What to Put in a Groomsmen Gift Box
Most groomsmen gift box ideas are really packaging ideas. You see a photo of a wooden crate with a flask, a cigar, a bottle opener and a folded card, and the box looks excellent. Then you buy six of them, and a month after the wedding the flask is in a drawer, the cigar was never smoked, and the crate is holding cables in a spare room. The box looked like a gift. Most of what was inside it was filler.
This article goes through the standard contents item by item, with what each costs and what happens to it, builds three boxes at different budgets, and covers the part nobody plans for: assembling six of these yourself, at night, in the last fortnight before a wedding.
The box is not the gift
A gift box is a way of presenting two or three good things, and it gets treated as a way of reaching a number. Once you are filling space rather than choosing items, you add a keyring, a sticker and a pair of novelty sunglasses, and each one makes the box look fuller and the gift feel thinner.
Set a rule before you buy anything: one item they will use every week, one item that is specific to them, and one consumable. Three things. If a fourth idea does not beat one of the three, it is filler and it goes.
The usual contents, judged honestly
| Item | Typical cost | What tends to happen |
|---|---|---|
| Hip flask | $15-35 | Used once at the wedding, then drawered for a decade |
| Engraved bottle opener | $10-20 | Genuinely kept, because it lives in a kitchen drawer |
| Cigar | $8-25 | Smoked only if the group already smokes cigars |
| Sunglasses | $10-25 | Great in the photos, lost by the following summer |
| Tie or pocket square | $15-40 | Worn on the day, rarely afterwards unless it is plain |
| Cufflinks | $20-50 | Depends entirely on whether he owns shirts that take them |
| Personalized socks | $10 a pair | Worn on the day and for years, and fits without asking |
| Good spirits miniature | $8-20 | Drunk on the morning, which is the point |
| Handwritten letter | $0 | The item most likely to still exist in ten years |
| The box itself | $8-25 | Photographed once, then recycled |
Two things that table should change
First, the box is often the third or fourth most expensive item in it, which is the wrong order. A plain rigid box with tissue does the same job as an engraved crate and puts $15 back into the contents. Second, the free item is the strongest one: a letter naming something the person actually did for you outperforms everything above it.
Three boxes that work
The $35 box
A pair of personalized socks, a decent bottle opener, a miniature of something good, and a handwritten card, in a plain box. Every item has a use after the wedding and nothing in it is filler. This is the version most people should build, and it does not look cheap unless you tell somebody the price.
The $60 box
The same three items, upgraded rather than joined by more. A better spirit, socks in the wedding color with initials stitched in a matching thread, a plain silk pocket square that works with a suit outside a wedding, and the letter. Four things, no padding.
The $90 box
Reserve this for the best man rather than spreading it across the group. Add one thing he would not buy himself: a good leather item, a proper knife, something with a use in his life rather than in your wedding. The best man monogram socks are the version to use if you want his pair to read differently from the group.
Personalize one item properly, not everything badly
A box where every item carries a name reads as a merchandising exercise. A box where one item carries a name reads as a gift. Choose the item that gets used most and put the personalization there.
On the monogram groomsmen socks the thread is worked into the knit on the outer cuff rather than printed on the surface, and you choose the text, font and thread color in the on-site designer. Initials in a thread close to the sock color is the version that gets worn to work afterwards. A full name in a contrast thread is more obviously a wedding item. Monogram etiquette for custom socks covers the order of the letters.
Why sizing decides more than you would expect
Half the standard box contents need a size you have to ask for, and asking ruins the surprise. Shirts, robes and slippers all have this problem. Socks here are one adult size, EU 42-46 (UK 8-11 / US 9-12), so no question is required. Be realistic about it though: if one of your groomsmen has notably small or large feet, that is a pair that will not fit, and it is better to swap his item than to hand over something he cannot wear.
What to leave out
- Anything printed with the word Groomsman. It has one day of life and no use afterwards.
- Novelty socks with a slogan. Funny once, worn never. That is a different product from a plain pair with his initials, and what not to give your groomsmen goes further into it.
- A second flask. Most men in a wedding party have already been given one by a previous wedding.
- Anything that needs charging. It dates within two years and it is one more cable.
- Filler that exists to raise the box height. Shredded paper is not a gift, and everyone can see through it.
The assembly problem
Six boxes with four items each is twenty-four items to buy, from four suppliers, arriving on four different dates, all of which must be at your address at once before anything can be packed. That is the actual project, and it is why gift boxes get assembled at eleven at night in the last week.
Two things make it manageable. Order the personalized item first, because it is the only one with a production step and the only one that cannot be replaced at short notice. And buy one spare of each small item, because something will arrive damaged and you do not want to find that out at eleven at night.
Timing
Personalized items are made to order, so the wait is production time rather than warehouse picking, and it does not compress because you decided late. Work back from the rehearsal dinner rather than the wedding day, since that is usually when the boxes are handed over, and order the embroidered items well ahead of everything else.
If the boxes are a proposal rather than a thank-you, you have more room: that happens a year or more out. Either way, eight named pairs is $10.00 a pair at retail, and it takes about ten minutes at the designer once you have the list of initials in front of you.
Frequently asked questions
What should go in a groomsmen gift box?
Three things, not eight. One item used weekly, one item specific to that person, and one consumable, plus a handwritten card that costs nothing. A pair of personalized socks, a good bottle opener and a decent miniature covers all three without a single piece of filler in the box.
How much should a groomsmen gift box cost?
Around $35 covers a box where every item has a genuine use. Sixty dollars buys the same items upgraded rather than more of them. Above that, spend it on the best man rather than across the whole group, since he is carrying a different amount of work.
Should I buy a premade groomsmen box or build my own?
Premade boxes are quicker and usually contain two good items and three fillers. Building your own takes an evening of ordering and gives you a box with nothing dead in it. If you build one, order the personalized item first and treat everything else as interchangeable.
Do all the groomsmen need identical boxes?
The contents should match. The personalized item should not, since initials are the whole point of putting them on. Giving the best man one extra item is normal and nobody in the group finds it unfair, because they can see what he is doing for the wedding.
When should I hand the boxes over?
The rehearsal dinner is the usual moment, or the morning of the wedding while everyone is getting ready. Proposal boxes go much earlier, once you have asked. Avoid giving them at the reception, when nobody has a free hand and half the box will be left on a table.
Can I put a different name on every pair of socks?
Yes. Text, font and thread color are chosen per pair in the on-site designer, so eight groomsmen can have eight sets of initials. At retail, that is $10.00 a pair regardless of quantity. The $6.50 wholesale price applies from 100 pairs of a single design, which a wedding party will not reach.
What to do with this
Write down three items and refuse to add a fourth. Buy the box last, and keep it plain. Order the personalized item first, because it is the only piece with a lead time attached to it.
Start with the monogram groomsmen socks for the group and the groom monogram socks for yourself, or the name-embroidered dress socks in twenty colors for full names rather than initials. The rest sits in the groom and groomsmen collection and the wider gifts collection. For the gift rather than the box, read groomsmen gift ideas.
