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What would you like as a gift if not cash?

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  • 30-07-2020 11:32am
    #1
    _Whimsical_
    Registered Users Posts: 7,955 ✭✭✭


    Yes I'm looking desperately for suggestions but wouldn't it serve all of us, including those of you getting gifts, to give ideas to the rest of us on what you might like?
    Has anyone got anything they really liked lately?


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    #2
    kapisko1PL
    Registered Users Posts: 277 ✭✭kapisko1PL


    _Whimsical_ wrote: »
    Yes I'm looking desperately for suggestions but wouldn't it serve all of us, including those of you getting gifts, to give ideas to the rest of us on what you might like?
    Has anyone got anything they really liked lately?

    Got about 20 lines in Euromilions. Although why wouldn't you give cash?


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    #3
    Loveinapril
    Registered Users Posts: 2,327 ✭✭✭Loveinapril


    We love wine so that would be a good gift for us! We got 12 nice wine glasses that we very much appreciated but I know other people get inundated with glasses (and picture frames and candle holders and personal things with the date on it) so it won't suit everyone. We planned and booked our honeymoon after the wedding and used most of our cash gifts paying for that. We appreciated it so much!


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    #4
    lazygal
    Registered Users Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    Friends who couldn't attend our wedding sent two cases of wine which we loved. We're into wine anyway though.
    I liked the traditional gifts like a good table cloth and matching napkins. Also got a slow cooker which I was a bit baffled by but which I use all the time nearly ten years on.


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    #5
    fineso.mom
    Registered Users Posts: 1,090 ✭✭✭fineso.mom


    My sister has some crueset cooking pots that are over twenty years old that were a wedding gift. Still perfect and she uses them pretty much every day.
    I bought a friend some really nice flower pots, the big glazed pottery ones as she and her husband had just built a house and the garden was last on the list of stuff to do. I potted them up with some plants before giving them and she was delighted.
    I know someone who bought her friend a voucher for her wedding dress to be cleaned and stored after the wedding.
    I generally give money unless I know the couple well, and always do if they have already lived together and have the house etc sorted.


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    #6
    Atlantic Dawn
    Registered Users Posts: 81,267 ✭✭✭✭Atlantic Dawn
    M


    Alcohol of any kind I like.


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    #7
    hollypink
    Registered Users Posts: 1,508 ✭✭✭hollypink


    I love high thread count cotton bedsheets/duvet covers/pillow cases etc. We got some as a wedding present, from John Lewis I think. Foxford Woollen Mills have beautiful sets, not cheap, but they feel so luxurious.


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    #8
    ShaShaBear
    Registered Users Posts: 5,528 ✭✭✭ShaShaBear


    Our favourite gift was a plate with a cartoon drawing of us cutting our cake on it along with our wedding date and names framed in a shadow box. It has pride of place hanging in our kitchen and ironically wasn't gifted by someone we'd be as close to as many others at the wedding. I couldn't tell you who exactly gave me money on our wedding day, or how much - but I can tell you who gave gifts and what they were - people put way more effort into them, I think!


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    #9
    lazygal
    Registered Users Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    hollypink wrote: »
    I love high thread count cotton bedsheets/duvet covers/pillow cases etc. We got some as a wedding present, from John Lewis I think. Foxford Woollen Mills have beautiful sets, not cheap, but they feel so luxurious.
    I love this. Just make sure you know the bed size. We got beautiful sets of sheets, but they're for a double bed and we have a king size.


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    #10
    Black_Knight
    Moderators Posts: 12,367 ✭✭✭✭Black_Knight


    A cheque


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    #11
    Black_Knight
    Moderators Posts: 12,367 ✭✭✭✭Black_Knight


    On a more serious note.
    We got a lovely framed painting. Not something we would of bought ourselves (because of the cost, not the look), and we love it.
    Got a high quality pots and pans set too. Not your typical gift, but we use them every day, and they're very nice.
    Got a voucher for a night in a fancy hotel. Similar to the painting, it probably would have been too expensive a hotel for us to consider, and therefore was a real treat.


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    #12
    Uncle Pierre
    Registered Users Posts: 1,462 ✭✭✭Uncle Pierre


    Just over ten years since our own wedding. We got what I suppose would be the usual mix of cash and gifts.

