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!

Welcome to our guest blogger, Rebecca!

As the proud owner of one of the very first Illustries, I was thrilled to be asked to do a guest blog. This is probably as close to infamy (in a good way) that I’ll get!

But what to talk about? Seeing as I enjoyed it so much, I thought I’d share with you a little about the Illustries process. Once we had decided to go for it and get our Illustry done we basically got to enjoy the whole thing. Both the hubby and I secretly loved the telephone interviews – we felt like stars – move over Jordan! Unashamedly talking about ourselves and our special day felt so indulgent. We were mildly aware of friends and family that were also contacted including the best man and our daughter Imogen. But the Illusties team just seemed to work out who were important to us and made sure they featured prominently.

When we got to see our draft before it went to print we were overwhelmed – so much stunning detail, both in the artwork and the words that just seemed to capture our day perfectly. Then, a few days later, the Illustry itself arrived…we were blown away. All those tiny details beautifully captured from the colours to the flowers, to cheeky comments and even the proposal

After all the love we put into the day, we kind of felt embarrassed to ram our photos down everyone’s throats, but our Illustry gives us the perfect excuse to say look what they’ve done with our day! Spookily – we’ve just celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. If I could have my wedding over again, would I do anything differently? Not a thing, but one thing I would do is get my Illustry much sooner!  

R is for Ring

We’ve done engagement (Emma is not reliving the curry story again), but the ring itself? Different story. First off, how many grooms actually have the sparkler when they drop to one knee (or clear away the takeaway containers if you’re Mr Illustries#1)? Most of our chaps had been carrying the ring nervously around for weeks before they popped the question. And ingeniously, they’d all played the ‘so-if-you-had-to-choose-a-ring-what-would-it-look-like-while-passing-jewellery-shops’ game: ladies, we can’t believe you were still surprised! In the first of two polls we’ve been running on the blog and on Twitter (follow us @Illustries!), we asked if the ring had indeed been pre-purchased, and the results surprisingly (but heart warmingly) went with the traditional! With 100% of your proposals being romantically delivered with the engagement ring in hand.

And the second burning question? Should he wear a wedding ring? Since the newly married Duke of Cambridge (we were so hoping the Queen would plump for Earl) elected to skip the ring, we wondered if that was a decision likely to affect the guy in the street: indeed, is it still the done thing for the guy to wear a ring? Well, we polled that one too, and it seems that the majority (80%) of you felt that of course the groom should don the customary wedding band. 20% of you though, said that it was the groom’s personal choice – you generous and fair lot!

So, to finish up on rings (we’ve come full circle! Groan…), we thought we’d share another of our favourite things when we meet newlyweds to talk about their wedding. When we get to the proposal and ask about the ring, they always do the ‘ring flash’ – hand pointed slightly away from body at 30-degree angle and tilted downwards. We do it too – it must be instinctive!

A chatty bridegroom - for once!

We had a lovely time interviewing our latest Avant Garde couple yesterday. We always enjoy hearing all about our couples' big days, and getting the first images through is just so inspiring. But normally, and we're prepared for this now, getting the groom talking is one of the most difficult bits of the Illustry-making process. Step up Mr Andrew Hewitson, and all change! For the first time ever, we chatted longer than we did with the beautiful bride, Natalie, and we just can't wait to write up all the gorgeous things he said about his bride. We won't spoil any surprises for Nat, but he did share one lovely thought. The couple really did make or customise every element of their boathouse blessing. Andrew says that as they finished decorating just hours before the ceremony, Natalie was so excited that everything was coming together that she just beamed. Andrew told us, "And that smile was the best wedding present I could ever have asked for..."

We'll be posting images soon!