As the spring wedding season approaches, you may have the challenge of choosing a gift to present to the lucky bride and groom in your life. Faced with rising costs in planning a wedding, many couples are opting for more practical wedding gifts, including cash and increasingly popular gift cards. Wedding registries range anywhere from Tiffany’s to Target, with Target and other median retailers perhaps considered the more functional options. Good grief—my nephew and his new wife were actually registered at REI, an outdoor sporting goods store! The couple’s most coveted gift? A North Face VE 25 Tent,  “engineered to withstand the extreme conditions of high-altitude alpine environments.” How times have changed…sigh.

Back in the day, newlyweds began their married life based on traditions handed down through generations. A bridal registry typically included the couple’s sterling silver flatware, “good” china and crystal patterns, as well as their “everyday” versions. Fine linens were monogrammed and serving pieces carefully chosen to complete the bride’s table setting when she hosted her first formal dinner party. Although the modern bride may find this protocol somewhat extravagant and impractical, there’s something to be said for gift-giving, as well as entertaining, the old-fashioned way.

There’s certainly a place in this world for convenience and practicality; is there also a way to blend functionality and elegance? Yes—the answer is pewter! Polished pewter looks remarkably like sterling silver but since it is non-tarnishing, needs only occasional care with a gentle polish (we recommend Mish’s Pewter Polish). Pewter is lead-free, food-safe and will not rust or corrode. Handled properly, pewter will last for generations. It offers the best of both worlds, style and good taste with ease of care.

Rekindle the tradition of classic sophistication. Consider presenting custom engraved pewter and sterling gifts to the bride and groom or to the couple celebrating a memorable anniversary. Silver and Pewter Gifts offers a wonderful collection of trays, bowls, candlesticks, coffee and tea sets, pitchers, barware, or one of our newest pieces, a lovely set of Water Goblets, perfect for toasting the joy of the occasion and sure to become family heirlooms and remembrances of a lifetime.

P.S.—Instead the North Face VE 25 Tent, I gave my nephew and his bride a beautiful 8” Pewter Images Tray, custom engraved with the couple’s own wedding invitation. They later confided that it was the most personal, and without a doubt the most special, wedding gift ever!

Wedding Invitation Tray

Here is a spectacular wedding gift idea for the bride and groom;  a gift no one else will think of and one that will amaze the bridal couple!   With a copy of the wedding invitation, we can duplicate the layout on this finely made Chippendale Tray.  This tray is available in either sterling silver or polished pewter (which looks very much like silver, but does not tarnish).  Whether you opt for the silver tray or the polished pewter one, the effect and appreciation for this beautiful gift will be felt for decades. This Wedding Invitation Tray creates a perpetual memento of one of the happiest days in the life of the married couple.

Many couples, who are planning their wedding,  have a personal motif or unique design that is used as a theme throughout the wedding:  on the Save-the-Date, the wedding invitation, the programs and the place settings.  We can take these designs (emailed to us as a high resolution image) and engrave them on this tray,  on their wedding cups,  or any number of our beautiful trays, bowls, or goblets.  It’s the perfect way to create  a one-of-a-kind keepsake to be treasured always.

But, it does not have to be just a wedding present.  Presenting this engraved Invitation Tray in silver as a 25th anniversary gift is a truly lovely way of commemorating this milestone event. Tradition calls for tin as the 10th anniversary gift, and as pewter is 93% tin,  what would be better than duplicating the couples invitation on this stunning pewter Chippendale Tray.

This particular tray is very versatile when it comes to weddings and anniversaries.  It is also a popular gift for bridesmaids when engraved with their monogram in a flowing feminine font.  Imagine their delight when your closest friends open this personal and everlasting gift that will always remind them of that great day when their best friend got married.

A Classic Chippendale Tray

If you have just received a wedding invitation in the mail, one of your first thoughts (besides what to wear) will be how to find an appropriate and appreciated wedding gift for the new bride and groom.  I know that everyone wants to give a wedding gift that will remain with the newlywed couple throughout all their married lives.  It should be something that is meaningful, beautiful and practical.  We also want to give something that will always remind the bride and groom that it was you that gave them this special gift.  I have gifts from my wedding that I treasure, not only because they are lovely things for my home, but also because I am always reminded of the person who gave them to me.

