[Lifestyle] The best wedding gifts in the UK: 13 ideas that couples will actually want

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We asked newlyweds, long-married couples, and the odd divorcee about the wedding gifts they truly cherished. Their answers? A lot more interesting than a toaster.

“If you don’t say what you want, your parents’ friends will buy you things like papier-mache crisp bowls,” warned my friend – and celebrant – when my partner and I got engaged.

We’re getting married in October. We’re not actually doing presents – we’re having a destination wedding and I need some way of assuaging that guilt – but she made a good point. What do you buy if there isn’t a list, and you don’t know the person very well, or if there is a list, but the only thing left is a bin?

Cash feels crass – “donations to the honeymoon” is a euphemism for cash – and homemade is hard to pull off unless you’re particularly skilled. Yet there are ways to find the right present for the right couple, at the right price.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of ideas from experts – newlyweds; divorcees who know over which wedding gifts they fought; and long-married couples – about what they cherish most, years on.

Nothing is more subjective than what people choose to display in their homes. But if you’re an artist yourself or have the money to commission something, a piece of art can make a wonderful gift. You could commission an illustrator to draw the place where the couple first met or got married, or perhaps frame a poem that’s meaningful to them.

One friend received a Sophia Langmead artwork of the punchline of an in-joke, which he describes as “ridiculous, completely personal and absolutely precious”. Keep it relatively small-scale – a large, loud piece of art is somewhat presumptuous.

Try a painting of a beloved walk or destination by Rose Owen; a personalised insult from Mr Bingo; an illustration of a favourite restaurant by Phoebe Rutherford or a pub by Matthew JK Grogan. Or visit They Made This, which showcases a good – and mostly affordable – range of artists and illustrators.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/thefilter/2025/jul/17/best-wedding-gift-ideas-couples-uk