Today

Confetti.co.uk wedding expert Aunt Betti offers some useful tips on how to create the perfect wedding gift list.

• If you are living together for the first time, then create a gift list with a wide variety of product for everyone to choose from. Everything from tea towels to televisions find their way on to gift lists these days!
• If you wish to collect for a particularly expensive range - china for example, is traditional, - and want to make sure that you receive enough to make up the set, then arrange your list with priority items clearly marked and ensure that you don't end up with cups and no saucers by grouping pieces together in small sets.
• It is quite acceptable these days to include your gift list with the invitation but also nice to include a note to explain that this is a guide only and that what you really want is for all your guests to be with you to enjoy your special day.
• If you have lived together before and already have everything you need, consider asking your guests to club together to provide for something large or unusual - a makeover for your garden for example. You can open a back account for this and create an on-line guest book where people can leave messages. It is always worth remembering that some guests will still wan to buy a personal gift and so it may be worth creating a small list for them - after all, a new kettle never went amiss!
• Consider having a gift list with more than one store - it may be an idea to have one with a large retail chain that everyone can visit, and a small personal one at a local individual retailer for variety.
• Shop around - visit a few stores and see which ones carry all the items you need and have them regularly in stock.
• Check with the stores when they will deliver and whether items may be gift wrapped.
• Does the store have a website so that people with little time to shop can order easily?
• Look at ranges which will last and that suit your personality and style.
• Never forget to write thank you cards for all your gifts!