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"About two months after Paul proposed, we had a little engagement party in his parents&amp;amp;#8217; house. We hadn&amp;amp;#8217;t registered yet, so it was anyone&amp;amp;#8217;s guess what gifts guests might bring. If you&amp;amp;#8217;ll ever need an engagement present, you&amp;amp;#8217;ll definitely want to know what my best friend Emily gave me. I&amp;amp;#8217;ll give you three hints about what the gift was: Every bride needs them. They&amp;amp;#8217;re not expensive. You&amp;amp;#8217;ll eventually give them to other guests. Did you figure it out? It was a set of thank-you cards! But they weren&amp;amp;#8217;t just any thank-you cards&amp;amp;#8212;Emily, the craftiest person I know, bought a set of basic Hallmark cards and personalized them by adding on ribbon in my most favorite color, lavender. To go one step further, she printed out labels with my and Paul&amp;amp;#8217;s address on them and stuck them onto the envelopes to save us the trouble of writing out our return address for each thank-you card we&amp;amp;#8217;d send. And boy, did those cards come in handy. The very next day, I used some of them to thank the gift-givers who came to our engagement party. And Emily gave me such a big set that I was able to use them for shower guests, too (a year-and-a-half later!). Plus, the ribbon from the thank-you cards inspired my ceremony programs which incorporated the very same ribbon. I wonder if any of my guests caught that! So if you&amp;amp;#8217;re stuck on what to give a newly engaged couple and you don&amp;amp;#8217;t have a ton to spend on them, follow Emily&amp;amp;#8217;s lead. What&amp;amp;#8217;s the best engagement present you&amp;amp;#8217;ve given or received? How would you like a set of thank-you cards? What if they weren&amp;amp;#8217;t quite your style&amp;amp;#8212;would you still use them? More Gift Ideas Wedding Present Idea: Frame the Date A Sweet Idea for a Shower Present The Best Offbeat Wedding Present More Ways to Get Glamour Visit Shopglamour.com for cute stuff starting at just $10! Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Follow us on Twitter Add us to your iGoogle homepage Photo: Hemera Technologies "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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