<p>Today, my friend showed me a gift registry list for a wedding that she was invited to and thought that I would get a kick out of some of the crazy requests.</p>
<p>The one that really stood out was a $39.99 Martha Stewart ice bucket. An ice bucket for $39.99!!! Who needs that. You can go to the dollar store and pick up 40 for that price.</p>
<p>No wonder many people are in debt.</p>
<p>Anybody else have any similar experiences?</p>
<p>Gift registry for a wedding we’re going to is “honeymoon-related” items for their honeymoon in Europe. Cheapest item is an $80 bottle of wine. Should mention the Trader Joe’s wine which, I heard (don’t drink), is excellent.</p>
<p>I would never buy myself a $39.99 ice bucket. But having recently experienced watching a couple register for a wedding, I think I can sympathize a little more.</p>
<p>This was a young couple who had not lived together previously. Bride lived with her parents and groom in a smallish house he had purchased about a year ago. Neither owned much. Figured it was going to be really easy to register for gifts.</p>
<p>Had two small showers, one given by each side of the family. Probably 25 people at one and 40 at the other. By the time the showers were done, most of what they had registered for was purchased. People began to comment that there was not much left. So they increased their requests. What else were they to do? It is considered tacky to say “just give them money”. So they registered for things they probably didn’t really need, but didn’t want people to complain that they didn’t know what to get them.</p>
<p>They tried really hard to have gifts at all price ranges. A lot of the guests were young like they were, so there were a LOT of small things. But you know what went first? The overpriced, expensive things they didn’t really need. I guess people would rather buy one expensive gift than a bunch of little ones.</p>
<p>So have a little sympathy. A $39.99 ice bucket is probably outrageous, but it’s not an overly expensive wedding gift.</p>
<p>When I saw the title I expectecd to read about the $500 per place setting china or the $200 per stem crystal, a $40 ice bucket doesn’t begin to qualify as outrageous. Some of the registry lists I have seen have had sheet sets that cost as much as my bedroom furniture.</p>
<p>I meant that the requests were outrageous, not the prices. There were requests upwards of $200.</p>
<p>Why does somebody need a $39.99 ice bucket?</p>
<p>The requests at a wedding I went to last year were requests for gift cards. They wanted to buy a couple of expensive items and used the gift cards to help purchase those items.</p>
<p>This thread brings me back to the “Seinfeld” episode where they all chipped in to buy “The Drake” a big screen TV. Shorty after, the couple broke up.</p>
<p>One of my brothers pick a china pattern that was so pricey all they got was dessert plates. It was discontinued a few years later. I guess I must have lived in NY too long - $40 seems about right to me for an ice bucket. I’ve seen some cute ones at the Christmas Boutique at Grand Central that probably cost about that much I considered getting.</p>
<p>Didn’t register for any icebuckets, but received two. In nearly 25 years of marriage, have used both! Nice to have nicer looking thermal buckets with a top and tongs for indoor parties. </p>
<p>I am frequently at dollar stores, and have never seen decent sized thermal buckets with top and tongs…</p>
<p>I’m OK with a $40 ice bucket. A few years ago a couple we know registered for pieces of furniture – as in 8 $300 dining room chairs, etc.</p>
<p>But the biggest stunner occurred more than 10 years ago when a just-out-of-college couple that was going to be living in an apartment in Chicago registered for a $500 outdoor grill.</p>
<p>A friend recently went to a baby shower where the registry items included a $40 (yes, that’s right) 200-count crib sheet. On which said baby will barf, pee and poop. Matching baby bath towel was also $40. I got to touch the sacred towel – for that much money, I expected much better quality than was apparent. Buying the matching gift box was another $6.</p>
<p>After 25 years of marriage, I think an upgrade to a nice ice bucket would be good. The ratty red vinyl one is showing its age, but we keep it around anyway. DH says it’s to prove he doesn’t just get rid of things because they’re old (said with a big wink and smirk). </p>
