• Give your groomsmen gifts as interesting as they are.groomsmen image by cherie from Fotolia.com
  
  If a groomsman is doing his job right, he is a considerable amount of help to the groom before, during and after the wedding. He helps carry out planning duties, attends all co-ed pre-wedding parties and showers, buys a gift, rents a tux and seats guests at the wedding. Afterward he may give a speech at the reception, dances with the female guests and helps clean up after the party --- all while standing by to calm the groom's nerves. To thank him, give him an interesting gift that shows you took the time to select something just for him.
  
  

Classic, With Twist

• A pocket flask is a traditional groomsman gift; take it a step further and get him a flask that's a little out of the ordinary. There are flasks that are concealed under the twist-off heads of walking canes, 1 oz. flasks that hang from a key chain and flasks that are worn as belt buckles. Cuff links are another wedding-gift standby; make yours stand out by giving sets that are customized for each attendant. Cuff links can be custom-made out of computer chips, LEGO blocks or computer flash drives, as well as typewriter keys or old watch gears.
  
  

Hat

• If you give your groomsmen hats, you may opt for matching snap-brims (in the fall and winter) or straw skimmers (in the spring and summer) for a "Groom's Posse" photo-op. Otherwise, give each groomsman a hat that has some shared history behind it. If you attended all the "Indiana Jones" matinees together in your boyhood, give him a strategically battered brown felt fedora. Your box-seat buddy will appreciate a team baseball cap; if you spent your college summers riding the range together, give him a Stetson cowboy hat. Get the natty dresser a white straw Panama to complete his "manly man in the tropics" look.
  
  

Pocket Knife

• A pocket knife is another traditional gift, but there's no need to give a traditional pocket knife when there are so many interesting variations available. You can give a handyman a Swiss-style pocket knife with dozens of blades and a screwdriver with changeable heads, or a computer geek a knife in which one of the "blades" is really a computer-memory flash drive. There are intricately carved one-bladed pocket knives that "pop" open with a flick of the hidden switch and camping knives with a survival kit built into the handle.