One of my dearest friends from school is getting married in August :) She has an aversion to living in Britain and since leaving school (6 years ago) has lived in China, Germany and now lives with her fiance in Abu Dhabi. Sinc emoving there a year ago shes been to Kuala Lumpor (sp) and Nepal and is about to go to Oman and Thailand and is going for her honeymoon to the Seychelles.

(lest you need more reason to hate her shes also stunning, most unfair, but i love her really :))

so, i am trying to figure out the perfect gift for someone who loves to travel and can't really carry a traditional wedding gift on a plane home.

One of my friends at work said people bought her activities for her honeymoon and that sounded good but does anyone know of any for the seychelles? or even when shes back in Abu Dhabi? lol or anywhere really, i suppose if it bought her something to do in India or somewhere she'd be off like a shot!

or is it possible to buy Airmiles or something?

Hi Kim

I'd go for an activity or excursion gift whether on honeymoon or for later in the year nearer to their home base :) 

A bit of googling should provide some ex pat forums in various locations where you might gather good inside info re what's available and how enjoyable / worthwhile / value for money etc they were before forking out the cash through an agency :)

Had it been Dubai I could have probably got you some direct insider info - my niece lives there and coincidentally married and had her honeymoon in the Seychelles.  Amazing location - but I don't recall much mention of a lot going on by way of localish activities etc (could have been other reasons for that of course!)

HTH, Teri :)

If you know what hotel they are staying in you could buy them a joint spa treatment - maybe a massage or something similar.  Or if she's so into travel maybe a rough guide to the country they're going to.

> A bit of googling should provide some ex pat forums in various locations where you might gather good inside info re what's available and how enjoyable / worthwhile / value for money etc they were before forking out the cash through an agency :-)
>

thats an idea.

everything i've found for the seychelles so far is mainly looking at birds and shes terrified of birds so that doesn't work!

The sharks would be more scary TBH than anything with feathers - personally I think maybe something for after the honeymoon might be a better idea :)

lol can't see lesley being bothered by sharks, shes generally fearless (mad red head lol) except birds which petrify her for some reason!

i've tried googling both the seychelles and abu dhabi for activities and nothing obvious is coming up... can anyone suggest a web site or some such?

Tsk, Tsk, Kim

Seychelles ex-pat forum

Abu Dhabi ex-pat forum

I dunno, aren't you youngsters supposed to be red hot on IT :-D

Maybe a bit old-fashioned, but I'd rather go for a gift than an experience. Perhaps a digital photo frame, as I'm sure they must have some fabulous photos with all those travels?

M.

Hi M,

could I interest you in THIS THREAD at all coz as it happens I aint buying anything for this particular happy couple :-D

Gosh Teri, and it must have been so difficult to work out who I was responding to. Very tongue in cheek here, so please don't take offence ... but does it honestly matter? It is difficult to remember to respond specifically, now that we no longer have the layers on the forum. I'd switch your notifications off and chill if I were you. ;-)

M.

my concern with an actual solid gift is that lots of folk might buy them tangible things and they have to get it all back to Abu Dhabi. Also knowing my friend she'd get much more pleasure out of the experience. thanks for the suggestion though :)

lol it whizz i am not! thanks teri

> Gosh Teri, and it must have been so difficult to work out who I was responding to

Not in the least - it was certainly obvious to me you were mistaken

> Very tongue in cheek here, so please don't take offence ... but does it honestly matter?

went for the polite and TIC response myself - but nope, snap, right on the rump - what's a girl to do ....

> I'd switch your notifications off and chill if I were you

I'll certainly be switching something off :)

just to give you guys a follow up, genius bride that she is shes got a wedding list of holiday activities! they range from £10 to £200 and there is loads of choice so suits everyones pocket.

i'm thinking a catamaran cruise with champagne at sunset- thoughts?

