Gift List

    First off, Mark and I would like to make it clear that we absolutely do not expect presents from anyone.  It's obviously not why we're getting married - if it was, we probably would have done this years ago...!  :-D

    However, several lovely and generous people have enquired about a gift list, so we've tried to set something up here.  We decided we don't want to go down the established route (what a surprise, eh?) of selecting specific items all from one place, which seemed quite limiting and probably overpriced!  We would rather just give you an idea of the sorts of things we might need or want for our new home together, but let you shop around and hopefully add something of yourselves to the gift.  Not literally - that would be icky...

    In case you don't know, Mark and I bought our own place a couple of months ago.  We're effectively combining two separate households, so unsurprisingly we have plenty of "stuff" for the house (including many duplicates!), but we've managed to think of a few things that we are missing/got broken/we never knew we needed before. Having a few things that actually match would be lovely too!

    Since this isn't an automated list, we're going to have to do it manually!

    If there's an item you would like to provide, or you would like to contribute to part of a set, then please write us a comment at the bottom of the page and we'll try and edit/update the list as quickly as we can...  Hopefully, that way everyone will be able to see what's been claimed and what's still available.

    Many thanks again to anyone who is happy to help us out in this way - we're very grateful to have you be a part of our celebration, and look forward to seeing you all soon.

1. A garden watering can.
2. A set (i.e 3 or 4 different sizes) of bottle brushes.
3. A set of saucepans and a frying pan.
4. A set of crockery - preferably fairly simple and white, so we can easily add to it if we want. We don't need any cups or mugs though!
5. Cutlery - preferably 8 settings worth, to see us through family get-togethers and the like.
6. A cheese board (so we don't have to use manky old chopping boards if we have guests).
7. Actually, a decent chopping board would be lovely too! One that won't get stained and warped like all our current ones...
8. A rectangular tablecloth (rough minimum of 185x120cm up to about 220x140cm) - preferably white or cream.
9. Some good quality pillows (ours are all flat as pancakes, now!).
10. Matching towels (just one set, or as many as you like!) - preferably a bath towel, a regular towel, a hand towel and 1 or 2 flannels. Pretty much any colour except brown would be great (just to have them the same, and without holes or bare patches will be bliss!) though if you want to try and match in with our bathroom it's black, white and silver. Our other accessories are red or purple.
11. A set of bathroom mats - preferably a pedestal mat and two middle-of-the-room mats (don't mind if they're rectangular, round, oval etc.). Colours as above; black, white, silver, red or purple.
12. Anything purple. (I'm only slightly joking...!)
13. A fruit tree or shrub would be nice, now that we have our own garden. Maybe some packets of seeds too. We've not had chance to do much with the garden yet (except mow the lawn - special thanks to John & Joyce!) but we intend to get on with it once the wedding is out of the way. Growing some fruit and veg would be awesome. If you know much about this, we'd love to hear any advice you can think of!
14. A trouser press.
15. An ironing board that has a flat board - by which I mean solid sheet metal with holes/vents cut out of it, rather than the ones that are metal that's been cut and then stretched into a diamond-shaped mesh (which we have, and it leaves a horrible, shiny pattern on thinner fabrics which never seems to go away and it drives me bonkers!).  I assume a properly flat one is going to be more expensive (and rarer!) since the cheaper ones you see in supermarkets are invariably the mesh kind... 
16. A frying pan cover/splatter guard.
17. Some corn-on-the-cob forks/holders.
18. A small, refillable bottle/can/pourer for cooking oil. 

    Of course I know there are plenty of imaginative and creative types amongst you, so if you'd rather find/do/create something completely different and personal, that would be fantastic too!  It's always great to get something personal.

    If you would like to donate something to us financially, we would love to put it towards a honeymoon. We can't get away until September or October and we're not sure yet what we'll be able to afford, but we will definitely let you know what we do.

   

    We would also be extremely grateful for anyone who wanted to eschew a gift in favour of a charity donation, to consider giving to one (or more!) of our preferred charities:

• Help For Heroes - Marianne's late brother John was very involved with them in their earliest days, particularly focusing on trying to set up a house near Headley Court (the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre near Epsom in Surrey) where the families of patients could stay when they were visiting their loved ones.
• Alzheimer's Society - 
• Down's Syndrome Association -