John Lewis Wedding Service

John Lewis Wedding List

I got married last year and probably one of the most exciting parts (ok marrying the love of my life was pretty exciting too but…..) was the gift list!!

We didn't have to think for very long about where we wanted to go. We had considered Debenhams but they didn't have enough of a range to pick from and we wanted something a bit more upmarket shall we say! So, we decided upon John Lewis as they just have some lovely things in there.

We got married in October so we went into the store in Milton Keynes in about August to set up the list. The list only goes live (this is when people can access it and actually buy you presents) a couple of months before the wedding so there is no point in doing it early. Also, as we were helpfully told, if you pick something very early to put on your list, chances are that season might be over and the item will be discontinued and so you will not be able to get it anyway.

We went to the customer service floor where they enter a few details about us, name, address, e-mail etc. Then we are given a scanner. Oh my gosh, this was totally the fun part. Basically you take the scanner and walk around the store. When you find something that takes your fancy you simply zap it and then it is logged into your account. Once we had finished scanning (it actually took quite a few hours, I think the hubbie was completely done with shopping by that point!) we took it back to customer service where they provided us with a print out of all the items to make sure everything had been logged. They also gave us a stack of little John Lewis cards which were for us to write the gift list number on and hand out to our friends and family. We put them in the invitations and I think it was a really nice touch, rather than having to tell everyone personally where we were registered.

The nice thing was, if we had forgotten anything we could always go back to the store and use the scanner again and add to the list. I think we did this as there are loads of things we thought of after we got home. You could also go onto the website and add things from there too if you found something when you were browsing.

For guests this service makes it really easy for them to buy gifts. There are two ways you can do it. You can go into the store and they have certain machine points where you can go and type in the gift list number, get a print out of our list and then go and find it in the store. There are always people around to help you too if you can't find the certain product. Then you have the option of taking the gift home with you so you can wrap it and give it to the couple on the day.

Most of our friends and family bought the items on the internet though. It's just the same as internet shopping. You go to the John Lewis website where there is a button at the bottom of the home page entitled Wedding and Gift list. Click on this, add the gift list number and then you can see everything the bride and groom have ordered with price, number of items they want etc. You click on what you want to buy and then add your credit card details and it is done. It also allows you to leave a personal message which is nice, like congratulations etc. If for any reason you do not have the gift list number you can also search using the bride and groom's names and the date of the wedding so it makes it very easy to find.

Once the list is up and running and people start buying you gifts the fun part for me was logging on and seeing what gifts had been bought and who had bought them. I think I got a little obsessed as I logged on every day to have a look but it was fun. I know some people decide not to look so when the gifts finally do arrive you are surprised with what you have. I do have to say, when our gifts did arrive, even though it was great that we got a lot of gifts it was a bit of a let down as I knew exactly what each of them was going to be, oh well.

When you initially sign up with John Lewis they ask you to pick a day when you want your gifts delivered. This was such a nice aspect of the service, you did not have to go and pick them up, they delivered the gifts to you. Basically they keep everything that has been bought and then after the wedding deliver it to your house. I think you can ask for items to be delivered when they have been bought, even if that is before the wedding. For example I know people who have asked for suitcases and need them for their honeymoon so they often get those gifts delivered before. We decided to get our gifts delivered after the wedding as they could all be done in one lump then. The gifts are packed in bubble wrap and then come in cardboard boxes. John Lewis do not gift wrap with fancy wedding paper of anything but that really didn't make a difference to us. I think on the day of delivery we had a few items that were out of stock and those were delivered a few days/weeks after when they came in at our convenience. We had a couple of items that people bought too that were discontinued so the money they spent got converted to gift vouchers. This was quite nice too as at the end we had quite a bit of money in gift vouchers and spend it on a barbeque later that year. You can decide to add gift vouchers to your wedding list too and if people cannot decide what to buy you then can just add a monetary amount to your account.

I was very impressed with the gift list service at John Lewis. They often called just to make sure things were going ok and to give us updates if something was discontinued. They were also great with the delivery items after the fact and kept in touch well with that too , arranging new delivery times etc.

Now, I don't ever plan to get married again but if I did I know I would use John Lewis again!