With just a little thought, traditional items, such as hip flasks or cuff links, when selected as your groomsmen gifts can have personal meaning and become treasured items, even heirlooms to be passed down, for each of the recipients.

To choose a perfect gift, run through the following process for each of your groomsmen before you start shopping and you’ll be surprised with how easy it is to be able to check this item of off your “Groom’s Things To Do” list.

First, think of the person himself: Does he have any unique or special interests? Is there a special event taking place, or that has recently taken place in his life? Is there a saying that he is known for using?

Second, think of your relationship with him: Is there a hobby that you share? Did you meet in a funny way? Does he always call on you or you on him, in certain situations?

Now with this type of information in the front of your mind, preferably jotted down, let’s look at how it can help with selecting the perfect groomsmen gifts. Perhaps one of your groomsmen has just purchased a new home, maybe his first. A gift of home bar accessories might have been nice before, but now becomes thoughtful and special when engraved with his new street address. Or maybe one of them has just had a new baby – a money clip or pen set takes on new meaning when engraved with the child’s name and date of birth. Or is there someone a hip flask or business card holder proudly displaying a favorite phrase would be perfect for? See the difference that some thought can make in personalizing the token of your appreciation?

If you prefer to only select a unique Best Man gift but give the same gift to each of the Groomsmen, think about all of them collectively. Is there something that you all have in common other than participating in your wedding? It is possible that you all could have been in the same fraternity, or follow the same sports team or graduated from the same University. If that is something meaningful that you all share it might be special to emphasize with the gift – such as cufflinks with your school initials or insignia or a hip flask with “Go ____” on it for the next time you all get together for a game. If there is nothing from your joint past to draw from, use this as an opportunity to create a future memory – perhaps beer tankards with an invitation for you all to gather for a boy’s brew pub night after the wedding frenzy is behind you.

It shouldn’t be hard with a little forethought for you to be able to identify something that you can draw from when choosing each of your groomsmen gifts. It can even be a fun break away from reviewing the guest list for the umpteenth time! Take a break, kick back and think of all of the times you’ve spent with these friends and the reasons that they are your Groomsmen to begin with – those kinds of thoughts and memories are really what a special day like the one you are about to have should be made from.