Happy weekend lovely ones, what an absolutely divine Autumn morning it was when I woke earlier too!
Misty views across the valley, a rare lie in way bast the usual alarm time, and now the smell of coffee brewing from the kitchen. I absolutely adore Autumn and that sense of slow cosiness it ushers into our lives ahead of winter.
Today I want to talk a little about the brilliant business we work with that is Prezola.
If you’re unfamiliar with this name, allow me provide the lowdown briefly; Prezola was founded back in 2010 by real life couple Dom and Ali Beaven. Over the past 9 years, the company has grown from one of those genius entrepreneurial ideas into the UK’s favourite wedding gift list (I have evidence of how well appreciated it is at the end of this article).
Image by heart full of tea
Discover more like the above here
How Does Prezola Work?
What I love most about this service, being a busy, working parent myself with little spare time for admin and all that extra layer life-faffery, is the way the company have worked so hard to make the creation of a wedding gift list, and indeed the matter of purchasing a gift from a list, both super easy and convenient online experiences. The brilliant little educational video illustrates the process beautifully;
1. Register
You create an account online in 4 simple steps and start building your wedding gift list.
2. Create the actual list
You get to choose from 50,000 gifts and combine with honeymoon funds, weekend breaks, experiences, social gifting and more.
3. Confirm
Changed your mind about a gift? Swap it for something else or Prezola credit to spend later.
4. Deliver
After you’ve confirmed your list, the Prezola team will get your gifts ready and send them with free standard delivery, using ethical and fully recyclable packaging.
Some Ideas + Suggestions for Creating Your Gift List
With over 50,000 products on the books covering everything from the kitchen, dining, bedroom, bathroom, home, outdoors, lifestyle, honeymoon, charity and social gifting, there is literally a multitude of choices. But I do understand that to the newly fledged engaged bride to be that this could possibly feel somewhat overwhelming, which is why I’ve written this article for you today.
Our gift list was organised by Prezola and the flexibility of being able to add our own ‘experiences’ that people could purchase, such as a Tree Top Dinner during our honeymoon in Sri Lanka, or Spa Treatments, was wonderful, and much appreciated when the honeymoon came around. When our physical gifts were delivered, they were also beautifully wrapped and made for such an exciting day. Melissa & Rob
Read on to find out easy it is to create a wedding gift list with Prezola and how these lists have been created to make it a joy to shop from for your wedding guests.
If you’re concerned about the environmental impact of creating a wedding gift list
We believe passionately that all purchasing and consumer decisions should be made whilst considering their impact on the environment. Fear not though friends, we’ve covered this important matter in this article.
Prezola are in fact one of the most environmentally responsible companies we’ve ever worked with. They’d moved over to recyclable packaging long before it become a very urgent need for all businesses to do so. They take great care planning logistically so to keep the number of deliveries required to a bare minimum and they take extra care to seek out and work with other companies making big strides in being more ethically and sustainably responsible.
See what 10 eco-friendly wedding gifts we recommend you consider.
Use your gift list as an opportunity to commit to a more ethical way of life in your own home.
If you’ve lived together for a while and feel you have most things you need for the home
What about considering your guests contribute to your honeymoon or minimoon fund?
Escapism is a word that’s come to mean a great deal in my life. I adore where I live and miss my home when I’m on my work travels, but I also hugely value the chance to escape, travel, explore, take some downtime or get adventurous and explore. Whatever escapism means to you you, Prezola have a brilliant solution that your guests can contribute towards the cost of.
Simply head on over to this page and click the ‘Honeymoon’ tab. These honeymoon articles are also super useful and insightful (read what other real couples did).
Social Gifting
A supremely excellent and completely original idea from the Prezola team! Add fun and giggles to your guest’s experience of choosing a wedding gift by including social experiences on your list.
When you create your gift list it’s important to offer guests lots of options, they will all have very different budgets so it’s a good idea to provide a real variety. Social Gifts cost guests nothing but their time and creating bespoke promises means you can build the ultimate gift list that truly reflects your personality. Prezola
A social gift is all about helping your guests make promises and commitments to do good and be helpful to others (sometimes to you!). These promises might include things like washing your car, or pet-sitting whilst you’re on your honeymoon, helping you move house, donating to a charity, helping an elderly neighbour, donating blood, participating in a beach sweep, mowing your lawn, arranging a charity bake sale. Find out more here.
Kitchen the heart of your home? Love cooking or curious about exploring your culinary skills?
