Nowadays it’s taken for granted that there will be a wedding list. There are two ways of doing the list.
1. Simple Checklists
You can draw up a simple checklist of all the things you need, including precise details about design, manufacturer and price. The problem with this is that one of you has to take responsibility for keeping track of who has bought what. If you simply hand out the list there’s nothing to stop everyone from buying you teaspoons while leaving you without any knives and forks. Having to take calls from your family and friends about what they want to buy for you can be time consuming and embarrassing, especially when you get to the stage where all the cheaper items have already been bought.
2. A List Placed with a Particular Shop
You can have more than one of these and a very wide range of retailers (from Argos to Harrods) how offer this service. The great thing about this way of doing it is that your guests don’t actually have to go shopping and they don’t even have to see the list! They can simply phone the shop, ask for a price range and then pick whereabouts on that price range they want their present to be. The shop then gives them a couple of choices – a casserole dish or wine glasses, perhaps. The guest selects the one he or she wants and reads out his or her credit card details. The shop will then wrap and deliver the present on behalf of the guest. This service is also available on the Internet.
Some guests will always want to choose, wrap and deliver their gift personally and, if that happens, you have no alternative but to be delighted with whatever you get.
Whether or not you put your wedding presents on display is up to you. This was traditionally done at the reception or at the bride’s home, with each item labelled as to whom it was from and a separate list of people who had given cheques (but not detailing the amount). Today this kind of display is generally the exception rather than the rule.
Whatever you do and whatever you get, remember to keep a list, preferably with a duplicate, of all the presents you receive and the names of the people who gave them. If you don’t, you won’t be able to write your thank-you letters and, although that might sound quite appealing right now, it’s probably not worth the guilt and embarrassment you’ll probably feel afterwards.
