Post # 1

Member
1559 posts
Bumble bee
I am getting so bad at Christmas gift giving lately… especially with parents. I have a small gift for my mom and FI’s mom, but not any other parents. Fiance thus far hasn’t gotten his mom or dad/stepmom anything either.
We were discussing it, and I came up with the idea that it would have been nice to give them each a 5×7 print of on of our engagement picture and have it framed for them.
Problem is, our photographer JUST had a baby (2 days ago… he’s adorable) and when I talked to her she said it might be hard to get them by Christmas. She doesn’t print them herself, but she would have to deal with ordering them, and the lab is super busy around the holidays.
So I feel like it might be best not to try to rush things in 2 weeks, and instead give our parents something (card? Frame with an IOU?) that tells them that their gift is a picture or two of their choosing.
What do you think, bees? Is this a good idea? Any suggestions on how to present them with this “gift” without it seeming like an IOU?
Post # 3

Member
81 posts
Worker bee
Well, I don’t know if this would work for you, but since Mr. BrassBand and I are the respective queen and king of cheesiness, we would probably buy frames and then take a silly/goofy picture of us (probably with cheesy grins and thumbs-up, because we are SO those people, lol), get them developed at Walgreens, and then include a small note that a picture that is actually display-ready is on its way.
I think that the idea of a framed engagement picture as a gift for parents is a great idea, though!
Post # 4

Member
1518 posts
Bumble bee
could she not send you a digital image that you could print yourself at a cvs or walmart? If not and you know for sure you will be giving them a 5×7 then i would go pick out a pre-matted frame and wrap it and explain that you will send the pic when you get it. I don’t know if you have a Michael’s in your area but i got some gorgeous pre-matted frames from their this past week. They had a buy one get one free sale on them also.
Post # 5

Member
1559 posts
Bumble bee
@Allyser: She probably would send us the file if we asked her, and we do actually have one of our pictures b/c we’re using it for save-the-dates, but she is a very close friend and I don’t want to take advantage of her being our friend. Part of the money she makes from doing our pictures is from the prints themselves, so us doing them ourselves, though cheaper, also gives our friend less income. Stinky, but she’s giving us a killer discount on the services themselves, so it’s only fair.
Post # 6

Member
1559 posts
Bumble bee
@LittleMissBrassBand: That does sound fun! I might be able to talk Fiance into that 🙂