I’m one of those people who secretly gets excited about Valentine’s Day. I think it’s the decorations and the endless red and pink inspiration that proceeds this day of love.

Are you celebrating Valentine’s Day this year? What are your plans? Do you have any unique ideas for telling your fiance or husband, “I Love You?”

From julieannart.com via Pinterest

I used to work for a Promotional Printing company. You name it, they could slap your logo/design on it. I saw a lot of wedding favor items come and go through that place – Bags, Towels, Wine Glasses, Wine Corks, etc, etc, etc. I don’t know if it’s a product of me seeing so many of these items or what – but I do not want a little trinket sitting at my wedding tables for guests to take home. No offense to anyone that does love these, they’re just not quite my and Olive Dude’s style.

So – what does that leave us with? Well, I’ve actually stumbled across a LOT of “unique” wedding favor ideas (PS. Pinterest, I heart you.) But – how can we narrow it down? Here are the two big options currently being debated in the Olive household:

1. Scratch-Off Lottery Tickets

Super Cute - Can also put a penny inside!

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I have always been a sucker for the super personalized gifts, especially around special occasions like weddings. My day-of gifts will be no exception. I can’t share what I have in mind for Apricot Momma because she will read this but let me share what I have in mind for my Dad and my FMIL. I found this handkerchief idea on Pinterest and fell in love with it. My Dad is an avid “hankie” user, as he calls them, so this will be perfect.

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I was looking at pinterest yesterday and came across a neat idea called the Date Can.  Basically, this is something to do for a shower but I’m thinking about doing it for the wedding.

The idea is this, you think of, or in my case google “date ideas,” and make a list of all the unique or fun ones.  Print them out, you can even do this on fun paper, and then cut the dates out and put all of them in a can.  Your guests can then pick a date that they can take their significant other on.  What I’m planning on doing as well is giving this as a “wedding gift” to a friend of mine.  Don’t worry, I’m not just going to show up with a tin can with paper in it and gift it to her   You see, my friend is a big gamer, not in the online gaming kind of way but she is always thinking up fun games for people to play when they come over for dinner so I thought that along with some swag and a gift card for her wedding I would also attach an envelope to a bottle of champagne, which would have a tag of its own that said “Live, Love and be…Bubbly!”,  that says the following:

” 12 fun dates for 2012!  Reach in when you’re feeling spontaneous.  Take a photo of your date for your memory book!”

Naturally, I will also get a fun photo album and stick a tag on it that says “memory book.”

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If you’re anything like Apricot Dude and I, your first dance song holds a special place in your heart. I’ll never forget when we decided on “our song.” We have always been huge 80′s music fans and had my ipod in on the “80′s Awesomeness” playlist. We were driving in the car when our dear friend Phil Collins started singing “We Got A Groovy Kind of Love” and we knew instantly that was ours. I’ve been thinking of a neat way to remember our first dance for many years to come and came across these on etsy today.
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I love everything about food. When I look at my boards on Pinterest for any graphic design inspiration for work or for wedding inspiration – I always find myself drawn to the pictures of food. Not only are most professional food pictures beautiful, but I also pretty much want to eat everything. No judgment.

Anyway, I stumbled across this little gem.

Chocolate + Strawberries + a little Adult Soda? YUM!

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So after seeing Lilac’s post, I couldnt stop myself from looking for website to website at these adorable hangers.  The pictures of brides’ dresses hanging on them the morning of their weddings, was just too cute for words.  I kept my obsession to myself, why?  I have no idea!  Anyway, one of my closest college buddies came to our engagement party in June and declared that she had found the best engagement gift for us (well really just me! ha!)  But, that it was on order because it was custom and would arrive in a few weeks.  Well the suspense has continued all summer with the final shipping confirmation coming in only 3 days ago.  Well, let me tell you my friend could not have been more right-this was the perfect gift!  Last night, a box addressed to the “Future Mrs. Kobis” arrived at our apartment and it was one of the personalized hangers I’ve been in love with!  Only, this one was 10 times better because my friend found a PINK one!

In Love.

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Since nothing about the wedding was related to a hotel, I gave guests a list of local lodging and didn’t do welcome bags or anything.

My extremely conscientious maid of honor decided to make bathroom baskets for the women and the men.

The men's restroom basket

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So just like Magnolia Bud, I am not afraid to admit that one of my newest favorite hobbies as a bride is registry peeking!  Come on-when is there ever another time in your life that you can basically preview your presents?!  And in fact Magnolia, I know we’re not the only two.  I was on the bus on my way home from work last week and saw another girl doing the same thing on her blackberry!  So needless to say, I basically knew 85% of our engagement party gifts before we got them.  The biggest question was who bought us what?  I guessed some based on the gift’s price (my grandma bought us a place setting for our china) and others based on personality (a crystal bowl from our china pattern from Peachy MOH).  The guessing game didn’t take away from the fun of opening the gifts though!  Several of our friends bought us gifts off of registry, which usually I don’t understand when the couple is basically making gifting easy.  But our friends and family know us so well that each gift was picked with our interests and tastes in mind.  Our two favorite off the registry gifts?  A couples massage to relieve some of the wedding planning stress!  and this fun sushi making kit!

The couple that bought us the sushi kit shares our love of sushi and thought it would be fun for us to get together and make our own!  So creative!!

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When I decided who my bridesmaids were going to be, I knew I wanted to ask them in a creative way. It’s no secret that I love a good class of wine so why not combine two of my favorite things: some vino and my best friends. I thought about just writing in a card and giving them a bottle of wine but then decided to take it one step further and put the two together.

Here is how they turned out:

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