China sets and gift lists

Earlier today, the lovely Rachel Southwood, Editorial Director of Wedding Ideas magazine, appeared on the Vanessa Feltz radio show here in London, to join a discussion on the value, longevity and usefulness of “best china” sets.

Do people still want a full formal dinner service as part of their wedding gift list? Do people who get them use them, or store them away for fear of breaking them?

We were enormously thrilled when Rachel very kindly mentioned our service specifically as an alternative to the traditional wedding gift list:

People don’t end up with gifts they don’t want any more … some people have set up home already together now when they get married, so they haven’t the need for all the traditional things that you needed to do to set up home …

— Rachel Southwood

We’ve often said that we don’t really consider the traditional department store gift list to be our competition in the marketplace.  If you and your partner do need things to create a home together, or if gifts of a fine china tea set and formal silverware are something you’d appreciate and enjoy, that’s fabulous!

We’re here for people who are actively looking for an alternative. Perhaps there’s room in your life for vintage cups, but you’d rather they came from an antique shop instead of a department store. Or perhaps there simply isn’t room in your house, full stop.

Perhaps the best gifts you can imagine are the memories with which you’ll begin your married life together.

But you can’t serve soup out of a scuba diving holiday, can you?!

—Vanessa Feltz

No, but we think the attempt would probably go viral on YouTube!

If you’re in the UK, you can listen to the full show any time during the next week.  The segment as a whole begins at 2:31, and the discussion with Rachel starts at 2:42.