    Like somebody said above, some of the gifts were great and have pride of place in our house. Maybe the best is a clock made from bog oak, that hangs in our sunroom. And again, it wasn't from a relative or a close friend - instead, it came from a neighbour of the place where I grew up, who I'd hardly have seen in the ten years before the wedding, and who I haven't seen very often since then either.

    There's also a pair of crystal candlesticks on the mantlepiece in the sitting room, which came from a work colleague and which my wife really likes (even though I'm not too pushed about them myself!).

    So yes, if you happen to strike it lucky by picking a gift that one or both of the couple really like, it's probably more fondly remembered in the long run that a few quid inside a card would be.

    Having said that, there's a box in the attic full of other gifts that we've hardly looked at since then (photo frames, other candlesticks, and the like), and a bottom press in our utility room which has wedding gifts such as sets of glasses and cutlery shoved in at the back, and seldom if ever used. It might sound mercenary, but cash would have been a better gift than any of those.

    As somebody else also said, I can't remember who exactly gave cash or exactly how much they gave, but I do know it was all put to good use. And based on our experience, we always give cash ourselves.


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    #13
    stargazer 68
    Registered Users Posts: 5,076 ✭✭✭stargazer 68


    We got a voucher for an art gallery in Wexford. I had liked and commented on a lot of their FB posts so someone bought us a voucher. We hung onto it for almost a year waiting for a picture I liked and it is now on our living room wall and I absolutely love it!


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    #14
    woodchuck
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 15,409 Mod ✭✭✭✭woodchuck


    I think gifts are only advisable if you know the couple very well and what they'd actually like.

    Personally I'd love a slow cooker! But we're about to move into a house and just never had room for one in the apartment we're renting. So household appliances can be very hit and miss depending on how settled the couple are.

    I'd also love artwork for the walls. But artwork is so personal that I'd only recommend it if you're aware of a particular artist that the couple like (and ideally a particularly painting they've raved about and said it would look great on a particular wall in their home!).

    If you're not sure though, cash really is king! Some people go with vouchers, but personally I'm not a big fan as there are so many T&Cs and they can be accidentally forgotten about and just left to expire.


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    #15
    lazygal
    Registered Users Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    I don't go the voucher route because every time we got and used one for a restaurant or hotel we ended up spending more (which I guess is one of the reasons places push them....) which might put some people in a bind. And then businesses go out of business-we got a substantial voucher for one business that closed six months after our wedding. Complete waste of money on the part of the giver.


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    #16
    buttercups88
    Registered Users Posts: 764 ✭✭✭buttercups88


    We got married few years ago and one of my favourite gifts was a framed black and white photo of our venue. We have it hanging in the hallway as a reminder of the day.

    Another very thoughtful one was a painting by a local artist which had each of our traditional name flowers intertwined. Then when babies came along we brought the painting back to her and she added their flowers


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    #17
    Uncle Pierre
    Registered Users Posts: 1,462 ✭✭✭Uncle Pierre


    buttercups88 wrote: »
    We got married few years ago and one of my favourite gifts was a framed black and white photo of our venue.

    A nice idea if the venue is some sort of special location where you wouldn't normally be.

    Wouldn't work in a case like ours though, where the venue was the local church, which we'd associate more with going to funerals than remembering a one-off day more than a decade ago....


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    #18
    Caranica
    Registered Users Posts: 10,019 ✭✭✭✭Caranica


    Favourites we got - Trailfinders vouchers (paid for an amazing holiday the following year), a case of lovely wine and vouchers for his and hers massages.

    Things I hated - Newbridge everything...we got SO much!! Also crystal glasses as we had no storage space for them. Still in boxes many many years later.


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    #19
    woodchuck
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 15,409 Mod ✭✭✭✭woodchuck


    Caranica wrote: »
    Favourites we got - Trailfinders vouchers (paid for an amazing holiday the following year)

    This wouldn't be a good present during a pandemic though :/


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    #20
    Loveinapril
    Registered Users Posts: 2,327 ✭✭✭Loveinapril


    [Quote
    Things I hated - Newbridge everything...we got SO much!! Also crystal glasses as we had no storage space for them. Still in boxes many many years later.[/quote]

    I donated a few of these sorts of things to local a charity and family resource centre for their fundraising raffles. At least it meant the stuff got used.


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    #21
    eviltwin
    Registered Users Posts: 17,495 ✭✭✭✭eviltwin


    Best gift I got was a scrapebook of photos of us through the years with quotes and memories from family and friends. A few of those people are no longer here and I cherish it more than anything.