> i'm thinking a catamaran cruise with champagne at sunset- thoughts?

truly romantic, great for a honeymoon :-)

Wonderful idea for a wedding present - and when they come back you will be able to see the pictures from the excursion you helped to pay for :-)

superb idea, is she using a website? we've just paid for some friends to have a couples massage when they arrive on their honeymoon as a surprise.

exactly the plan :)

> superb idea, is she using a website?

yeah, theres a great long list ranging from champers on the flight, ox cart taxi rides and drinks by the pool right up to helicopter trips.

i'll send you the link if you fancy for a look

I dont really feel comfortable with it.
I know if they already have what they need then why not.........just not for me :(

Karen

> i'll send you the link if you fancy for a look

yes please! :)

> I dont really feel comfortable with it.

What aren't you comfortable with? giving cash or experiences as wedding gifts?

Just doesn't sit comfortably with me.
An acquaintance remarried (3rd time) and they requested travel vouchers at a travel agency with whom they then made the honeymoon booking.
Now this girl hads affairs and is likely to ditch this husband in favour of a newer model later on again (just call me cynical!).
It just soured things for me.

Another girl was going to her friends wedding and upset me withy how mean she was about a gift.
Bearing in mind she is a professional who owns her own home has no kids, in fact a dual professional income.
She balked a t £20....So probably I am mixed up about it.

Karen

> Just doesn't sit comfortably with me.

I think the 2 incidents you mentioned are very unique & don't happen all that often, so probably a bit unfair to judge the whole thing on that.  Im a member of quite a few wedding forums (I'm not a bridezilla, honest!!) & have quite a few friends who are/have got married recently & all of them have been with the OH's quite a long time, bought & kitted out a house, so to avoid unwanted gifts they've chosen to set up a honeymoon fund.  Basically you book your honeymoon, pay for it yourself & then people can contribute as little or as much as they want towards it, 2 weeks before the wedding the account is closed & they credit you back what people have contributed.  I personally think it's a great idea as 1) it helps the couple out financially (getting wed can be very expensive), 2) is solves the whole problem of what to get you & 3) it's very very easy! & people can contribute as little (think it's a minimum of £10) or as much as they want & no-one other than the wedding couple will see what you've contributed.

I agree with what you are saying here, yes it has probaly clouded my judgement :(

We are going to a wedding next week, it is in the home of one of the couples family.
Both have been married before so are both a bit battered emotionally and they are just having a few friends and no gifts or huge ceremony.

Perhaps you may advise what would be a gift option here? They already have a home, and would be far too proud to allow any one to give them any kind of cash gift.........although they are not well off at all.
Karen

> Perhaps you may advise what would be a gift option here?

Difficult without knowing more about them, Yankee do a lovely Wedding Day candle that comes in various different sizes, maybe a nice photo album, vouchers for one of their favourite restaurants, theatre vouchers, bottle of champers...hope that helps!

> wedding forums

wow, do they exist?? Im off to have a look at one :-)

Nowadays many people live together and do have all the gadgets and neccesities in a home that once upon a time were given to couples who married and hadnt set up home before.
I wouldnt be happy giving cash but vouchers or excursions for honeymoon (or even after honeymoon) sounds a great idea.

What does irritate me is when people say "well i bought him/her a wedding present the first time they got married, im not spending money again". My partner has been married before but i better not hear people say things like that when we wed. Just because someones been through the experience once before doesnt make the next time any less special or give any reason for it to be treated as anything less than that couples perfect day

I would probably go for vouchers.  Shopping centres now usually do vouchers that can be spent at any shop in the centre.  If there's none near you or them how about vouchers for a department store?

If you don't want to give vouchers, how about an ornament (I'm presuming you know them well enough to know what they like) or a piece of luggage?  Debenhams usually have good offers on luggage and that sort of thing never goes wrong.  Most big stores now do gift receipts, so you could always put one in with the gift if you wanted.  Another nice idea is to go to a small, boutiquey shop (if there's one you can get to) that sells nice, unusual things.  Usually you can find something there that's unusual.  If you don't want to spend too much, how about a terramundi money pot?  If you search online you can get them done with the couple's names and date of the wedding.

