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Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33033, 28 September 1972, Page 11

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Timely gestures make new friends and cement family relationships. Here is a check list of things to do immediately after your honeymoon, if you were unable to do them before you went away: Write thank-you notes for wedding presents not previously acknowledged just as soon as possible after your return . . . also for any especially nice favours done for you by helpful friends and relatives at the last moment before you left. Arrange and equip your desk for correspondence, household transactions and prompt payment of bills. Write warm notes to your husband’s immediate family as well as your own if you do not live in the immediate vicinity. Check up on family anniversaries and birthdays, and render any little attentions to ill or aged members of the family. These are things very easily overlooked in the first complete absorption with your new life and your new home. Make definite plans for future entertaining, even if you cannot do as much of it as you wish in the immediate future.

Organise a system for receiving and recording telephone messages. Establish a special place where mail, messages and telegrams may be left so that you and your husband get the habit of checking regularly — important when one is away from home. You’ll need a large address book. Most brides don’t realise what a big one is needed to enter all her friends, her husband’s, plus new ones you’ll both be making. An efficient household budget book. There are pretty as well as practical ones that make using them fun instead of a chore! A file for bills, both paid and to-be-paid. As paid bills accumulate they can be transferred to less used space. Record new and changing addresses and telephone numbers. Organise invitation and Christmas card lists — also birthdays and anniversaries on which to send cards or gifts. A well-equipped and nicely organised desk is your best assurance of prompt and enjoyable correspondence, and the efficient running of your new home.