The Internet is a black hole.

The internet is a place most bloggers call home. I mean why not? You can find anything here.  Literally, anything.  Unless it's something you really, really, really want. Then it pulls a disappearing act and it's impossible to find. Like, "Do ALL double walled tumblers come apart" (they don't by the way.. I have some generic ones at home that I tried to separate and it didn't work.)  So, as a blogger, I thought the internet was my friend, and today ladies and gentlemen, I was proven wrong. The internet chewed me up and spit me back out.  I set this weeks wedding task to be Bridesmaid Gifts. Obviously, as a bride, you want your bridesmaids to love you more than they already do. And you want to thank them for sharing this special day with you and for taking time out of their lives to watch you celebrate the most special 20 minutes of yours. And, all but one of my bridesmaids are coming from out of town. So I want them to feel appreciated and loved and like they would do this again in an instant. I want to say all of that on a budget.  1st things 1st, Pinterest. DUH. Well the first couple weeks of wedding planning, I went a little pin crazy, so my wedding pinterest board is anything but easy to navigate. So I did a couple quick searches for "bridesmaid gifts" "DIY bridesmaid gifts" "awesome bridesmaid gifts" etc.  I found a couple cute ideas and switched gears to........ Etsy.  At this point I had pretty much decided that I wanted to do personalized tumblers for everyone (bridesmaids, mother of bride/groom, grandmothers, and my friends that are helping). Then I came across some GLITTER tumblers that I fell in love with, I mean who wouldn't...

Picture from The Joyful Peach Etsy Shop

I mean, who wouldn't want one of those bad boys right? As much as I want to order one for everyone I know.. $20 is a little steep for 14 cups. $280 dollars is definitely not in the budget for cups. So I looked and I looked and I looked... after looking for what seemed like hours, I thought "how hard can it be to make one of those?" I set to the internet to find out. 
Turns out, there's a website that sells them in bulk (or what seems like bulk) and they even sell some that come apart! For like $4.00 a cup. WWWHHHAAATTT?  You can find this magical world here.
So I'd found the cups, now I needed to find monogram decals to go on them.. but I don't want to do three letters, because not all of my friends are married, but some of them are in the process of getting married (aka, we're sending not so subtle messages to their boyfriends to go ring shopping.) So I don't want to get their maiden name initials cause that's not fun after your married. And I can't very well get their future initials (considering they're not even engaged.. how creepy would that be.. maybe I should do it just to be creepy.) so I just want to do one initial for their first name. That won't change...ever. I hope. 

So I found this Etsy shop that does single letter monogram decals. Yes, yes, and yes. 
It's Wednesday and I've been doing this since Monday. So that's ONE PART OF THE BRIDESMAID GIFTS. Can't I just get them gift cards?? No? Fine.  Etsy and pinterest are just too overwhelming for me sometimes. They're like a giant black hole that if you go to far in you'll never get out but you have to find your way because it's only Wednesday and honey, you have work to do. :( 
So if you guys have any other bridesmaid gifts ideas I can add to their cups (that could possibly turn into a disaster) keep them coming.