Wedding anniversary celebrations, disclosed to the world on
Facebook, have always annoyed me slightly. Given so many of my friends are
single or divorced, having other smug married friends rub it into their faces with outpourings of emotion over their soulmates is a little mawkish, in my view.
That said, Mr Mermaid and I do love to celebrate our wedding
anniversary (and keep it on the down-low). True, we have been married just three
years but it is fun to mark the anniversary of the day we both became
tax-incentivised adults with the full legal and financial – I mean, the day we
celebrated our love publicly in the honourable institution of marriage. Ahem.
Apart from the smug satisfaction of having outlasted the
Kardashians in their various marital endeavours, it is good to be able to use
the nearest weekend as an excuse to get away from everything and everyone else
and focus on our gratitude to God and each other.
That said, finding appropriate gifts can sometimes be
problematic. If one follows the traditional rules around giving - paper,
cotton, leather, etc, then getting something good for a reasonable price is not
easy. Correction: it is easier for men to buy for women than the other way
around.
For our first year, paper, I wanted to get Mr Mermaid some
bespoke, quality stationery. I explored some of the high-end options from boutiques
he appreciates, such as Smythson, Aspinall and Liberty.
But the price tags for what I wanted were phenomenal. No
discounts - and a starting price of at least £100. By the time all the
bespokery (is there such a word? There is now) would have been completed, I
would be looking at a bill of nearly £300.
Now I love my husband greatly but there is no way I would
spend £300 on paper. The very idea was ridiculous. Notwithstanding the fact we had
just got married and were, therefore, broke, I have always laboured under the
principle that if you can feasibly make something yourself, then do not pay for
it. I am a card crafter. I am artistic. Therefore branching out into stationery
did not seem too high a leap for me.
Cue Amazon. I had seen in various high-end stores boxes of
luxury cards from a certain company, retailing for about £40 for blank notelet
cards (not folded). I figured I could get the same blank cards for less on
Amazon. I did. 50 cream Crown Mill luxury cards with matching lined envelopes, for £26.99 plus
P&P.
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| Crown Mill laid paper in Cream |
I also bought one tiny wooden-handled rubber stamper of a star, and a
square inkpad in military green. On a different site I paid just under £5 for a personalised
black-ink stamp with my husband’s details on it. A few day later, all my
materials had arrived - for less than £50.
It took a few practice runs on scrap
paper to get the right pressure and, having carefully marked in faint pencil
straight lines on each card front, created a bespoke set of stationery that
looked professional, felt professional and cost barely anything. I have had to remove our address from the below, of course.. so you can only get a rough idea of how nice this looked.
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| What's inside the box? Personalised Stationery, of course! |
As I had some money left over from my original budget of £70 for gifts for George, I meandered to my local picture
framing store, which has won many awards for its creative framing. I spent £24 getting
five hearts cut out of the stiff card by their laser cutter (I got to keep the
bits of heart-shaped card), and printed out in colour five Google maps: where
we both grew up, where we met, where we married, where we live (this bit was
free).
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| Wedding Anniversary gift idea: personalised maps |
This now adorns my husband's study wall, and he loved his
stationery. And all for a bargain, whereas if I had
opted for ordering all these things from another artisan, I could have spent between
300-400 smackers.
So I am now in the business of making bespoke stationery, as
well as cards and jewellery! Oh and with those cut-out hearts, I made several
Valentine's Day cards in various styles, which I sold for approximately £2
each.
