want to make a wedding gift... suggestions?

you could get a shadow box picture frame and collage their wedding invitation with pictures of them/things they have done/pictures of all their friends etc.

If you quilt at all you could make up squares before the wedding and have the guests sign them and write messages on them then you could take the squares back home and make a quilt out of it and mail it to them later? Or if you want to cross stitch something a wedding sampler is always nice and rather cheap to get the materials for, it just takes time to do.

a lot of folks like to get samplers with the names and date of marriage, maybe you could even arrange for a family member to get it framed there and mail it to the location ahead of time

Why don't you make a small scrapbook that they can just add the photos? Do it with a wedding theme....or how about making cards...a set so they can use them without going to the store to buy any....anyone I have given them to love them...and mention how nice it is to have them right at home so they don't have to make a trip to the store!

maybe to nit something, it would be really thoughtfull athough very difficult to make

Giftsandbagscom's idea is wonderful. If the bride is a scrapbooker that is one of the best ideas to use. If the bride isn't a scrapbooker I have a project that isn't too expensive and just a bit bulkier than a paper scrapbook. It is something that became very popular here a few years back. Find a shallow 'shadowbox' style frame. This will be the hardest part of the project. I have seen them at reasonable prices as discount or surplus stores. They are waaay too expensive at craft stores. Use the wedding invitation as a centrepiece and design around it with craft items. They usually are done with the colours of the wedding party. You can use whatever you like and be as simple as pretty flowers around it or if there is a theme you can use that (for example, my brothers was a country theme wedding, so they used a miniture cowboy hat, rope etc). I've seen victorian style done as well. A destination wedding can have a fish theme. If you use your imagination the possibilities are endless! Have fun with whatever project you use. I'm sure whatever you do it will be beautiful and because it's hand made will mean a lot to the couple.

My Mother used to decoupage the wedding invitation. She would get an extra invitation. You might be able to photocopy one you have, but many kinds don't do well with decoupage that are on printers nowadays. She would glue it to wood, let it dry, and then put the decoupage stuff on top. Let that dry and then she would make it so they could hang it up. There are different small pieces of wood and picture hanging things at different stores like Michaels. You might even have scrap wood you could finish or something from an old picture that you could take off. A friend of mine used to get two bears, one she dressed like a lady and one like a man. So you could dress them any way you want. The bears could be enjoying an activity together like cooking and the objects that they would cook with would be part of the gift. Both of these are kind of bulkiy for flying.

Some good ones are picture books. You can make them in iPhoto, Costco, or Walmart. You can put lots of pictures of them and make it pretty creative.