Finding the right wedding favours for guests during my own wedding caused me so much anxiety that I eventually started designing the gift myself.

If you’ve ever planned a wedding , as a bride, a sibling, or even a planner , you know the weight of it. You know how stressful weddings can be, the decisions. The expectations. The opinions. The never-ending options.

Now imagine being a designer in the middle of that.

As someone who gets overwhelmed by too many choices but still wants everything to be perfect, wedding gifting felt like a personal test. I wanted something different, personalised wedding favours that are meaningful. functional. memorable. 

Simple, right?

Not quite.

The three criteria for wedding favour that made it impossible

I had three non-negotiables:

1.  It had to carry meaning.

2.  It had to feel like me , contemporary and minimal.

3.  It had to be functional , something that wouldn’t end up in storage or quietly re-gifted.

There are so many incredible hamper designers who curate stunning wedding gifts. I must have explored more than 30 options. They were beautiful , thoughtfully put together, aesthetically pleasing, and well packaged.

But none of them ticked all three boxes.

And that’s when I made a slightly irrational decision.I decided to design it myself

People questioned my sanity. “Why would you add more work when you’re already stressed?”

Fair. But designing has always been my calm in chaos. Creating brings clarity. So instead of feeling burdened, I felt focused.

Before thinking about the form, I asked myself a bigger question:

What story do I want this wedding favour to tell?

Marrying my partner of six years was exciting in many ways.

But what I was most looking forward to wasn’t the ceremony or the celebration , it was building a home together with him.

We were going to move in together. Build our own space. Become a family in the truest sense

That was it.

The gift needed to symbolise us building a home together.

Translating Emotion Into Form

The explorations began.

I didn’t want anything too literal. No obvious house motifs. No clichés. It had to feel abstract yet intentional.

After sketching and experimenting with multiple forms, I landed on an idea that felt right: arches.

One large arch represents the home we were building.
Two smaller arches representing Risabh and me, nestled inside the larger one.

It was minimal. Contemporary. Symbolic. And deeply personal.

For the first time in months, I felt certain.

Making wedding gift idea functional

Now came the practical part.

I was clear about one thing , I did not want to compromise the form. I didn’t want to distort the idea just to make it “usable.”

So I kept it simple.

I transformed the arches into a serving tray By slightly elevating the edges, the form gained subtle walls , and unexpectedly, it began to resemble a doorway.

That detail felt poetic. A doorway into a new home. A new chapter.

It came together beautifully.

The Material Was Never a Question

When it came to material, there was no debate.

Marble.

I’ve grown up around marble. It feels familiar, grounding, timeless. No other material would have made sense.

A marble tray feels substantial. Premium. Permanent. I called it the Palais Platter

And paired with a handwritten note , something deeply personal , it felt complete.

(Handwritten notes with gifts are always a win.)

From Paper to Production

Designing something and producing it are two very different journeys.

If you’ve ever worked in a product-based business, you know the gap between a sketch and a finished piece. There were multiple iterations. Sampling challenges. Production adjustments. And since it was marble, logistics came with their own complexities.

Marble is heavy. Fragile. Unforgiving.

But fortunately, I run a design studio. My team handled the technicalities while I held onto the vision.

And when I finally saw it come together , exactly as I had imagined , I felt something I can’t fully describe.

Relief. Pride. Joy.

I may have cried.

The Final Touch: Gift Packaging

The gift was ready, but packaging is its own design challenge , protection, presentation, proportion. (That story deserves its own post.)

And then came the most important part: the handwritten note.

Because no matter how beautiful a gift is, it’s the words that make it stay.

When everything came together, it felt deeply aligned. Not just as a wedding favour , but as a piece of us.

Gifting with Ware: Five year later

Looking back at that experience now, I realise something important.

What felt like wedding anxiety was actually clarity in disguise.

"I had discovered something powerful.

I could design meaningful wedding gifts for couples who didn’t want to gift something just because it was customary , but something that would be remembered.

Something that told a story. Something that stayed.

I had the ideas.
I had the resources.
I had the team to bridge imagination and execution"

I could turn traditions into funtional gifts 

And that’s when Ware began creating wedding gifts.

It’s been five years now. Five years of understanding families. Interpreting emotions. Navigating production realities. Pushing creative boundaries. Learning through triumphs and failures.

And this year will be our biggest risk and our biggest test, yet.

But if there’s one thing that wedding taught me, it’s this:

Sometimes anxiety is just a sign that you care deeply about what you’re creating.

And sometimes, the best gifts are the ones you design from that place.

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