Rewinding 16 years...our favourite wedding gift

Given that we’re celebrating 16 years of marriage today, we’ve been thinking a lot about wedding gifts.  We didn’t ask for anything, we encouraged our small guest list that only their ‘presence’ was required rather than their presents. We had been together for 7 years already by this point and didn’t believe a smash and grab on the John Lewis wedding gift list was needed (or, frankly, is this our ‘cup of tea’).  But, of course, we were given gifts. Many we still have – but the best, hands down, was a bread knife. A genius idea as it was given to us by family friends who are bakers – the famous and brilliant Baines Bakery in Uppingham which has been passed down five consecutive generations of the family. As well as being thoughtful (who wouldn’t want to get a bread knife from a family of bakers) it’s an amazingly high-quality knife. We don’t ever anticipate needing to buy another one.  Now that’s a cracking wedding gift. Something with meaning and longevity. Being honest, a bread knife would never have been on our wedding list (if we’d written one) – but surely that’s the point of a gift sometimes – that it reflects the giver, as well as the recipient. It makes them, in a tiny way, a part of their household and their marriage.

The wedding gifts we’d give would reflect us as much as it would the bride and groom. Anything from Sneeboer for the garden (because of their lifetime guarantee), a Trusco toolbox that’ll also last a lifetime and will take all the dings and dents along the way, or a Frank tool roll filled with the highest quality spanners that would not only give a lifetime of tinkering, but could be passed down to their children.  Check out our gift selections if you are looking for inspiration...