If this sounds like you, then the Prezola website is a heavenly space to lose yourself in on a cosy Autumn weekend. Head to this page and select the Kitchen or Dining tab – everything has been organised into useful categories to help you quickly find the kind of product you’re looking for.
Which reminds me, we really need to invest in a new set of plans. Le Creuset, here we come.
Fancy updating that overused dinner set, or treating yourself to a beautiful cakestand for those weekend baking sessions. What about investing in some stylish serving platters for when your friends are round or a beautiful bar trolley to house all your tipples on?
There’s lots of choice in the dining section – I was in fact delayed in writing this very article because I got so distracted in this section!
Outdoor designs that are practice and fun for the teeniest tiniest yard space to the largest lawns.
If your have an outdoor space, no matter the size, the Prezola team have curated a superb list of gifts that can help you to create a really fun, stylish and experiential area. From lighting to outdoor games, pots and planters, fire pits and chimneas. From BBQs to tablewear, picnic hampers, garden tools and storage, deckchairs, hammocks and parasols and lots more – everything you might ever need is here. Enjoy browsing.
Take a look through some of our personal suggestions for outdoor gifts here.
All About The Brands?
No problem – Prezola have listed every brand they work with on this page.
Some of my own favourite brands include Soho Home, Wild & Wolf, Ali&Co, Bang & Olufsen, (for the record, I don’t own a single thing by them, but one can dream!) and Bluebellgray (I actually do have a houseful of cushions by them).
Consider what kind of brands and style vibes you’re drawn to and enjoy exploring the brands list.
Looking to add little touches to enhance your lifestyle?
Beautiful coffee table books? A cool annual magazine subscriptions? A day out or meal out? A seasonal hamper? All those other luxurious little treats can be found in the Lifestyle section – just click on the lifestyle tab on this page.
Real Bride Feedback
I popped into our closed group for brides this week and asked the question, ‘what gift list provider are you using and why?’. Unsurprisingly, Prezola came out top, and below is some of the anonymised feedback we received;
We have used Prezola for honeymoon wedding fund. Really easy to set up. You can a ‘registry’ on prezola as well. They have a huge range of gifts, just like you were at John Lewis picking items. The website is easy to use and we linked it to our ‘gettingmarried’ website as well. Would recommend.
We used Prezola because they stocked Habitat items (which we love) We did a honeymoon fund alongside registering items. It was very easy! When the items arrived all the packaging / boxes were easy to recycle. I would absolutely recommend them.
We are using it [Prezola] for our wedding next year (mainly) due to the flexibility of cash gifts – we really want to encourage people to contribute to our honeymoon in South Africa in 2021!
We also used Prezola – they always have an ‘upgrade’ offer to get the cash fund account and free £50 credit on somewhere. We used our free credit to upgrade a Dyson we got (a new version came out after we did the list) and cashed in the ‘honeymoon fund’ shortly after the wedding, which was great and came through quickly. The rest of our gifts will be delivered next week I think! Exciting times.
Our friends used Prezola and loved it so we are too. Easy and great for having a honeymoon fund.
We are using Prezola and so far so good, was super easy to set up. We’ve gone for a mix of cash contributions to our honeymoon, mini moon, or upkeep of our rescue dog, plus a couple of charities for people to donate to for causes close to our heart.
We are using Prezola. Part honeymoon donations and part physical gifts because we know some people really really want to give an item rather than contributions. Working very well so far.
We used Prezola for a mixture of honeymoon and physical gifts! The honeymoon experiences we created were really popular and ‘sold out’ quite quickly so we had to add some more – I asked friend and family afterwards and they said they liked being able to give something they felt was specific (like sumo tickets in Japan!) rather than just generic cash in an envelope. I would definitely recommend to other couples to put a bit of time into thinking of some fun experiences to add to your list as guests really appreciate it!
So there you have it lovelies. As always, full disclosure is always; Prezola are a client of ours and we are paid to promote them to our bridal community, but we only partner with a select number of clients with whom we have developed very strong relationships with – we feel like we’re a part of the Prezola family now, having supported them over the past few years. We’ve spent time with them, got to know them, attended super cool experiential events hosted by them and we genuinely love their thoughtful, considered and creative approach to assisting couples planning a wedding.
If you have any questions at all or there is anything we can help with on your behalf by passing a query on to the Prezola team, please don’t hesitate to get in touch; hello@lovemydress.net.
Enjoy your weekend,
Annabel x
Annabel
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Annabel is the founder of Love My Dress. She lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, two daughters Eska and Leanora and three dogs. She is passionate about photography, supporting women in business and in life, and is in her element being surrounded by nature and the countryside.