When it comes to wedding gift lists, put simply, you have two options – to manage your own, or to let a company do it on your behalf. This article takes a closer look at professionally managed wedding gift lists to help you to determine whether they are right for you.
Wedding Gift Lists
The popularity of formally managed wedding gift lists has soared in recent years and now numerous well established high-street chains and independent outlets are offering them to couples across the UK. In short, formally managed wedding gift lists are a superbly convenient way of managing the whole gift process ensuring you get just what you want for the least amount of hassle.
Conversely, self-managed wedding gift lists have fallen in popularity in recent years as more couples stride to ease the burden of the whole wedding process. That said, DIY wedding gift lists do have a number of advantages over their professional counterparts so it is not necessarily just a matter of immediately plumping for a company to manage the whole of your wedding gift process.
To help you to decide between the two, let's take a closer look at the pro's and con's of professionally managed wedding gift lists.
Advantages of Wedding Gift Lists
Over 60% of UK couples now choose to have professionally managed wedding gift lists and this figure is set to rise even higher over the coming years. The following points should help to explain why they are all the rage:
Convenience: There’s no getting away from it, you have a lot to organise for your big day. Professionally managed wedding gift lists can help alleviate some of the burden by taking pretty much all of the management of the gift process away from you.
Expertise: This is probably the first time you will have managed a gift list – the experts do it day in and day out, so why not leave it to the pro’s?
Delivery: Many wedding gift lists ran by major high street outlets allow gifts to be bought by guests then collected from the local branch at a time convenient to the Bride and Groom (normally on return from honeymoon). Some wedding gift lists will also offer a free bulk delivery service to a pre-agreed location, usually the Bride and Groom’s house (the guests are normally asked to pay a small delivery surcharge when they buy a gift to cover this cost).
Wrapping: Some wedding gift lists will take the hassle out of dressing the items by offering a gift wrapping service for a small premium (applied to the guests). If you’re after a return to your childhood when there was never a better feeling than ripping paper off presents, then this could be right up your street.
Simplicity: Wedding gift lists are not only simple to set up, but also quite fun! A half day spent choosing the various elements of your gift list will be all you need – it’s the ultimate shopping trip with the added advantage that you need not spend a penny.
Selection: The vast majority of gift list providers will offer huge choice with virtually everything you want under one roof so no going from shop to shop to collate things you're after.
Deals & Discounts: Not offered everywhere so it's worth shopping around, but many outlets will offer gift vouchers or percentage discounts on un-purchased items from their gift list.
Versatility: Wedding gift lists make full use of modern technology whilst at the same time not excluding those from an older generation. Depending upon who you have chosen to manage the gift list, purchases can usually be made in-store, by phone or even online – the same goes for when you want to check up on how things are going.
Website Integration: For those couples who have decided to have a wedding website constructed, wedding gift lists can be linked to your website allowing guests to make purchases at the same time as checking what the vegetarian option is!
Disadvantages of Wedding Gift Lists
Regardless of all the advantages of professionally managed wedding gift lists, many couples still choose to manage their gift list in-house and outlined below are the main reasons why they choose to do so:
Stealing Thunder: Whilst managing wedding gift lists adds to your list of chores, it is traditionally one chore that is carried out by a member of the wedding party – normally one, or both, of the mother’s. To rope in a professional could ‘steal their thunder’ somewhat, so you may wish to suss this out before making a final decision.
Choice: We mentioned that suppliers will offer virtually everything you could ever want, but the key words here are ‘virtually everything’ – you may need to opt for more than one gift list to get exactly what you want.
Delivery: Whilst some operators of wedding gift lists offer convenient options for bulk collection and delivery of the gifts, others don't and will only send out gifts to the person making the order, assuming they are in stock! Bearing in mind that guests often leave purchases till the last minute, so if you've signed up to a gift list which goes down this route then you could end up with a lot of things you didn’t really want. Guests who have made an incorrect assumption and not left enough time to receive the delivery, will often scramble for a last-minute alternative instead.
Small Items: Wedding gift lists are normally crammed full of smaller price items. This ensures that there's something that every guest can afford, but can often lead to couples adding things for the sake of it. These days, with many couples having lived together for some time before tying the knot, the chance of them needing a brand new dinner service is slim, but such items are still the mainstay of gift lists. If there's only one thing you really want, a flatscreen TV for example, then a gift list may not be for you.
Whilst there certainly isn't a right or wrong answer when it comes to wedding gift lists, the case for utilising one is certainly strong. With this in mind, unless you have good reasons for not employing their services then you may be wise to shop around and sign up to the most appropriate. Alternatively there's nothing to stop you opting for both a professionally managed list alongside a smaller list managed by yourselves or a member of the wedding party.
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Related: There are hundreds of wedding articles on the site, each filled with superb ideas, advice and inspiration. Check out the links in the left hand column to read more. Alternatively, to search for a local wedding venue, product or service provider, try our Wedding Directory. With over 13,000 companies already listed, you're sure to find what you're looking for.
