The best newlywed Christmas gift ornaments for 2022

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Why first Christmas ornaments are special gifts for newlyweds

You can rest assured that a beautiful and festively-themed crystal ornament will make a fantastically unique gift for a newly-married couple enjoying their first Christmas together. 

• It captures the year: There are few things more special than celebrating your wedding. Buying them an ornament to mark their first year together will not only capture the date’s significance, but ensure your gift will always occupy a special place in their memories. 
• They can build a collection: Waterford has a number of different series of Christmas ornaments, with new designs released every year. These can be collected as treasured milestones symbolising a couple’s lifelong marriage journey.

Everyone’s eyes light up: Whichever of the Waterford crystal ornaments you ultimately choose, the happy couple are sure to be united in their gratitude for a beautiful, thoughtful gift designed to occupy pride of place in their home.

Unique Christmas ornaments for newly married couples

To help you celebrate their first Christmas married, gifts from our crystal ornaments range have been carefully curated below.

Snowstar ornament 2022

Released annually as part of an ongoing collectible series, the Snowstar design for 2022 is a sleek and contemporary version of a traditional Christmas icon. Festive, beautiful, and accessorised with a white satin ribbon so it can be displayed with ease, this stunning ornament is the perfect first Christmas gift for your favourite newly married couple as they set a course and navigate the path of their first year together.

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Christmas First Home Sweet Home house ornament 2022

Commemorating one of life’s most important milestones, this charming crystal home ornament immortalises the feelings of elation, joy, and achievement for a couple celebrating their first Christmas together in their new home. The front is engraved with ‘Home Sweet Home’ to mark this new chapter that is about to begin. With a Waterford-branded white ribbon and round date tag, this ornament makes the perfect celebratory memento while doubling as a thoughtful festive gift.

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Christmas Heart ornament

Times Square Triangle Replica Panel ornament 2023

Bring the excitement and anticipation of the iconic Times Square Ball into the home of your favourite newlyweds with this crystal embodiment of festive new year wishes. This true-to-life miniature replica of the panels on this year’s Times Square Ball is beautifully strung with a satin ribbon plus a silver 2022-dated hang tag. Presented in a signature Waterford box, it not only captures a key moment in time, but also reminds your loved ones to embrace their shared future, whatever it may hold. 

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To see more Christmas gift ideas for married couples and for everyone else too, explore our complete Christmas collection.

 Shop first Christmas ornaments or visit our Christmas shop

How to Make a Wedding Champagne Tower

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Step one: Determine how many glasses you’ll need for your champagne tower

The number of glasses you’ll need depends on how many tiers you desire (or the size of the tower). Many soon-to-be-married couples base this on the number of guests expected to attend, but there are no set rules; the size of your champagne tower is completely up to you. 

Once you’ve decided how many tiers you’d like, you can determine how many champagne glasses you need for your tower using a bit of light math. There’s one glass on the top (1×1=1) and four on the next tier (2×2=4). From here, keep adding levels that are one number bigger, multiplied by itself (3×3, 4×4, 5×5), until you reach the tier height you desire. Next, add up the number of glasses for each level to determine how many glasses you need. 

Step two: Choose the right glass

The optimal glass for a champagne tower is a champagne coupe as it offers a sturdy frame and width. At Waterford, we have an extensive range of beautifully crafted crystal Champagne Coupe Glasses that provide an unmatched elegance.

Specially designed to deliver luxury and excellence, Waterford’s expert craftsmanship is cut deeper for a lasting impression, giving you the power to celebrate in style and entertain with confidence. With multiple designs available – from contemporary, delicate finishes to intricate crystal cuts – you’re sure to find the perfect glass for your wedding champagne tower.

Step three: Build your tower

To build your champagne tower, start by arranging your bottom tier on a sturdy table in your desired location. Wedding champagne towers are built by creating squares that get smaller as the tower rises, eventually leaving a single glass to sit on top. 

When placing your levels, each glass should touch its surrounding glasses and form symmetrical diamonds of negative space between each glass. Glasses on the next tier are placed directly in the center, where four lower glasses come together to create this diamond. 

To finish your tower, continue placing levels until you have just one diamond and one glass

Step four: Have your moment

It’s finally time to have your moment. When pouring the champagne, ensure you pour directly over the top of the first glass. Pour slowly to create a steady stream that’s beautiful to watch and not too forceful. Continue until all cups are filled, but if they’re not entirely full, it’s completely okay to top them off individually. 

Things to consider when building your champagne tower

A champagne tower is all about the visual spectacle, so you’ll need to fill your tower while wedding guests are watching and have plenty of champagne to fill each glass.