Hope this helps and enjoy the day.  :)

Thanks for the help :)

Restaurant vouchers if all else fails.......sounds good.
A nce suitcase would please me too.
Terramundi has been something I've bought for people before so perhaps I could look at this as well.
I do dislike peolpe being mean and I do dislike it when people seem to be using it as an excuse to cash in...as said earlier I have 2 recent experiences of both :(

Karen :)

> wedding forums
> wow, do they exist?? Im off to have a look at one

Sure do, I'm hooked, you & your wedding is my fave!! after CD of course!!

BTW....do you have somehting to tell us? have you set a date?!

Yeah weddings!!! I love em.... :( Roll on Sept 25 next year!! I can't wait to be Mrs Kelly!!!

> BTW....do you have somehting to tell us? have you set a date?!

No :-) ......not yet. We have talked about it (lots!) and is something we will definately do, but for the time being we are very happy and not in any rush. Infact, my chap keeps bringin it up so much i've told him off, we are going to have a wedding organised before we've even got engaged otherwise,lol. But i  guess when you know someone is 'the one' you cant help but talk about the future and marriage and family are a big part of that.

> We have talked about it (lots!)

do it do it do it!! Kiger's gettin married in South Africa so I need a wedding CD buddy in the UK!!!!

> Just doesn't sit comfortably with me.
> An acquaintance remarried (3rd time) and they requested travel vouchers at a travel agency with whom they then made the honeymoon booking.
> Now this girl hads affairs and is likely to ditch this husband in favour of a newer model later on again (just call me cynical!).
> It just soured things for me.
>

lol well in my friends case they already have a home together overseas so lugging homewares would be impractical and useless. they are both mad on traveling and want the honeymoon of a lifetime- knowing my friend she'll enjoy meeting giant tortoises or going windsailing much more than a juicer :)

> I wouldnt be happy giving cash but vouchers or excursions for honeymoon (or even after honeymoon) sounds a great idea.
>

this is my feeling to. my team at work gave cash to one girl who was getting married but it was cash from 15 folk and converted to euros for the honeymoon so was a considerable sum. £20 in a card would seem funny though...

> do it do it do it!! Kiger's gettin married in South Africa so I need a wedding CD buddy in the UK!!!!

I will pass your feelings on and tell my BF to get a wriggle on!!!! lol :-)

I'm getting married in December - very local, in my village church.  I've just ordered my dress and nearly given my mum a heart attack in the process, as it's red!  I've just never been able to picture myself in a white dress.
This is it:
http://www.maggiesottero.com/dress.aspx?style=J1076  Won't be wearing the veil, though - think that looks a bit odd with that particular dress.
I agree that the wedding present thing is a dilemna.  We'll have lived together for 9 years so don't need anything, but I can't bring myself to ask for cash, even though that's probably what we'd find most useful (want to finally get round to decorating the house).
My cousin got married in South Africa (Cape Town) - sadly I wasn't able to go, but her photographs were absolutely stunning and it looked like an amazing place to get married.

That is one stunning dress & so suitable for a wedding in December.

> [url=http://www.maggiesottero.com/dress.aspx?style=J1076" rel=nofollow]http://www.maggiesottero.com/dress.aspx?style=J1076[/url]

WOW!! Your dress is gorgeous, I've seen a few I like in Berketex & on Alfred Angelo's site, haven't tried any of yet though!  Are you having a christmassey theme? You can have some gorgeous colours, plenty of red's & gold, plus I would imagine you can put together some great centre pieces with holly & candles. What else have you sorted out?

> but I can't bring myself to ask for cash, even though that's probably what we'd find most useful (want to finally get round to decorating the house).
>

What about asking for B&Q vouchers or something similar. You could write a poem to explain why you want it. My cousin did that recently.
The poem started: For a few years now we've lived in sin,
                          We've got a kettle a toaster and a stainless steel bin,
Cant remember the rest but you get the gist.