<p>Mountains, TJ’s has some very nice wine! We found a very nice icewine that DH loves.</p>
<p>This’ll probably be an unpopular position but - I don’t like the idea of ‘wedding registries’ and we never buy a gift from a registry. When people ask for a particlar ‘gift’, IMO it takes something away from it. There’s no originality and no surprise. They may as well say: “Bob, you get me a top of the line blender”, “Martha, you get me a $500 set of dishes”, “Nancy, you pay for the 5 star restaurant meal for us on our honeymoon”, etc. It’s just so pretentious.</p>
<p>So, I say skip the registry and go for something more unique and if they don’t like it, they can bring it back.</p>
<p>S2 and I just had a discussion about that very topic, ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad! He didn’t think it was appropriate to tell people what to buy, either.</p>
<p>I should have recorded that statement while I had the chance! ;)</p>
<p>I think that much of this comes from the stores - some of them give the couple a little scanner gun to zap in what they want to register for. Easy to hit the tags on the furniture as well as the dishes.</p>
<p>As for CountingDown’s friend who wants the $40 crib sheet… I would be tempted to buy 8 cheap crib sheets and include a note that they could be discarded the first time the baby was really, really sick all over them. I know, non-parents wouldn’t understand, but everyone who had a child would love the idea! </p>
<p>And if you consult Miss Manners, one only has to refer to the registry if one can’t think of another gift.</p>
<p>My husband and I registered for mint chocolate chip ice cream at Target just to see if anybody would buy it for us.</p>
<p>They didn’t.</p>
<p>We really like mint chocolate chip ice cream, we wouldn’t have had to store it in our tiny apartment, we have REALLY quirky friends who WOULD buy ice cream off a registry, and there was a Target literally in the parking lot of our reception hall. We could’ve had wedding cake and ice cream. We didn’t, though.</p>
<p>We did, however, get a $40 ice bucket…</p>
<p>(If you don’t register for things nowadays and have more than eight guests at your wedding, you’re going to get three hundred engraved silver tchotchkes from Things Remembered, and maybe two creative gifts from people who would’ve gone off-registry and gotten you the creative gifts anyhow.)</p>
<p>I actually think the ice bucket is A-ok, and actually, the price seems reasonable to me, too. A nice ice bucket can be a pretty serving piece at a party. What really gets to me is the wedding price inflation in this area. You’re expected to give a gift of $150-$200 per person to “cover the plate.” It’s insane!</p>
<p>Hmmm, I’ve never used an ice bucket except those plastic ones in hotel rooms. Maybe I’m missing out on something.</p>
<p>The best wedding gift we bought for someone was the down blanket from Costco that we gave to one of my coworkers. She sat in a cubicle next to mine and always complained about being cold (she moved to WA from a warmer place). When she invited us to her wedding, H and I checked the registry and saw that they were asking for king-sized sheets, but no warm blankets. So we bought her a king-sized down comforter. Turns out, she did not even think about putting a down comforter on her wish list because they were “so darn expensive” at the Bon! The one at Costco was a third of what the Bon charging for them. :)</p>
<p>I actually don’t think money is ticky. Let’s say there are 100 guests and the average guest gives $50. This is $5,000. Not a bad down payment on a car.</p>
<p>I would much rather do that than pay $40 for an ice bucket.</p>
<p>Agree - a $40 ice bucket is ridiculous. Every time we get a catalog with such things as overpriced ice buckets, battery-powered backscratchers and sofa ramps for dogs, H shakes it in the air and says, “This is what killed the American economy!”</p>
<p>"This’ll probably be an unpopular position but - I don’t like the idea of ‘wedding registries’ and we never buy a gift from a registry. "</p>
<p>I think wedding registries take the fun out of buying presents, though if people register, I’ll get them something from their registry. H thinks registering makes people seem greedy. As a result, we didn’t register when we got married 30 years ago. We were happy with whatever people gave us. We were even happier when people took the time to come to our wedding. I didn’t have a shower either. They just seem like shake downs for presents.</p>