Advice and ideas to help you with your wedding gift list

We are encouraged more and more to be eco friendly and to take care of our environment, whether it is paying to off set our carbon emissions or the question of the necessity to print emails.  When planning a wedding, being eco friendly not only considers the environment but could help you save money too.

Making use of technology is invaluable when planning your wedding, whether creating an on line guest list, so you can keep track of invitation acceptances, or making use of an online wedding gift list.  Online listing allows access worldwide, giving rise to the paperless environment we are encouraged to adopt more and more.

E-weddinglist.co.uk, is a flexible wedding gift list.  It is not linked to a specific store, giving your guests the flexibility to shop around for the best deal.  Guests simply mark the gift online ‘promising’ to buy it, they purchase it from wherever they choose.    This gives the security that the only people that you are relying on are your guests to carry out their ‘promise’, rather than be reliant on companies who ‘do the shopping for you’.

Using an Online wedding gift list is invaluable when planning a wedding whether it is at home or abroad.  Many couples have extended families and friends that can stretch all over the world, a nightmare pre internet, with communicating wedding plans, gift lists and invitations.  Online gift lists can be accessed by your Aunty in America and well as your best friend in the next village.  No duplicate gifts, difficult to spend vouchers and an independant wedding gift listing service means that you are free to list anything you choose (as long as it isnt unlawful!!).  From an eco friendly angle, its paperless as no one has to print out the list and if you are a clever internet shopper, it could be delivered to your home, free of charge by courier - so only one van zipping round.
If you are really concerned about the environment, this could be taken a step further, by emailing your invitations, giving a link to the website for the wedding venue and your wedding gift list - of course!  Again the gift list could also include eco friendly gifts or a link from your gift list to your favourite eco store.

E-weddinglist.co.uk is flexible for you to have a traditional list of your wedding gift wishes and/or link to a store gift list if you want to take advantage of any special promotions they may be offering.  Should you decide to have donations made to your favourite charity, as part of your wedding list, you could provide a link to their website, so your guests can mark it as promised to buy, then link through and make their donation.
Using online tools also means that at such a busy time pre wedding, you can access your wedding list anywhere and at anytime of the day.  Making the preparations easier for the happiest day of your life can only be a good thing.

Libby

At e-weddinglist we are always looking for new ideas for your wedding gift, and how you can make the most out of the flexibility that the e-weddinglist offers. This week, we have been thinking about how you could write an eco-friendly gift list online, using our website!  This can cover a huge range of wedding gift ideas, whether you choose to donate to a particular charity that you are passionate about, a particular store or range of products.

Eco friendly gifts do not have to be hand calved figures or furniture from obscure parts of the world.  The umbrella extends far beyond that now…

Wedding gifts that use an alternative energy source
We are all being encouraged to save energy and  reduce our carbon footprint.  A consideration would be to include on your wedding gift list solar powered,  wind up or wedding gift designed to minimise environmental impact.  www.ethicalsuperstore.com shows some good products and is one example of the many online stores that you could list products from.  There are a wide range of solar powered products, as well as low energy products, specifically designed with low standby power consumption.  Not only does this reduce your carbon footprint, it would also help reduce your household energy bills.  

Wedding gifts to help reducing household costs
With a new household and a wedding to pay for, (let alone the honeymoon!), green thinking in your new home, could make life easier and cheaper!  You could suggest simple items such as tumble dryer balls – these are reported to reduce the energy usage by up to 20%.   There are many energy saving small items on the market, how about asking for ‘an energy saving package’ on your wedding gift list – low energy light bulbs, dryer balls, etc., your guests could use their imagination when putting a purpose made package for you!

Charity donations on your wedding gift list
Whether you want to help promote garden waste recycling, or encourage and help educate in growing  ‘organic’ vegetables,  or to help ensure that vital plant seeds are protected from extinction, www.gardenorganic.org.uk  is a eco-friendly charity you could request donations to as part of your wedding gift list.    Alternatively, there are eco sites that protect various wildlife or natural resources,  www.mcsuk.org  or www.savetherhino.org  are two further examples of charities you could request donations to on your wedding gift list. 

Start 2009 with ‘green tinted spectacles’ and take advantage of the flexibility the e-weddinglist provides by listing environmentally friendly items on your wedding gift list. 

Don’t forget, the e-weddinglist is completlly independent of all of the stores listed in this email today, they are just ideas to help you compile your list. We provide the means to compile your wedding list, you write it and your guests do their own shopping.

Libby

Have you and your partner (h2b or w2b) lived together for a number of years?  Have you furnished your house with lovely items that you don’t want to or need to replace?  Are you getting lots of requests for gift ideas from your guests?  Have a look out of the window…..

Is your garden a haven that you escape to at any given opportunity or is it a place that makes your heart sink every time you look out of the window? 

I used to look out of the bedroom window at my neighbours gardens, beautifully kept,  a pleasure to just sit and look at, then I would look at ours, willing the snow to come to make our garden the same as everyone else’s.  It was then that we decided that a little time, effort and cash would stop me staring into other people’s property, as no matter how hard I wished, we would not get snow in July.

Why not have garden items on your wedding gift list!  There are so many different ideas that guests can contribute towards or buy for you and what a wonderful way to remember your wedding day and your guests!

Firstly, it would be helpful to give your guests an idea of what you have in mind with the garden on your wedding gift list.  Perhaps you want a patio area.  Consider which areas of your garden are shaded and where the morning sun/afternoon sun catches.  This is useful for guests when they are choosing plants and where to place them in the garden.

Landscaping – if you are not hands on or simply do not have the time, there are many garden landscaping companies around.  Your garden wedding gift list could feature your plan or intention and guests could donate towards the cost.  To be safe, you would probably be best asking for cash donations on your wedding gift list for you to use once you have appointed a landscaper.

Trees and plants – your wedding gift list could be a vague or defined as you wish – is there a particular plant or tree that you like, or let your guests choose.  It is a lovely way to remember each guest, when each year the plant flowers again.

Garden Ornaments/furniture – once your garden is complete you will want  to sit and enjoy it, guests could contribute to  a patio table and chairs for al fresco dining or how about a statue or a water feature, or an outdoor heater so you can still enjoy the garden  on cooler evenings.

Garden gift vouchers are an excellent flexible wedding gift list solution for couples who have already furnished their homes.  Most garden centres offer national garden vouchers as well as their own, so you are not tied to a particular store. Click on the link to find out more. http://www.thevouchergarden.co.uk. 

What’s more using e-wedding you can combine gardening gifts with traditional gift ideas, getting the best of both worlds.

Libby x