Does A Wedding Dagger Really Need A Point?

Hiya!

Remember our friends who threw that EPIC Game of Thrones dinner party?

You know, the party where every dish was themed, and dessert was traumatizing?

This was hard to forget... no matter how I tried, bahaha.

WELL, last weekend was these friends' 50th wedding anniversary(!!), so I knew a run-of-the-mill gift just wouldn't do.

Enter, THE INTERNET.

Well, Etsy, to be more precise.

I discovered the Strongblade Etsy shop, which sells personalized daggers and swords. This isn't sponsored, but what they made me turned out so nice I have to show it off.

First here's a look at the engraving, because I really like the saying John and I came up with:

Anna & John, Forged 1972
50 Years Unbroken

Eh? EH?

Listen, part of romance is having the ability to stab each other, but not doing it. (PRO TIP.)

Next we needed a way to display both the dagger and sheath, so we bought this wooden plaque at JoAnn's to modify:

John drilled holes through the plaque to pressure-fit wooden dowels:

... then Dremeled the dowels into shape so they'd cradle the dagger and blade exactly:

This is where the blade slots into place.

After this we spent a couple of days getting the finish right, because staining wood is a pain. First it was too dark, then it was too red, but our third attempt was just right.

Ready for the grand reveal? (EEEEEEE)

Here we go.

Oooooh

OooOOooooh

AHHHHH YEEEEAAAAH

And last one for luck.

My photos of the back aren't as nice, but you can see we painted it black and added both an easel back and sawtooth hangers, so it can either set on a shelf or hang on the wall:

We took the easel off a cheap frame we already had.

The dagger came in a nicely padded box from Strongblade, so to finish it off I only had to wrap the lid to look a bit nicer, then make a custom gift bag long enough to hold both pieces:

And here's the happy couple at their anniversary dinner!

Anna brought their wedding album along to show us, so after dinner we had them re-create one of their wedding pics... and LOOK HOW SWEET:

50 years and still dancing! These two are part of our chosen family here in Orlando, so it was such a special night, getting to celebrate with them.

(I asked what their wedding song was, and Anna told me they danced to live accordion music in someone's garage, which is unexpectedly delightful. See the accordion player in the background?)

Oh, and they loved the dagger! Apparently John used to order big swords from the shopping network back in the day - and in fact some are still hanging in his fan cave where he plays video games - so our wedding dagger should fit right in.

Random side note: if you're a Wheel of Time fan (the books, at least) there is such a thing as a Marriage Knife in that fandom, and it is SUPER badass. Basically the husband gives it to the wife so she can stab him if he ever displeases her (!!), and she wears it like a glorious punk rock necklace between her cleavage. Amazing.

Anyway, I'm just saying, we could totally make decorative wedding daggers a thing. 

Hope this gave you a smile, and happy 50th anniversary again to Anna & John!