Cheers to the newlyweds!

I'm one of those people who likes to find the most absolutely, positively, super-duper, bestest (is that a word?), most incredible personal gift for friends and family. Although sometimes that proves to be difficult. I'd venture to say even impossible. In my eyes, there is no one universal gift that works for everyone, except maybe money. And money is, undoubtedly, the best gift to give freshly married couples. But my sorry little artist booty is not sitting comfortably on top of heaps of money (ah hem, Scrooge McDuck). So I tend to use what I'm good at, being creative, as my catalyst to coming up with the most absolutely, positively, super-duper...well you get the idea. A pretty cool gift that hopefully means something special to the recipient.


So for my friends wedding gift I wanted to to come up with something that suited both the brides and grooms tastes. Jesi and her husband are a perfect duo of sweet and sassy. Sweet: they are supportive, respectful, and romantic with each other. Sassy: they love riding their motorcycles and brewing their own beer together. So what better gift than to give them a trio of the finest beers around. If anyone would appreciate this, it's them!


So I started researching specialty beers and found that some beers, like wines, are meant to age. They're called "vintage" and usually have a year marked on the bottle, much like vintage wines. But, instead of giving them a few bottles of beer as a gift (redneck warning!), with the help of a beer connoisseur, I carefully choose 3 fantastic high-quality beers.


The first beer is a special brew from the west coast called Sierra Nevada (which is the same mountain range I climbed on my honeymoon so I'm sending them happy marriage mojo already). This beer isn't a vintage and is meant for them to drink right when they open the gift. A sort of celebratory beer for the moment. The second is a 2009 vintage brew from Goose Island, a brewery based in Chicago, IL so you could say it's local, being that I'm in Madison, WI. This beer is meant for them to drink on their one-year anniversary. How sweet to know they will be thinking of me on their anniversary, ha! I got this idea from my own wedding. After our hike through the Sierra Nevada we toured California's wine country and bought an amazing bottle of pinot noir that we're saving for our one-year anniversary (instead of the top of our wedding cake. Sorry, but that's gross!). The final bottle is a 2010 vintage brew also from Goose Island. This bottle is meant for them to drink on their three-year anniversary. All three were highly recommended and all three are large bottles so there will be plenty for both the bride, groom, and a few of their friends. Once the bottles where chosen, purchased, and packaged, I wrote up a tag for each and attached with classy black ribbon. Cheers!


The best part, you can do the same thing for your wine-loving friends by getting them a trio of wine. But push it a little further and get them a ten-year anniversary bottle instead of the three-year. Mmm, all this talk of beer and wine has got me thirsty. Now where did my singing fish bottle opener go?