The dress is lovely, actually looks better and brings out the detail more in red as opposed to the traditional white also pictured :-)

I'm glad you ladies like the dress - I'm worrying about people's reactions to the red.  I even rang the vicar to see if he had any objections but, of course, he didn't at all!  I'm having a ivory faux fur shrug with it, and ivory satin Victorian-style boots.
We're having a bit of a Christmasy-theme, yes.  Having Christmas carols during the service rather than hymns. Our menu is wintery rather than Christmasy, although we're having roast goose as one of the choices, and mulled wine for the drinks reception. Centrepieces are hurricane lamps which I got really cheaply in Matalan, and will surround them with ivy, green berries and hellebore (Christmas roses).  Our cake is also quite Christmasy -  white, with cute snowmen around the perimeter of each tier and then a personalised cake topper of ourselves and the two dogs.  The dogs will be coming to the wedding and I want to get Barney a red bow tie and Molly a red flower to wear on her collar, so that they match my dress.
I've also bought all the stuff to make my own stationery (I saw your post the other day, by the way, and thought your save the date cards were gorgeous).  Just got to get round to doing it, now.  There's quite a bit of work involved in that, but the costs of buying bespoke stationery are so huge that it's a good way to save some money.

My mum is the same, she says red and white themed weddings are bad luck as they symbolise blood and bangages???!!!

B&Q vouchers are actually a really good idea. Will have to make sure I take charge of spending them, though, as if I give OH free rein he'll be like a kid in a candy shop spending them on unneeded power tools and the other gadgets he seems to spend all weekend eyeing up in the store.

> My mum is the same, she says red and white themed weddings are bad luck as they symbolise blood and bangages???!!!

I hadn't heard that before!!  My mum's reaction is more about me looking like a "scarlet woman"!  Well, I have lived in sin for nine years...  She calmed down once she came to the shop and saw the dress and realised that it can't be that inappropriate if they actually make wedding dresses in red.  Plus, once the vicar had no objection, she didn't really have a leg to stand on!

Wedding dress superstitions.

Apparently it's bad luck to make your own dress. Well, I made mine and, all being well(!), we celebrate our silver wedding anniversary later this year.

> There's quite a bit of work involved in that, but the costs of buying bespoke stationery are so huge that it's a good way to save some money.

I couldn't agree more, I'm doing it slowly & steadily so it doesn't become too stressful.  Where are you buying your stock from? What style invite are you having?  I'm thinking of pocketfold as there's quite a bit of info I want to include. 

> hurricane lamps

What are they?  I'm thinking of having goldfish bowls with a gerbera in the middle wrapped round a candle sat on a glass mirror with tea lights sat on it!

> dogs will be coming to the wedding

So jealous! Rich won't let me Molly come & I think she'd look great in a teal bow, HG keeps threatening to do a facebook petition!!

I've bought most of my card-making stuff from Handy Hippo and am adapting one of their project ideas for the invitation
http://www.handyhippo.co.uk/articles/16/brown-and-cream-wedding-invitation
but am having gold snowflakes instead of the gems.

Hurricane lamps look like this:  http://www.coventgardencandles.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_18.html
Though the ones in Matalan are just £3. I've seen photos of the goldfish bowls with candle / flower inside and they look lovely, particularly with gerberas, calla lillies or orchids. 

You'll have to convince your fiance to let Molly be your ring-bearer.  I'm sure she'll be on her best behaviour.  I just have to find some poor soul to be in charge of my two during the ceremony - Barney's breeder lives in our village, so I'm hoping she or her husband will come to the service and look after him, and Molly will be looked after by her favourite person, my OH's friend that she thinks always takes her on 20-mile hill walks (because she only sees him when they go on walking weekends or holidays).

> u should give them a fox that you have just smoked... a deep fried kitten... and a hot boxed fox !!!

??????

Love your wedding invite style, not used handy hippo before so will check them out.  Can I ask are you doing all your stationary e.g invites, place cards, menus, table plan, post box etc etc?  I'm planning on it but it's a huge job!!

What's with all the fox stuff? I'm confused!!

Check your PMs gembo.

Thanks JG, been a while since we've been infiltrated!

> Can I ask are you doing all your stationary e.g invites, place cards, menus, table plan, post box etc etc?

I'm doing the invites, menus and (the really big job) the orders of service.  Probably a table plan too, but I'm not bothering with place cards.  My cake maker is making cookie-type favours which will be iced with the guest's name, so they'll double up as place markers.  I hadn't thought about a post-box, but it sounds like a good idea to keep cards safe.  Another thing to add to my list!