Traditional gifts, are by far, the best wedding gifts!  There is a reason why some designs stay constant and are continually incorporated into many different decorating styles.  A design that stands the test of time and can fit within a classic or contemporary home will always be proudly displayed, used and passed down to the next generation.  For example,when I got married,  my aunt gave me a beautiful engraved silver tray. A simple and elegant bridal monogram was used on the tray. Over the years I have used this tray for serving and, instead of storing it away between uses, I leave it on display in my dining room.  When my youngest daughter got married (her tastes run to the very contemporary) she was given the exact same tray by the same aunt.  Of course, she recognized it from my tray and knew that she had just received a very special and everlasting present.  Two years later, her tray, with her bridal monogram is beautifully displayed on her mid-century retro styled sideboard.

You will put a lot of effort into making sure that you are giving a gift that will be appreciated for a lifetime.  Keeping it simple, traditional, and beautiful will make your wedding gift unforgettable!

A Great Gift for Your Groomsmen

It seems that it is so easy to get gifts for girls and women.   Whenever I’m asked what I want for my birthday or Christmas, my standard answwer is “Something Pretty!”.  Whether it be  jewelry, clothes or something else for my wardrobe,  or a nice decorative piece for my house,  I think there is a wealth of choices for women.

With men, the situation is different.  It is not always easy to present a gift to your groomsmen  and have something that they all will appreciate.  We do a lot of engraved gifts for wedding parties, both the bridesmaids and the grooms, and find that the gifts for the groomsmen almost always involve something for their bar!  We have engraved jiggers, julep cups, flasks, and goblets.  The most popular of those being the flask and julep cups.

This brings me to a new product we have just started to offer, a Hob Nob Flask and Beaker Set, from Reed & Barton’s Colonial Williamsburg collection.   So far this set has been a big hit!  I think mostly because it is a gift that, when used, is not just for one person.  The term “hob nob”, first used in the 18th century, means to drink socially with a friend, or to toast one another over a bit of spirits.  The “toast for two” Hob Nob Set does exactly this.    It includes a stainless steel flask and two beakers, or cups,  in a really nice carrying case making it a convenient choice for taking along to a game, on the boat or even a backyard party.

If you are looking for something out of the ordinary, but still within range of the most popular of groomsmens gifts, the Hob Nob Set is perfect.  Your groomsment will be receiving a much appreciated gift that they will use again and again.  And sometime in the future, you will be able to Hob Nob with your groomsman.

An order recently came in for a really thoughtful way to honor all of the men involved in a particular wedding.  There were 20 of them in all!  Needless to say, the gifts could not be terribly expensive, but at the same time, the groom wanted them to be of high quality and something that these gentlemen would be able to use and value forever.

The couple choose our pewter Coin Jigger, which is an attractive accessory for any bar, however the groom intended for it to be used as a shot glass.  The Jigger is made of polished pewter and has a Kennedy fifty cent piece embedded in the bottom, which can be seen from both inside or outside the cup.

The custom part of this order included a special engraving chosen by the client.  On one side of the jigger was the wedding date.  On the opposite side, they provided us with a drawing done by the bride saved in a digital format (jpg).  This drawing was their wedding motif and had been used on the Save-the-Date notices, the wedding invitations, and the wedding programs. It was a beautiful image of a blooming laurel branch joining with a cotton plant, meaningful flora to both the bride and groom.

After we did a bit of clean-up on the image, it was engraved on all 20 jiggers.  The custom engraved motif worked beautifully on this piece,  giving it a a jewel-like heirloom quality look. Everyone who came into our engraving workroom was ohing and ahing over the results.  And after our initial set up fee for the motif, the cost of this great groomsmen gift was very reasonable.

The wedding season, usually the spring and fall, brings us lots of engraving jobs for the bride, groom, and all members of the wedding party.  We do pewter bracelets and jewel boxes for the bridesmaids, jiggers and beer steins for the groomsmen and many wedding cups for the bride and groom.

The use of a wedding cup in marriage ceremonies is an ancient tradition with roots going back to Jewish, German and Celtic cultures.  With strong symbolic meanings, a shared toast and drink of wine between the newlyweds is becoming an ever more popular and fun part of the wedding ceremony.   The wine, with its sweet taste and bitter edge, stands for the moments in life where the couple will experience their ups and downs.  The cup symbolizes the pledge of life long togetherness.  And the drink from the cup, with the shared wine represents a shared life.

Lately, as this is the wedding season, we have been engraving pewter goblets, Loving Cups, wine cups and trays to use in the wedding ceremony.  Typically, the tray will have the name of the bride and groom with the date of the wedding and is used to carry the goblets or cups.  Our orders on the cups vary since there is no rule as to how the cups should be engraved.  Some will have the name of both the bride and groom, some will have the wedding date and others will leave it off.  There are wedding goblets that have the bride’s name on one cup and the groom’s on the other, again with or without the date.