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    #22
    JayRoc
    Registered Users Posts: 1,578 ✭✭✭JayRoc


    woodchuck wrote: »
    I think gifts are only advisable if you know the couple very well and what they'd actually like.

    Personally I'd love a slow cooker! But we're about to move into a house and just never had room for one in the apartment we're renting. So household appliances can be very hit and miss depending on how settled the couple are.

    I'd also love artwork for the walls. But artwork is so personal that I'd only recommend it if you're aware of a particular artist that the couple like (and ideally a particularly painting they've raved about and said it would look great on a particular wall in their home!).

    If you're not sure though, cash really is king! Some people go with vouchers, but personally I'm not a big fan as there are so many T&Cs and they can be accidentally forgotten about and just left to expire.

    I cannot imagine ever presuming to buy art for another person


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    #23
    cocopops
    Registered Users Posts: 51 ✭✭cocopops


    We got a beautiful, luxury picnic basket as an engagement gift and I absolutely love it!


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    #24
    _Whimsical_
    Registered Users Posts: 7,955 ✭✭✭_Whimsical_


    Great ideas, they're really interesting to hear. It's touching that people actually remember the gifts they got and good to know the things that make an impression. Bring on more ideas!

    My friend is marrying soon and plans for the wedding have been curtailed down from 170 to 20 people due to Covid so it will be a relatively inexpensive day for the couple. I feel like they don't need cash in the same way now and as I can't be with her I want to mark the day for her with something special they'll remember.


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    #25
    woodchuck
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 15,409 Mod ✭✭✭✭woodchuck


    JayRoc wrote: »
    I cannot imagine ever presuming to buy art for another person

    You'd be surprised. My friends and I always do a group presents for birthdays. One person suggested a specific print of a piece of art and everyone jumped on the band wagon to say it was a great idea. I knew with absolute certainty that it wasn't her taste at all though and would be a horrible mistake. So after an awkward conversation, I managed to talk them out of it. They were literally all set to order it though!

    That's why you'd want to be really confident that they love the artist or piece of work. Maybe a voucher for a gallery that sells work of their favourite artist would be safer. But again, it's only a good present for an art lover.


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    #26
    Hoboo
    Registered Users Posts: 3,522 ✭✭✭Hoboo


    hollypink wrote: »
    I love high thread count cotton bedsheets/duvet covers/pillow cases etc. We got some as a wedding present, from John Lewis I think. Foxford Woollen Mills have beautiful sets, not cheap, but they feel so luxurious.

    And what did they get the groom? Thats the equivalent of buying the couple a pair of golf shoes. In a size 11.


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    #27
    Sheep Shagger
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 6,236 Mod ✭✭✭✭Sheep Shagger


    We had an apartment so had all the usual house stuff, opened a wedding account with Trailfinders which is essentially cash but people don't have to put into an envelope- its all done online.

    Covered an upgrade for our honeymoon and then an holiday about 10 months afterwards.

    Still got a few cheques but also meant no dealing with boxy gifts on the day (just cards).

    A couple of people didn't give anything, to this day we don't know if they were cheap or tbe card with cash in it got lost/stolen/etc in the hotel.


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    #28
    Faith
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 30,655 Mod ✭✭✭✭Faith


    Hoboo wrote: »
    And what did they get the groom? Thats the equivalent of buying the couple a pair of golf shoes. In a size 11.

    Do you think the husband sleeps in a different bed? :confused:


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    #29
    pwurple
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,449 ✭✭✭✭pwurple


    Faith wrote: »
    Do you think the husband sleeps in a different bed? :confused:

    Or he doesn't sleep at all? Or maybe in a kennel outside?

    We can't judge other people's lifestyle choices. :)


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    #30
    PhilOssophy
    Registered Users Posts: 2,114 ✭✭✭PhilOssophy


    I don't really think you should buy me a present, I don't even know you that well after all.


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    #31
    Teach30
    Registered Users Posts: 539 ✭✭✭Teach30


    Most things mentioned here I would hate to receive so gifts are v personal. I got engagement presents that were dire, awful crystal glasses that I wouldn’t even regift, napkin holders, photo frames, pastry forks - things I’ll never use as they aren’t my style.

    Would love if wedding gift registers came back into fashion here. It was great when couples could put together a list in Arnotts or BTs of what they would like to receive for their wedding. There’s a lot to be said for it as at least the items would be used.


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