I may need to use this as an anniversary gift idea for my husband this fall! 🙂
Josh and I once had an amazing date where we drank a bottle of wine and worked on a 3D puzzle of Chicago he picked up at the conference he had just gotten back from. It was such a fun night.
The basket you put together is so well thought out – plus it looks really nice. It things like this that can help someone enjoy the special moments in life even more.
The most inexpensive memorable date I can remember is going for a trail hike and later spending the night gazing at the stars while sitting on a blanket cuddled up with my boyfriend.
That is such a cute gift idea! My favorite “cheap” dates with my husband are really just the nights when we stay at home and make dinner, drink wine, and take turns putting on songs we love. My favorite is when he puts on our wedding song and asks me to dance. It’s super cheesy and romantic and I love it 🙂
That is such a cute idea! Please tell us what the other dates were!!
you always put together the most thoughtful and creative gifts!!
This is the MOST amazing idea ever. Wow. So incredibly sweet – I’m sure your sister loved it. As the older sister who just got engaged (and I know how much I would enjoy something like this!) I will definitely have to keep this in mind when my sister’s turn comes up. So so cute. Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
Fabulous idea…You definitely covered everything they will need to begin planning and have fun 🙂