Gift-giving is historically one of the most traditional elements of any wedding, dating back centuries. The original purpose of a wedding gift was to help the happy couple begin their life together. However, these days it's becoming more customary to give gifts as a couple, to the people that have stood by you throughout your life and during your wedding.

A lovely example of this is the wedding of Brad and Markita. They not only wanted to thank their wedding party for being there on one of the most meaningful days of their lives, but also make sure it was a gift that was a little less mainstream, fit the theme of their wedding and personal. Read the interview below on how they achieved this on their beautiful wedding day.

Name: Brad Springall & Markita Alexander

Date wedding: August 7, 2021

Location: CJ Country Events, Guelph-Eramosa, Ontario, Canada

Tell us about your beautiful wedding day!

My wife had been following the Instagram page of CJ for a long time and watched them turn their property into the beautiful venue it is now. When we got engaged, we visited and fell in love with it! The week of our wedding, we were closely watching the weather because it’s an outdoor venue, and it showed an 80% chance of thunderstorms at the time of our ceremony. We started to get a little worried. Driving to the venue with my groomsmen on the morning of the wedding, I checked the weather one more time and saw that it had changed to a 40% chance! From that point on, everything fell perfectly into place and went exactly according to plan! We were thrilled to be able to share our special day with our loved ones since we were not sure if COVID-19 restrictions in our province would allow us to have our wedding at all.

How many groomsmen did you have? What role do they play in your life?

I chose five groomsmen for my wedding party. Paul, Zack, Mike and Taylor I have known for 15 years and are very close friends from high school. Logan is Markita's brother, who I was happy to have stand up in front of everyone with us on this happy day in our lives.

How do you know about WoodWatch?

After deciding on a gift for my groomsmen, I Googled "wood watches", and WoodWatch was one of the top results.

What WoodWatch products do you own yourself?

I have the CLASSIC 40mm Dark Forest watch! When I bought it, I got my name and the date of our wedding engraved on the backplate.

Why did you come up with the idea to gift a WoodWatch to your groomsmen?

Markita and I wanted to have a backyard wedding feel and theme. I also wanted to get my groomsmen a different kind of gift than usual. Something to show them how much I appreciate them and everything that we have gone through together. I decided to try to find a nice looking wooden watch, and after looking on a few different companies' websites, I found the look, style and design of WoodWatch watches to be perfect. My wife and I also loved the idea of WoodWatch planting trees for every watch purchased! After buying a WoodWatch to see the look and quality for myself, I knew I wanted to buy each of my groomsmen a WoodWatch as well. I decided on the ESSENTIAL 45mm Cypher Sandal watch for them.

Did you have the gifted watches engraved? If so, what does the engraving say?

Yes, I wanted to make their gifts more personal than just giving them a watch. So each person had their name engraved, and underneath their name it says: "Thanks for being my stand-up guy! -B.S." I'm not a very serious person, so I enjoyed the double meaning of "stand-up" as them being a great and reliable friend as well as physically standing up at the front with me while I got married, haha!

What did your groomsmen think of their gifted WoodWatch?

They all LOVE their WoodWatch! They really like the design and thought it was neat that it’s made from wood, instead of the traditional metal or rubber band.