Milly1

 

For about three years in a row, my summers were consumed with attending weddings. My boss at the time even started calling me Katherine after Katherine Heigl in the movie '27 Dresses', as nearly every weekend I would be off to yet another wedding...which yes, you guessed it, required yet another dress! I was also a bridesmaid four times in those years, so by default I felt like I had become a quasi-wedding expert. Which is when it dawned on me that while most aspects of planning a wedding seemed to be well-covered, there weren't many gift registry options locally. Hardly any weddings I attended had gift registries and thus I spent hours trawling the shops on foot, debating what to buy the happy couples. I'd go into panic mode , worried that they may not like the gift or it may not be to their taste, or perhaps they already had one? And how much to spend was always a quandary. Especially bearing in mind that these days most couples live together before getting hitched, so their home is already pretty well equipped.

And then we have logistics. a. it's a wedding in a remote destination, b. the gift is fragile, c. the destination requires a flight and/or a bus ride or d. the gift is too large to carry. And what are the poor bride and groom to do with all those gifts that have piled up at their wedding reception? Someone obviously has to cart them away to where they will eventually be opened. And what if the cards fall off the presents and then you don't know who they are from? What if you get 10 vases, 15 platters and 14 picture frames? What if you get gifts that while thoughtful, will be relegated to the cupboard for the remainder of your marriage, only to be pulled out when Aunty Mary comes to visit?!

It certainly got me thinking. What if, there was a one-stop-shop wedding gift registry that sold EVERYTHING you could ever imagine for the home and beyond, BUT one that was also lovingly curated and done tastefully. One that sold all your usual traditional gifts like kitchenware, bedding and glassware but one which also sold more unusual and unique gifts like furniture, artwork, decorative pieces and even vouchers for experiences. What if there was a gift registry that placed a huge emphasis on beautiful, design-led items but one that also kept in mind everyone's budget?

And so, with a giant leap of bravery (or some would say madness), I left my wonderfully rewarding job as a beauty editor on MiNDFOOD magazine and putting my journalism career of eight years behind me, I launched Mildred&Co in September 2012 – New Zealand’s first dedicated online wedding gift registry. It was both exciting and scary and to be honest, neither of those two emotions have ever left since, but I will never look back.

Since launching online we have grown our product base to offer over 3000 gifts and this is growing daily as we source new products from both New Zealand and overseas. We also offer a bespoke service - if we don't have it, we will source it for you. We also have a showroom in central Auckland which has a wide selection of our most popular items on display so that the bride and groom can peruse the range while sipping on bubbles! This option is great if you are the type that need to touch and feel things before deciding on whether you like them or alternatively you can create your entire gift-registry online from the comfort of your home, from anywhere in the world.

Once the couple have created their dream gift-list, their guests are alerted of this on the wedding invitations (we also provide free wedding invite inserts) and then all they need to do is go online to Mildred&Co, search for the couple's wedding and then buy the gift they would like to give according to taste and budget. The gifts are then wrapped and tagged beautifully, bundled together and sent to the couple at a time that suits them best. It really is that easy.

Getting married is a special occasion and hopefully is something you do only once, so our philosophy is why not choose gifts that you will cherish forever and always remember who gifted them. It's pretty special, if in 20 odd years, you and your wife/husband are still looking at the piece of art your best friends bought you or you are still cooking in the Le Creuset casserole dish that was given by your family. Our motto - make it count and make it last.

Image credit and outfit courtesy of Moochi.