Gift for Reception Host

smorriss86

My best friend offered to let us use her amazing new home to host our small, intimate reception.  She has been so excited and helpful along the way, and her husband and two small children have also been on board and supportive.  What is a meaningful gift we can give them to show how appreciative we are?

LondonLisa

Some sort of date night: A nice dinner out at a great restaurant/ theatre tickets/ concert tickets/ sports event and an offer for you two to babysit.

bleve0821

Since she's hosting the reception, an idea may be to include a certificate/voucher for someone to come in and professionally clean her home (if she's comfortable with that/doesn't already have a cleaning service in place).  The thing I hate most about hosting is having to clean up afterwards. 

SP29

Good ideas above!

OurWildKingdom

AtomicBlonde said:

Since she's hosting the reception, an idea may be to include a certificate/voucher for someone to come in and professionally clean her home (if she's comfortable with that/doesn't already have a cleaning service in place).  The thing I hate most about hosting is having to clean up afterwards. 

I second the professional cleaning.

LabLove86

I love the cleaning idea!!

kimmiinthemitten

I'd do both the cleaning and the date night. I feel like the cleaning service should be the minimum you do, and the date night is the real thank you. 

MesmrEwe

Since they have kids - an overnight/weekend away...  A certificate to a hotel/water park type place that they could reasonably take their kids to and have fun (a hotel with a slide/kiddie pool is plenty if the kids are little).  While a dinner/date night is great, unless you're offering to be the babysitters with no time restriction (i.e. "You need to be back before 10PM"), it's a great gesture, but challenging.  Depending on your relationship/budget, an overnight where you take the kids to your place (sometimes the greatest "vacation" is an overnight/weekend without the kids - while at home!) would be another idea too... 

Unless they've already got a housekeeper, I'd opt not to go that route..  Unless they've vetted someone, it's sort of like getting someone a massage gift certificate - while a great gift if it's "just not their thing" it's not money well spent and wouldn't get used.

The post-party clean-up is the biggest challenge to the party - the greatest thing you can do is be grateful with sincerity over their generosity to host and not be afraid to lift a finger post-wedding to help.  Plan to come the next day to help clean up - bring the carpet cleaner and air mover...  Bring the contractor size garbage bags..  Being useful helpers (even if you just take the kids to the park so they can clean) is probably the greatest gift you can give!

floridabride44

kimmiinthemitten said:

I'd do both the cleaning and the date night. I feel like the cleaning service should be the minimum you do, and the date night is the real thank you. 

This! It's just like when we say giving jewelry that BMs are required to wear for a wedding isn't really a gift, because it's wedding-related. Offering cleaning services for after a party someone hosted for you is a nice gesture, but IMO doesn't really count as a gift.