want to do something meaningful for my amazing friend

[imyourhuckleberry]

I am hoping the collective brain power of mumsnet can help me.
I am bridesmaid for my lovely friend ay Christmas. she had had a really tough year (family arguments and multiple miscarriages). I want to get her an amazing present for the wedding but I am very, very skint. I want to give her something to show her how fantastic I think she is. any ideas

A letter saying how you feel about her. That would have meant so much to me on my wedding day.

Yeah -- get creative and personal. Don't look to buy something, just a really heartfelt written thing. Maybe a poem or short story or a drawing or piece of artwork (or whatever your creative outlet of choice is.)

A cheap photo frame with an OS map centred on the place they are getting married?
A box frame containing scrabble tiles of their names linked together?
A very young tree/plant for their garden/patio
A series of notelets/letters with special messages in sealed envelopes to be opened on each wedding anniversary

Are you artistic OP?

Liking all the above,how about a lovely poem written in calligraphy, framed....doesn't need to be long,just special

Personal means so much more x

I think all the suggestions above are great. Keep it personal, make it obvious you have invested time in love in it. Money doesn't matter.

One of the best things DH and I have from our wedding is one of those plaster mould sculpture kits you can get, made for us by DH's cousin in NI, lovingly hand painted. It is utterly precious and just a little bit twee - perfect.

Are you artistic OP?

If you are, what about a watercolour of the church/place she's getting married in?

If not, take a photo of it and do a simple line drawing tracing and then go over it in a fine black pen, wait for it to dry then rub out the lines.

How about naming a rose after her? David Austin have some lovely ones as do country garden roses . There are ones for loads of occasions but you can also name your own . If she likes gardening it would be a great present .

You could make a collage for her using photos from the very beginning of their relationship until now.

When my dnephew was born I made a framed collage for my db and sil and it cost about £30 total. I lifted 20ish of the best photos from facebook of the few days before and after his birth, had them printed in black and white with white frames, and mounted these in a big Ikea frame with his name and birth date underneath. The finished article is very elegant and they were absolutely tickled pink.

I copied the layout from one I saw online - I can't find it now but if you pm me, I'll send you a picture of the one I made.

A family friend made me a necklace for a gift recently. They bought the wire and beads and then assembled. Easy. It's not even from an unusual shop but I still know no one will have quite the same necklace as me. I'm not into jewellery really but I love it. I got it in a box they'd made, too (nice paper stuck on to plain box). It would have been cheaper to just buy me a necklace and box, but it couldn't have been that expensive and was much more special.

An exbf also once got me a special photo album. Photos printed on glossy paper in the book. You could get the best pictures of the happy couple and have them printed into one? I don't know how much it cost or where they got it from but I imagine lots of companies do it and it isn't too pricey. I doubt the ex spent much, anyway.