This is a guest post written by Mark Perkins, Event Manager at Demijohn.
“Being married myself for 18 months (and not regretting it yet!), suddenly I find myself doing wedding shows across the
UK. Not from a panicked ‘It’s happening in a month and we have no dress, no rings, no vicar… NO VENUE!’ way; I am selling our beautiful favours to couples and families who want something a little different for their wedding party.
I therefore thought I would sit back, a sizeable amount of Bramble Scotch Whisky in hand (to stop the shaking from post traumatic stress you understand!), and actually assess this ‘Wedding favour’ market I suddenly find myself in!
I mean, on what is meant to be ‘your day’, why are you buying presents for Great Uncle Phineus and Aunty Derry (or as she is know amongst family - ‘One Sherry Derry’!). Well, as my Father said… ‘The wedding is for everyone else to feel involved in a huge change of your life, the Honeymoon and the Marriage after is for you’. Closely followed by ‘Come to think of it, it’s very special, you have everyone you love in one room! That will only ever happen twice, your wedding and your …’!
One of the main things that became apparent with both planning my wedding and seeing my friends’ get married, was that to make a wedding successful, you actually need very little. In my opinion, as long as you have everyone there who means something to you, the number one thing for a wedding to be successful is just to ensure comfort of all of the guests. This was the main reason for not being allowed my pixie themed wedding on the top of the black mountains in Tipi’s, with the main budget going on Fire jugglers and acrobats… apparently ‘Grandma and grandad would not be able to get up the hill, pee in the bush or enjoy the ceremony sitting on their backsides, on rock, in the rain’… Even my reasoning - that everyone would have a skin-full of Ginger Wine for both energy to get up the mountain and warmth to brace them from the wind - was not successful.
So once we had decided to go for a venue (with a toilet) and figured how to get all the old ‘uns from the church to the meal… the stress levels went down. We had people every weekend asking if they could help. Once we had invited everyone, we had wedding presents coming in, friends cleaning the church, groomsmen organising the flowers, school pals buying the rings, uni mates pooling vehicles for a one day taxi service to and from the station, family sorting the suits…
So I kind of agree with my Dad - A wedding day is for everyone else - but the magical thing is everyone else is there for you. They are friends and family for life, but that day they are your Best Man, the proud Mother-in-law, Fun Groomsmen, Beautiful Bridesmaids and guests (Who am I kidding - who would have got Great Uncle Phineus Dancing if Derry had not downed the wine at dinner!).
That is why I bought favours, a token to try and express a fraction of the thanks you feel for actually making that day as special as a… Clynelish Single Cask Single Malt Whisky (Well, I had to get a product in somewhere on this blog!)”
For more information visit www.demijohn.co.uk or call 0845 604 8350
