Wedding Gifts??

Cadyboo

Ok so this conversation came up in my house at the weekend. As most of you will probably know, my sisters getting married, and we were discussing what the family should give her. It then went on to her in laws getting married abroad last year and people brought over presents, like Waterford crystal etc. Now in my opinion I think as most people live together before getting married there would be no need for household stuff, however when the couple are getting married abroad you are paying thousands to attend, so a token would suffice. So what is your opinion, on giving presents in general, family presents, and weddings abroad presents?

BC

Personally, if i'm close to a person then i'd get them a present of the same value regardless of whether the wedding is in Ireland or not. I wouldn't bring a present with me though, i'd give it to them when they get back (assuming they live in Ireland).

dori_dormer

Ive been to two weddings abroad in the last two years and always sent a present. One we bought in Canada(~€100 between OH and I), and the other in San Francisco we bought off their registry online and it was delivered to them (again ~€100). so we didnt bring either with us. Both couples already lived together too.
I think the best way to not get household things you already have is to make a registry. You can put on things that you still might need or want for the home that you dont already have or that you need a new one of. We are putting a new kettle and toaster on ours for example. That way if people want to give a gift, they are giving you something you need/want and if they want to give cash/ vouchers etc or nothing thats ok too. We were told explicitly by both couples that presents were not necessary because of the travel but we did it anyway!

I think covering all the bases is the best way to go! Thats what Im doing even though we live together. (my side are present givers, his are cash/voucher givers)

whatdoicare

They only thing I can add is, stop people buying waterford crystal for yr sister!! - I'm not long married and we have a press FULL of waterford crystal that we received for our wedding - If we could flog it all tomorrow we would. Waste of space and cost us money as we had to buy a press to put it into.

I don't know why people like it so much. I know even less why people insist on buying it for others....

If yr sister is getting married abroad, don't bring a present with you as she only has to drag it back with her and probably pay extra for the baggage!
Unless she has some kind of fetish for the stuff then don't bother.

As for household stuff, unless she has registered with a shop, don't bother as she probably already has everything if she's got her house sorted (also, I said before somewhere, I manged to get a clock made of spoons and a unicorn statue - obviously they went into the nearest charity shop - someone else would love this stuff but I hate it and my OH just thought it was a stupid waste of money) so even if she needs a toaster - your idea of what a nice toaster is might differ wildly from what she wants.


The best gift is money every time -

Sorry to be harsh but the amount of people who gave us crap was unreal - we didn't want it and it was just a pure waste of money. The thoughts of what we could have done with the money ...gah!


Another thing maybe, the family really wanted to buy stuff so they each paid for a part of the wedding, my folks got the photographer, folks in law paid some of the honeymoon, the sisters got the cake etc etc really was appreciated!:) Helped make the day less financially stressful! We thanked them for each part in the speeches! They were proud as punch!

twinkles9

Don't know if this will help but if you were looking for something different we got a personalised monopoly for our friends who got married last year, you can name all the streets and their names and wedding date was printed in the centre of the board, it cost £80 and bought it on firebox.com