best man gift ideas

As a groom, even if you’re not involving yourself in the wedding planning at all, you should at least be responsible for getting a gift for your best man.  The wedding industry, of course, throws a ready made assortment of cuff links, wallets and hip flasks at you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t give it a bit more thought.  After all, he’s your best man, so doesn’t he deserve the best.

Now I’m not saying these things are bad and they are popular for a reason.  They’re suitable for a wide range of budgets and are easy to personalise and tie in to the whole “wedding thing”.  Every man needs a good wallet and it’s basically the one thing that you carry with you every day and a pair of cuff links, as well as being a nice thing to wear on the day and will remind them of the (hopefully happy) day every time they wear them.

Hip flasks though, I’m not too sure about.  I got one as a birthday or Christmas present a few years ago and have never used it, which leads me to the first of the criteria: while it need not be something practical, it should be something that they might actually use or want to have on display.

Other than that personalization would be nice touch, and it should be something relatively permanent which means that I probably wouldn’t go for anything technological that’ll just be obsolete in a couple of years and I’d avoid consumables like alcohol or at least get him something else as well like some nice glasses, a cocktail shaker or some sort of booze related gadget like this.

So with that in mind here are a few ideas.

A watch can make a really nice gift,  is something that they might use all the time and you can engrave the date of your wedding and a nice message on the back.  You can buy new or it’s possible to pick up a nice vintage/antique watches on eBay for a pretty reasonable price, like this one.

Maybe think about their hobbies and what’s important to them in their lives.  If they’re in to their music you could construct and personalize a guitar for them with your own fair hands or what a friend of mine did which was to have a customized guitar pedal made for them.  Now I realize that not everyone who likes music plays guitar but these are just a few ideas to get you thinking.

For the traveler you could get them the gorgeous Midori traveler’s notebook, which I am currently coveting.  This can also be fairly easily personalized as it’s not too hard to find a place that will emboss a message into it for you.  On a similar note, the same place sells a lovely range of leather camera straps if they’re in to photography.

Midori traveler's notebook and Roberu leather camera strap

Or if he might appreciate a genuine prop from one of his favourite films from somewhere like the Propstore, something like this News Team battle weapon from Anchorman.

Now if this doesn't say "wedding" and "best man" I don't know what does

For the record I got my man a pair of antique cufflinks, an antique crystal cocktail shaker and an embroidered memorial to Henchman 24 (it requires too much explaining, but it’s meant to to embody the enduring importance of friendship).