After many years of marriage my husband and I still look back fondly at a special gift that was lovingly hand stitched for us by my sister. She must have looked through many cross stitch wedding patterns to find the one that was just right. If you have a family wedding drawing close you may like to think of creating an heirloom to help the new bride and groom remember their special day.

What better gift to give than a personalised sampler. There are many cross stitch wedding patterns available that use the sampler theme. Most include a full alphabet allowing you to personalise your work with the happy couple's names and the date of the wedding. An attractive border and a romantic quote may complete the design.

People of all religions get married but if you are not Christian it might take a little more searching to find suitable cross stitch patterns to include in your sampler. Different cultures have different traditions, which may be worth researching, if the couple tying the knot are of a different denomination to you. For example two glasses of wine are used during the Jewish wedding ceremony and these could be depicted in the stitched piece.

Although wedding samplers are offered by many design companies you may prefer to stitch a picture. This can be a photo-realistic representation of the bride and groom or something more lighthearted and easier to stitch. If you are likely to make changes to the colours used it may be more economical to buy cross stitch wedding patterns rather than kits.

As a keen cross stitcher you are likely to have your own library of needlework books. It is worth looking through these to see if they contain any wedding patterns to cross stitch before buying something new. When you purchased the book a particular pattern may have caught your eye for a different occasion and you may not have noticed the wedding charts.

Before you started your stitching you should have decided how you wanted to present the finished piece. Ideas include a ring pillow, a decorated album cover, a handkerchief for the bride or a framed picture.

However you use your cross stitch wedding patterns you can be sure that the gift will take pride of place during the celebrations and be treasured, like ours, for many years to come.