How much champagne will you need?

Most bottles of champagne fill 5-6 glasses, so you’ll likely need a few bottles to fill your champagne tower. We’ve worked out the first six tiers for you:

• 5 glass (2 tiers): 1 bottle
• 14 glasses (3 tiers): 3 bottles
• 26 glasses (4 tiers): 6 bottles
• 51 glasses (5 tiers): 11 bottles
• 87 glasses (6 tiers): 18 bottles

You’ll also need extra bottles of champagne to refill the glasses afterward.

When should you fill the tower?

While this is often a personal choice for newlyweds, many couples find filling the champagne tower is a fantastic way to begin wedding speeches. During this time, guests are seated and attentive, and the waitstaff is able to hand out champagne ready for celebratory toasts. 

Other excellent times to fill the wedding champagne tower include the conclusion of speeches and after cutting the cake. 

Wedding anniversary gift ideas for your wife

Explore the Waterford wedding hub to discover more swoon-worthy tips, guides, and gifts to elevate your wedding plans.

How To Set Your Dining Table With Crystal Glassware

How to set your dining table with crystal glassware

Can’t wait to have your favourite people seated around your dining table? A beautifully set table is a fantastic way to welcome your guests and show them just how happy you are to see them again. And it doesn’t matter whether your get-together is low-key, formal or somewhere in between – it’s taking the time and making the effort that counts the most, though personal touches are nice, too. 

If you’d also like to know the tried and tested ways to set up your dining table – and the placement of your crystal glassware in particular – we’ve put together some of the standard rules to help you create a tablescape that perfectly complements the dishes you’ll be serving.

Where do you place glasses on a table?

Think of your table as a large canvas, and the way to fill that canvas is by balancing aesthetics with functionality. So each place should be set with all the glasses each guest will need – just not in a way that feels cluttered. 

As a general rule, that means starting with a crystal water goblet on the right-hand side just above the main dining knife – even for left-handed guests. If you’re wanting a neat and spacious arrangement for three glasses, line them up parallel to your table’s edge on the right-hand side above the knife and spoon. Crystal water goblet on the left, crystal red wine glass in the middle, crystal white wine glass on the right.

For a little more asymmetrical interest, vary this straight-line layout by tilting it diagonally. The order stays the same, but the glasses are angled down towards the edge of the table. If you’re intending more than three glasses (champagne anyone?), you might want to try bending the line into a slight curve, in the following order: water, champagne, white wine, red wine, then sherry (if you’re intending to serve sherry with a soup course).

Pick a host

There is no one-size-fits-all approach when every lunch and dinner can be so different. So to find the arrangement that will look and work best for the occasion you’re planning, get familiar with the four main types of glassware arrangements: Single, Double, Triangular and Diamond. There’s sure to be one that’s just right.

Single glassware layout

This low-key table setting keeps things simple in every way by featuring just one glass – either a crystal water goblet or a regular crystal stemless glass to help cleanse the palate between courses. Place it on the right-hand side immediately above the knife or between the knife and the plate. Ideal for when space is at a premium, time is short, and you want to keep washing up to a minimum.

Peruse our stylish range of elegant crystal tumblers and water glasses.

Pick your venue

A lot of people enjoy being able to punctuate their eating and drinking with a cleansing mouthful of water. So with this versatile arrangement ideal for 3 courses, your guests will have two glasses to switch between, one for their still or sparkling l’acqua, (placed north of the tip of their dinner knife), and another for their wine (set beside it on its right).

Explore our collection of beautiful crystal wine glasses.

Decide if it’s to be a formal or informal soiree

If you’re planning a more formal gathering with different red and white wines matched to different courses, this arrangement provides your guests with three glasses: one for water, one for red wine and one for white wine.

The crystal white wine glass is placed exactly above the knife for the main course. The crystal water glass is placed 450 below and to the right of the white wine glass. The crystal red wine glass is positioned 450 above and to the right of the white wine glass. There are variations, but that set-up is probably the most common.

Update your display cabinet by choosing from our latest range of beautiful crystal red wine glasses and crystal white wine glasses.

Create an engagement party guest list

If you will be starting with a bone-dry fino sherry and have room for one more glass, go for the diamond layout. It flips the Triangular layout 1800 left to right, then adds a crystal sherry glass below and to the right of the white wine glass to form a diamond.

Embrace the fun of setting a table worthy of the effort you’ve put into your dishes, and the feelings you have for your guests. It isn’t about understanding where each piece of tableware, crystal glassware and cutlery belongs —it’s about making your guests feel welcome. 

Raise the bar at your next dinner party with some beautiful new crystal glassware from Waterford.

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