It was our 11-year wedding anniversary the weekend before last. We both forgot on the day, naturally, and then drank Crémant the day after with family to celebrate instead - a coincidental nod to the first night of our honeymoon all those years ago when we drove to Normandy and drank Crémant with our lovely Parisian host and her dog Gary in the prettiest little fairytale holiday rental ever (see below!). Little did we know that just two years later we would be living in the middle of nowhere in Devon and starting Feldspar together...
It inspired me to think more about actually marking anniversaries and the customers we've had over the years who have gifted our wares for specific ones - a Salt Pig for Salt (8 years), some Espresso Mugs and Saucers for China (20 years!), Vases for Flowers (4 years). So below I've rounded up some ideas for those very special moments - gifts that are lovingly handmade, for the love of your life - each beautifully boxed to make the gift giving that much easier. So hopefully you won't forget, like we did. I’ve popped it all in a newsletter, but below are some ideas:
4 YEARS: FLOWERS
Flowers are a wonderful gift for any celebration, but flowers in a vase are the icing on the cake. Our handled vase comes either with hand-painted handles or long undulating Cobalt stripes, designed to mimic the grooves in our wares, like contours on a map.
5 YEARS: WOOD
Five years is a real achievement, perhaps especially if a child (or two?!) have joined the fray by this point. Five years is 'Wood', so what better gift than our handmade Walnut Nutcracker. It's a beautifully smooth walnut bowl with a perfectly weighted hammer and brass details, designed to delicately crack the nut rather than bash to smithereens. A wonderful heirloom, made to last a lifetime and also *excellent* for mild stress relief.
8 YEARS: SALT
At eight years in you're really in the thick of it. Salt may not be the most inspiring gift - prized highly in times gone by (the 'sal' of salary comes from the latin for salt) - it's now a staple of our diets. But a salt pig to look after your salt - keep it safe and dust free - gives a playful nod to the anniversary. To be filled with your favoured salt and placed beside the hob.
20 YEARS: CHINA
Twenty years married is a remarkable achievement - and celebrated officially with the giving of china! Take your pick from the whole collection - some friends who recently celebrated this anniversary were gifted a pair of our lidded espresso mugs - something fun but functional. Much how a happy marriage should be!
50 YEARS: GOLD
I remember my Grandparent's Golden wedding anniversary in 1995 - they had a huge party to celebrate, with golden balloons everywhere. They had a well loved camper van called Arthur and the cake was an actual model of it - alongside another cake model of the AA's book of walks that they had completed. Yes, every single walk in the UK from that enormous book. It was fantastic - I've attached a picture! But if short of a cake shaped like a camper, a little something gold that is also useful would be an ideal gift - a cafetière perhaps, made to fit two cups exactly, with hand-painted 24ct gold detailing.
