There is nothing so lovely as a gift. Nor for many stores, as lovely as a gift-list. Summer is here, the wedding season is kicking into full gear and, as far as the department and home-furnishing stores are concerned, the wedding-gift list season is picking up pace with them.

With approximately 17,000 couples expected to get married this year, an increasing number of stores are realising the value of successfully wooing these intendeds and their guests.

Convince one couple and their 100-plus guests of the quality and efficiency of your service and they may be convinced to love, honour and obey your promises for as a long as they all shall live. The peak months for such consumer wooing are June to September, and increasingly, December.

A couple visits a store before their wedding and compiles a list of items they would like to receive. Guests can then visit the store and choose an item from the list to purchase as a gift. That item is ticked off the list. The couple gets gifts they would like and need, they don't get two or three of the same item and the guests don't have to sweat over "blue china or white china?"

Wedding lists have been around in the US and Britain for years. They have only been in operation here in an organised way for about three years, but already any department store worth its confetti has a wedding-list service. As Mr Ian Huxtable, service manager at Arnotts, puts it: "To remain a player in today's market you have to offer a wedding-list service." Mrs Kim McGuire, author of The Irish Wedding Book and agony aunt with the Irish Wedding and New Home magazine, says wedding lists are "definitely becoming more popular".

A list brings consumers into a store who might not normally visit.

The most popular items are the more expensive household goods, says Mr Paul Stevenson, head of advertising and promotions at Clerys, citing Le Creuset cookware, Denby crockery, Newbridge cutlery and Waterford crystal as typical wedding-list items.

"We have offered the wedding-list service for about eight years," he says, but have offered a "more organised and comprehensive service" for the past three years.

Brown Thomas has just completed a complete revamp of its wedding-list service. There is now a fully fitted-out wedding-consultancy suite, six dedicated members of staff and a raft of added incentives to attract the couple - and their guests' money - into the store.

As well as free cosmetics for the bride, gift tokens and a personal fashion consultancy, the store offers a complimentary champagne breakfast for the couple when all the hullabaloo is over. The aptly named . . . I do service does not come cheap to the store, but its administration manager, Ms Marguerite Kelly, has no doubt that it's worth it.

Last year, in excess of 800 couples registered lists with Brown Thomas.

"We develop a relationship with the couple that extends long beyond the wedding list and we use this opportunity to respond to our customers in the future," says Ms Kelly.

However, get it wrong and you may in fact be turning potential customers away.

Mrs McGuire says that by far the majority of the problems to her column in the Irish Wedding and New Homes magazine are about problems with wedding-list services.

All stores say co-ordinating a list-service is a potential logistical nightmare - items can go out of stock, gifts may be lost, broken, there may be unintended duplication.

Mr Huxtable of Arnotts too points to this, saying that providing, staffing and administering the service is so fraught with potential pitfalls that in terms of direct revenue generated the service just about breaks even.

"It is very complex and labour intensive," he says. "It's really almost a form of advertising".

Nevertheless, Mrs McGuire says that despite the sweat and tears that go into providing the service, she has no doubt more will be getting in on the act.

She says the lists "make sense" for everyone and that guests should not be offended at the idea of a list. However, there is an etiquette. She deplores the habit of some, of enclosing a store card with the invitation. "That does not happen in the States. It is just crass consumerism to do that. People can ask the bride or groom or one of their friends if there is a list."

So remember, on the happiest day of their lives, a couple should invite guests for their presence, not their presents.