Consuming Interest
Something for the Bride
By LESLIE ADRIAN This is a system which is widely practised in the United States, but not so generally known in this country. It is operated by stores which sell all or most of the things that are given as wedding presents, and the list is made up of gifts sug- gested either by the bride or the store or both. When wedding guests ask the bride what she would like as a present she simply tells them that there is a list at Harrods or Peter Jones or whatever store she has chosen. The guest chooses a gift from the list and the store delivers it to the bride's home.
The advantages of the system are obvious and it is not as mercenary as you might think. After all, everybody is happy with the result : the bride and bridegroom get what they want; the guests know that they have, given gifts which were chosen by the bride rather than gifts which they hoped she would like; and the store has per- formed a useful service, done business with some old and some new customers and advertised in- directly both itself and its bride's list.
The success of the system depends, of course, on the store crossing gifts off the list' as guests choose and buy them; and on the bride letting the store know what gifts have been received from sources other than the store itself. If this is done, no one need ever again end up with seven sets of fish knives, six of which have to be passed on as wedding presents to others with appropriate pangs of conscience. The system, with variations, is operated in London by a number of stores, among them Harrods, the General Trading Company, Fortnum and Mason, Peter Jones and Liberty's.
Harrods has a full-time staff in its wedding gift bureau on the fourth floor, and it claims to give the best service and the widest range. The bride can be accompanied round the store and given advice when making up her list. It will be suggested that she should specify her choice of colour, design and so on in things that need to match, e.g. china, glass, blankets, sheeti and luggage. Other gifts should be left for the guests to choose.
One of the advantages of a bride's list any- where is that she may ask for useful, practical gifts like sweeping brushes, mixing bowls, drying- up cloths and washing-up equipment which friends might not otherwise feel to be worthy of the name of wedding presents, but which she knows very well she is going to need and would be delighted to have. Harrods have coped with a bride who asked that her list should include a live alligator. She was told that it was doubtful whether they had one in stock, but they would certainly order one for her. She pointed out that they were to be had—in the pet shop at £7 10s. each—and her suggestion went on her list. None of the guests felt moved to accept her suggestion, but the bridegroom eventually did. They now have two and a baby (alligator).
The General Trading Company (1-5 Grantham Place, Park Lane, W1) is not a department store, but specialises in wedding presents and has kept a bride's book since 1934. It describes itself as London's most fascinating shop, and its gift department is certainly a joy. It takes a good deal of care to choose contemporary designs (by, for example, Fornasetti of Milan) which will blend with old houses, and has fine collections of glass, china and antiques.
Peter Jones was one of the first stores to intro- duce brides' lists in London. A nicety of its ser- vice is that, if you should be so unfortunate as to have to cancel your wedding, it will collect, all the presents it has sent you and refund the guests who bought them.
A suggestion I would like to make from my own experience to all stores that operate this system is that they should keep an eye on their packing departments. The bride must know who sent her which presents so that she can acknow- ledge them. Assistants do ask people buying presents to make out a greetings card, and this is sent down with the gift to the packing de- partment. Occasionally, however, the packers forget to enclose the card or they carelessly drop it somewhere in the straw surrounding the gift, making it unnecessarily difficult to find.
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If you are looking for furniture—for a wedding present or for any other purpose—let me recom- mend that you spend an hour looking round the showrooms of R. and E. Simmonds at 231 Euston Road and 159 Gower Street, both near Euston Square Station, NWT. Simmonds have never ad- vertised and they are not interested in contem- porary furniture. They buy the contents of whole houses and deal only in the second-hand. Much of what you buy will need re-covering or re- upholstering or, possibly, both; but often the quality of the basic materials is such that this will be well worth doing.
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