Best wedding present?

[terces]

Best wedding gift that I have and see everyday is a small glass table my mom made for us. Dried flowers from my wedding are inlaid in the glass. Thankfully it has survived over 20 years of numerous moves, kids, and dogs.

[PrincessPerky]

cool table!

Went to one wedding not the other, no we really don't know them that well.

[PrincessPerky]

BTW there is no registry for either...

[LuxLiving]

A relative stocked our freezer with beef. That was a great one. Coming in next as favs? Cash is/was/will be King baby!

[am_vanquish]

We continue to give cash. I'll never forget driving to the airport with DW for our honeymoon and going through all the cards yanking out the cash.

We didn't expect to get that much cash, so we had already gotten quite a bit of cash for spending money. It actually made me nervous to have that much money hanging around on a cruise ship and walking around Mexico.

[wincrasher]

I think the best gifts for a wedding are - items that will (could) last a lifetime and items that are hard to justify to buy for yourself. That's why high end stemware, flatware and china make great wedding gifts.

My brother married his second wife late last year. He could care less about wedding gifts. She really didn't have any clue what to ask for or where to register (which I found very peculiar for a young lady in the South), so she ended up registering at Target and Pottery Barn.

So this Thanksgiving we'll be eating dinner at their new house on plastic dinnerware I suppose. I think in 15 years she'll regret not having a bit of formal dinnerware. Where will that rice cooker or coffee pot be then? Probably in the landfill with the rest of the junk that was on her list.

So I bet you can guess what I think make good Christmas gifts?

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Wincrasher, there are people who grow up without ever having eaten from formal dishes, so I can see that that they might not think they need any. Your brother's new wife may have been very uncomfortable making a registry at all, as to some people, making one feels like asking for gifts and being picky about which gifts are acceptable on top of it all. She may therefor find it a compromise to put together a registry even from Target or Pottery Barn. Maybe it was an awkward way of saying, "I can't ask all these nice people for expensive gifts." If your brother did not even help her put together the registry she may have felt actually forced to suffer the burden of putting together a "beggar's list" against her own desires and without the support of her beloved.

I don't know your sister-in-law, obviously, but I can assure you that not every young woman, Southern or not, is any more interested in formal dining ware than your brother is....I know a woman who advises that it really is up to the more-more-in-the-know (often older) friends and family to go right ahead and give the wedding couple these more traditional gifts that the couple is yet too naive to even know they will need. I think it is nice that you plan to give them something like that for Christmas.

[wincrasher]

Giving second chances to people is what makes me such an awesome dude.

Somehow I'll have to figure out a way to get her to pick out a pattern and I'll give her a service for 8 for Christmas. Probably leave that to my sister to take her shopping at some "decent" places.

[Angio333]

I have a wedding to go to this month and next, and I was wondering what anyone remembered from their own wedding as a good gift?

I can recall three things from mine:

1. An engraved frame, that is still in the box cause we had no photo to fit...pretty but, not in use.
2. A Crockpot, I used for a good while, but it broke.
3. A Toaster, mostly I remember it cause we already had one.

of course there was money, and some miscellaneous dishes.
But nothing really stood out as an awesome gift.

How about you?

A good study Bible and something off of the gift registry.

[justinblake]

What I consider very useful wedding gifts are bedsheets and pillow cases. I think that any family can never have enough linens.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Money, but our outrageously expensive Pots and Pans set from Calphalon! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them and we use them daily. We also use our plates from crate and barrel daily! And KNIVES. Did I mention we use them all the time and 5 years later everything still is GREAT.

[justinblake]

And oh, the sweetest wedding present we got was relatively cheap: his-and-hers bedroom slippers that were super comfy. I'm still looking for those slippers in stores until now, but I never found anything like them again.

[mstrohm]

Over the years we have seen so many people have completely different thoughts on what makes the perfect wedding gift.

My wife used to buy some nice things when they went on sale. Some were home runs, others were given away. We now give a nice card, some good advice and money. Maybe we are just getting old.

[preciouslove]

If all else fails-cash never will. They can buy something they didn't get and need that way.

[khosta]

It's actually best to stick with what is on the registry. The whole point of getting a couple a wedding gift is because it's something they wanted and requested. They are starting a new life together and went out to pick all of these wonderful things they want to fill their home with. Generally you are supposed to spend the cost it would be per person for dinner. So if it's a sit down plated dinner you should spend between $40 - $110 (I know it's wide range but use your best judgement) depending what the entre is - and thats per person. Buffet are generally less, prob about $15 - $50 per person.