Today, I went to John Lewis with my fiance to view one of the wedding lists of a friend of his who is getting married in July. I panicked when I realised that I left her wedding invitation back at home but he reassured me that we could just type the bride’s last name. Unfortunately, our friend’s list is only accessible in a couple months time. 

Wedding lists got me thinking about my own wedding list. I know it sounds rather rude but I would prefer if everyone gave us money because it would be more useful and freely tradeable for other items we would want to buy. I once went to a wedding in India where the bride received 8 clocks! 

Chinese weddings have a tradition of ‘red packet’ whereby you put your money in for the couple. We attended a wedding in Hong Kong last November where we had to put in $1000 (HK dollars) which roughly exchanges into 60 pounds. In addition, we bought lots of presents from Habitat as this was a good friend of my fiance. My fiance went to a wedding two years ago with the bride whose wedding lists we were inquiring about. Firstly, she wrote a cheque and inserted it into the the Chinese red packet. Then she insisted that her boyfriend should not pay as she alleges he does not understand Chinese culture. 

Sometimes I wish my fiance and I moved into a new house right before the wedding and then we could put loads of things into our wedding list. Traditionally, in India, women bring lots of new household items with them to their husband’s new home. I guess this would be the equivalent of a wedding list in western culture.

We’ve decided that if we want anything in the next year, we will put it on our Wedding lists. I’ve made a little list in my pink book to keep track. So far, these are the items we’ve put on our list: 

Microwave

Philips Alarm Clock with photoframe AJ100

B & W Zeppelin iPod Speakers

Andrew Martin Grand Hotel Jumbo Plates

I wish facebook had an application whereby you could put up the items you wish you had and then friends could just buy them for you instead of trying to guess. But i guess you could just solve the problem by asking directly.