My Present Dilemma

My spot as guest blogger came at a very appropriate time – just after my 5^th wedding anniversary (sorry I bored you with that one already!) but also in the run up to one of my best friend’s wedding. I’m sure there’s a film title in there somewhere?

Well, the lovely Hannah’s wedding preparations are going brilliantly (they wouldn’t dare do anything else – the girl actually uses tippex in her own diary!) and I can’t wait to see all the lovely ideas come together later this month. From the colours to the table decorations, surprises and even the after party barbeque! But with the excitement of a forthcoming wedding comes the age old dilemma of what is the perfect present?

Things seem to have moved on from the traditional gift list, I being the recipient of 6 – yes 6 – gravy boats for wedding #1, can’t help being secretly relieved! As many couples are living in sin these days (or having a good practice as I prefer to think of it) the trend moved to vouchers for a while, whether for house renovations, treats or even towards the honeymoon. But the most recent trend is for a quirky poem simply requesting the pleasure of your company, and if you must, a gift of money to help out with basically whatever the bride and groom are saving for.

I’ve seen this debate result in some real controversy: some people find the thought of turning up with an envelope neatly nestling some notes just too awkward, and opt for a personal gift instead. When I’ve watched family or friends in the run up to their weddings and have seen the heart and soul (not to mention the money) they put into their weddings I personally think the choice becomes easy – the perfect present is…whatever they want! After all that preparation they deserve it!

Q is for Quaff

Ooh, Q is hard! Luckily, as is so often the case, booze came to our rescue. Where do you sit in the “wine with dinner/free bar/get them to put their hand in the pocket” debate? We think there's no winning answer. Guests just want to enjoy your day with you and if they know you're on a budget they won't mind paying for their own - as long as you don't then choose a venue with a mega-expensive drinks list! That said, if you can stretch to a welcome drink or some bubbly for the toast, we think that's a lovely touch (we know a groom who turned a wedding breakfast booze cruise to France into his stag - we pity the designated driver on that one!). And at one of our fave weddings, Bec and Andrew served prosecco (lovely, and reasonably priced, bubbles that came in distinctive blue bottles to really make an impact).

Oh, and if you happen to be mega-loaded, you probably should lay on the drinkies!

P is for Personal

At Illustries, we think weddings are fabulous – we kind of think that’s kind of important as we’re making memory books that celebrate them! But we’ve been really surprised at some of what we’ve seen as we’ve been finding out all about the wedding industry. We know that everyone has a personal style, and when that is what their shop, or blog, or site, or tweets are all about then it makes sense to just stick to featuring things that fit. What we don’t really get is the slightly nasty side some people adopt when talking about anything that doesn’t fit their own personal template of cool.

At Illustries, weddings = love + happiness x celebration = a whole heap of joy! Taste is a subjective thing, surely? We might love the theme, or the colours, or the details of a wedding because it’s more ‘us’, but it doesn’t make it any less fabulous than something a little less edgy. We heart weddings, full stop – you won’t see any sneering around here!

Can you do it on a shoestring?

We're doing admin (boo!) at Illustries today, with our heads stuck in a spreadsheet. So we are distracting ourselves by thinking about budgets - our own, admittedly, but the general topic has also come in for a think. Some weddings definitely have that 'money no object' feel, and of course, today everyone wants their own special day to be, well, special. And so often, special means different.

So, does 'different' have to mean expensive? We don't think so. At Illustries we see weddings with all kinds of budgets, and do you know what? They're all kind of special. From the extravaganza of exhuberance with all the trimmings you could want (amazing, and we loved it, right down to the mini toastmaster!) to this beautifully simple, zingy and full of love day that was just as full of memories, every wedding gives us moments to celebrate and moments to remember.

We're counting ourselves lucky that we get to help make those memories last...