Engagement Present

Splendour

Hi all,

am sure this has probably been covered here before, so apologies if it has.

What do people generally give now for engagement presents? There was a time when a girl had her 'bottom drawer' and one could buy simple presents (albeit possibly not very useful pressies!), for the engaged couple.
My daughter just got engaged and my family and me are at a loss as to what to buy them.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

BroomBurner

Maybe for him, a pair of cufflinks with his initials engraved in them and for her, a necklace, or pair of earrings.

Or nothing!

bensoneb

Or perhaps a piece of sculpture or art that would always remind them of the engagement. I got money from my parents but also a beautiful statue of a bride and groom and it's this statue that has pride of place.

NextSteps

How about sending them to a photography studio to have their picture taken, and framing it?

ecaf

We got bottom drawer type presents!
Why not give them something for it? My aunts were shopping together and one bought wine glasses from a set, the other bought tumblers from a set.

I'm sure we will use them when we have parties in our house.
For the moment they are in my mums garage for safe storage along with other similar things, we are renting now and don't really have the space for a lot.

Unless your daughter has everything already for her home, like the bottom drawer type stuff (dinner sets, wine sets, etc.), then I wouldn't see why you couldn't buy these things.
My mother bought a nice wooden (fancy) dvd stand with a glass door for us. I had been looking at it around the time, but it was a bit expensive.

Splendour

Some good suggestions there, thanks guys.

Glad to hear ecaf that the 'bottom drawer' thing is still done. As you say these gifts will come in handy someday.I think I'll suggest this to my family.

I'm liking the idea of the photo shoot though,it is something which will be treasured forever...

Any other ideas will be welcome!

hunnymonster

I would ask the couple what they want. We got engaged recently and are now the proud owners of 7 extra sets of wine glasses. Neither of us drink and we already had plenty of glasses as we're in our 30's and having been sharing a house for over a year!!! While it is lovely that people thought of us and spent their hard earned cash on us, it is a real shame that they got something so useless (for us) that will never be used.

ecaf

hunnymonster wrote: »

I would ask the couple what they want. We got engaged recently and are now the proud owners of 7 extra sets of wine glasses. Neither of us drink and we already had plenty of glasses as we're in our 30's and having been sharing a house for over a year!!! While it is lovely that people thought of us and spent their hard earned cash on us, it is a real shame that they got something so useless (for us) that will never be used.

Yeah meant to say that too. Ask what they want, we are living together nearly 6 years and have a lot of stuff.
I told my mother I'm worried about what we will be given as wedding presents, this was a hint that I didn't want to get 10 toasters. I'm not ungrateful for the presents that I will be given, but I don't want them to waste their money getting us something useless or something we already have.
Vouchers / money towards the big stuff (like kitchen appliances / wardrobes / flooring) would be more useful IMO.

partyguinness

Champagne Flutes..Waterford crystal perhaps.

I bought them for my sisters, albeit wedding, last year. I dont like giving money as that just vansihes and they will always have the flutes.

implausible

I was really surprised with the amount of bottom-drawer presents we got, stuff I would've expected for our wedding - casserole dishes, fireside set, glasses. food steamers, photo frames. My mam and dad gave us an electrical voucher, which paid for the tv we were after.

We got friends of ours an engraved mirror for their hall, they loved it. Paintings are good too.

You could also get them a hotel break voucher?

DvB

We got engaged only last week & have received a fantastic 44 piece Newbridge Silver Cutlery set from my sister & her husband, TBH we werent even expecting any engagement presents and were genuinely suprised at receiving anything at all, i honestly thought gifts were left for the wedding only.

aoibhebree

It really depends on the couple.

When I got engaged, we received lots of "bottom drawer" type presents. The thought was lovely as we weren't expecting anything at all, however we are both renting separately and won't be living together for another few years (opposite sides of the country due to work commitments.) It's awful, but we ended up "recycling" a few of these presents that just weren't to our taste at other peoples' weddings etc! (Don't tell my mother-in-law!!)

However, some people gave us vouchers for weekends away and meals out and that sort of thing, which we actually appreciated WAY more! For us, we'd get a lot more out of the memories and quality time together than we would out of a glass bowl that will be sitting in the garage for the next few years -- when we do get a place of our own, we probably won't even remember who gave what!

It just depends what the people are into really ...