Thank You gift ideas?

shanliann

So we did not get married in a church, we are not religious.
We were however married by a pastor, who is the pastor at my now mother in laws church.
She mentioned to him we needed someone and she put us in contact with him.
He offered to do the service for free, im sure more so because of my mother in law who is very much involved in the church.
We didn't even meet him until the Rehersal.

So he took time to come and do the Rehersal, and then perform the ceremony. We invited him to Dinner(reception) but he declined, stating, he knows how expensive those things are. We politely told him we would love to have him join us for dinner, and the cost was not a worry, never the less he did leave after the ceremony.

I am planning to send a thank you card to him(IF my thank you cards ever show up!) but I feel as if I should do more then send a card. He did save us alot of money.

But since I clearly don't know him at all, I don't know what to do. I am thiking just a gift card in the card but I have no clue where to. I asked MIL she said she doesn't know him much outside of Church so she doesn't know like any restaurants he likes or anything like that. Any ideas? Other then just Walmart? Or should I just pick a restaurant like Applebees or something?

DramaGeek

Make a donation to his church.  It's easy and you know it's a charitable contribution he would support!

Also, you need to get your TYs out in the next 2-4 weeks.  If your cards don't show up in a week or so I'd go ahead and get them done with generic TYs.

shanliann

my cards are supposed to be here nov. 2 at the latest. once they show up it shouldn't be too long of a turn around time before they go out because i have so much free time at work to get them done. I ordered personalized ones because i want a larger size (5 X 7) the little note cards, cuz I have huge handwriting, and I couldn't find any sets or bulk thank yous in that size and buying indivually would of course be way too expensive. I tried the little note card size for gifts we reeived pre-wedding and it was not working I ended up going to hallmark and spendng 20 bucks on thank you cards so i had them.

we live in a very small town and there is honestly no where in our town to even get gift cards too. The church is about half way from us, into the actual "city" and applebee really is the "nicest" restaurant on the side of the city the church is on. I literally have no clue if the guy has a wife or family or what.

My only other idea was like 25 bucks to this local ice cream shop that "everyone knows" its the kinda place that everyone goes everytime they come home to visit.

shanliann

orrrr maybe i should just do starbucks?

jessicabessica

I think donating to the church is better than an impersonal GC, since you don't know his tastes at all.  Is there a pastor's discretionary fund at the church that he can use for projects?  If not, I would just do a general donation.  I would do at least $100, if you're comfortable with that.

NO2012

Does the church have an office or a rectory you can call for suggestions? I imagine the ladies that work in the church know him somewhat personally and could give you a better idea as to what he would like or if a donation is more appropriate.

Kate61487

I would have defaulted to a donation to his church, but a more personalized gift if you can get ideas from the church rectory or possibly even MIL would be nice as well.  And definitely get those thank yous out asap.  Etiquette gives you 3 months after a big event like a wedding (because you have lots of TYs to write and/or likely had a honeymoon and possibly a move), but people frequently start wondering after about a month.