Chop Chop - A Beautiful Engagement Gift

Chop chop, a beautiful gift engagement gift in less than 7 days

Hearing that your daughter has got engaged is perhaps one of the most spine tingling moments of your life! I can only imagine it to be a funny mixture of awe that your baby is so grown up and excitement for a whole new future ahead. Perhaps a bit of pride too: someone else in the world is as totally and utterly in love with your daughter as you are.

The challenge of finding an engagement gift with a twist.

Of course, you want to buy them an engagement present. Something a little different, something that shows you are thinking of them and something that isn’t just a boring traditional engagement gift. But where do you start? The High Street stores have plenty to offer, but they all feel a ‘bit off the shelf’. You could perhaps find a local crafter to create something totally unique, but that can take time and can often be very costly.

A personalised engagement gift in less than 7 days.

This is pretty much the situation one of my customers recently found herself in.

Her daughter was visiting from America for just one week and my customer wanted to send her home with a gift to commemorate her recent engagement that was both beautiful and functional. She’d seen some of my work already, but wasn’t sure if we had enough time to create something for them that was truly individual. Thankfully all of my customers can request to fast-track their product so I knew I’d be able to help and create something in less than a week.

Designing the engagement gift

Like most of my customers, this lady had seen an image online of something that she liked the look of, but wanted to make it much more inline with something that the engagement couple would like. They are a young, contemporary couple and the styling of the gift needed to reflect that.

We considered an engraved photo frame for their engagement present, but actually felt that the engraved oak chopping boards were much more suitable. Her daughter is a whizz in the kitchen and has a shared love of gourmet food with her fiancée. They’re often to be found pottering around food markets buying unusual cheeses or artisan bread.

With a product decided on, the next step was to think about what to carve into the wood and how we could personalize it to match their style.

This is one of my favourite parts of the process!

I researched a multitude of different typefaces to find the perfect combination. The fonts had to be different but still be complementary to one another.

Finally I was satisfied with my choices.

I presented the customer with 4 previews.

The first 2 were the different fonts, one big, one small. The second 2 featured the same design but both using the same single font. Again, one big and one small.

I always like to give my customers a few options. Sometimes I have a favourite route and if that’s the case I’ll tell them.

We both agreed that the larger engraving using the two different fonts worked best.

Let the carving commence

Just as an artist would put pen to paper once the idea was agreed, I have to put ??!! to the wood. It always feels a little magical watching the letters emerge from the wood. I find solid oak such a lovely material to work with.

After the carving I hand finished it by carefully sanding and applying 2 coats of food grade mineral oil. This protects the chopping board, but also gives it a lovely depth of colour and sheen so that the smooth texture of the wood stands out.

Here’s the finished result:

I must admit, I’m a little proud that something that was made in the UK and carved by me is now sitting on the other side of the Atlantic in their kitchen!

Find out more

If you’ve been inspired by this idea then you can see other ideas for engraved chopping boards here on my site, or you might want to check out my wedding and engagement gifts for couples too. My personalised oak photo frames, chopping boards and pin boards make lovely, unusual engagement and wedding gifts and you’ll always have that satisfaction that no-one else will be giving a gift quite like this. 

I’m always happy to chat through any ideas, even if you have something in mind that I don’t currently do, just drop me an email.