Wedding gifts have evolved beyond all recognition. Only 10 years ago, it was not only acceptable but expected to buy a fish slice from the department store-generated gift list and hope no-one else had somehow managed to tick the same box. These days, wedding gifts are a little more meaningful a change due in large part to the 21st century recognition that modern relationships arent in need of a new home.
Consider, for a moment, the 21st century couple. With almost no exceptions, theyve been living together for years. They may even have children already. Theyre as financially stable as its possible to be in the aftermath of a train-wrecked economy, they have all the furniture and cooking stuff theyll ever need and theyre getting married to celebrate the stability of their life together. Wedding gifts for that little lot are perforce wildly different to the fish slices of old: a couple who have made a home dont need stuff whose primary purpose is home making.
Modern wedding gifts, then, can afford to be imaginative. And in the wake of that train-wrecked economy we were just talking about, they often cant afford to be expensive. This is where the digital age finally pays off in a meaningful way.
Previously just about instantaneousness and replaceable imagery, the digital age is making unexpected waves in the world of wedding gifts. Think about the word imaginative for a second. It connotes pictures. The deeply human urge to memorialise our world through images in a creative way. And thats what modern wedding gifts are doing taking the idea of the 21st century wedding as a memorialisation of an already fully-functioning relationship, and using it to create wedding gifts that memorialise the day.
Because modern weddings are more about making official something that has been functioning for years, modern wedding gifts can be more of a collective enterprise where groups of friends of bride and groom club together to make something that really captures the spirit of their union. Digital photography has developed into a uniquely democratic art form, in which practitioners are also participants, creating instant records of thoughts and emotions and sharing them with privileged groups, audiences of friends who know the artist and so are guaranteed a special reaction to the art. Modern wedding gifts where digital photography takes centre stage are taking this process a step further. A kind of artists co-operative of friends is formed spontaneously as a result of being at the wedding, with cameras those cameras are used to take photos that are then collected in online albums as unique and beautifully personal wedding gifts. What better way to memorialise a union of dear friends than to create wedding gifts that form a living conversation about such a special day?