Bridal Shower Bucket

One of my hubby's best friends is getting married next week.  We've known him since high school and he and his bride have been dating for over 3 years now.  We are so excited for them!

I went to her bridal shower with his family on Saturday.  His mother makes the best food!  She made the cutest little sugar cookies, little drinks complete with color coordinated bendy straws, croissant sandwiches, and fruit kabobs.  Mmmm!

The last 3 bridal showers I have went to, I have given them some homemade laundry detergent along with other useful things.  Big storage totes are always useful, and they make a great "bucket" for smaller gifts.  Go big or go home!

Step 1:  Get your "bucket"

I bought my tote at Shopko.  I get the biggest one I can find that's around $10.  This time I got this grey tote with green latch handles by Sterilight for $12.50, I believe it was 16 gallons.

Step 2: get smaller useful things to put in the bucket.

I decided to do some quick dinner items.  I wanted them to have something for those nights when you don't have much time for dinner and didn't plan ahead, but you don't want to go out.

I got: a jar of spaghetti sauce and spaghetti noodles; a jar of alfredo sauce, fettucine noodles and a can of chicken; and peanut butter and jelly. 

 I also made them some homemade laundry detergent.  I used a clean empty pickle jar and painted the lid with krylon and made a cute "laundry sprinkles" label with instructions on it and then filled it with the laundry detergent.  The lid is super sparkly and shiny :)

Step 3:  Wrap it up!

Next use a few beautiful wedding/bridal shower bags and group things together and place them in the bags with tissue paper.  You can get super creative and write a cute note, saying or instructions with each bag.

A few examples with the items I used: "You guys go together like peanut butter and jelly."  "One without the other is like spaghetti without sauce, fettucine without alfredo," etc.  I ran out of time to do the sayings, but the gift looked much better with them grouped and wrapped in pretty bags.

This is a great way to do a gift on a budget that is still very useful and does not look or seem cheap.  With a gift like this it's the thought that counts.  This gift (to me) says, "here, lets make your life a little easier."

I was really happy with how it all turned out.  Sometimes when you try to stick to around $20-$25 you kinda feel like your gift is lacking.  That's why I love starting out with the big tote and then adding themed items to it.

Thanks for reading!!

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