Mine are clear. 1981 vintage
The smoke are horrible
Best Gift: a wicker picnic basket my cousin got me, with a bottle of wine, candles, paper plates and a tablecloth inside. We used it for picnics and tailgates for years until it finally gave up the ghost.
Worst Gifts: a butt-ugly salad set from my husband’s sister, made by a famous West Virginia glass factory. I’ve never used it but still have it since anything that comes from his side of the family are ipso facto holy relics. The other is a pair of candlesticks from another cousin who married about a year before we did that I am convinced were re-gifted.
One friend got us an engraved picture frame with our names and date of the wedding. We still have our wedding picture in there on our dresser.
Honestly, I was happy with everything, anything anyone did I thought was sweet.
We got the china and the waterford - I have the china out, but don’t use it, but we use the waterford crystal - ballyshannon - all the time.
I think it’s nice to get things you wouldn’t necessarily buy for yourself when you’re young and starting out.
Of the stuff on our list we use the silverware every day and I still like it. We use the Wedgewood a lot less often, but I do still like it. Annoying to have something you are reluctant to put in a dishwasher. We actually used it a lot more when we were young and dishwasherless! Amusingly my brother picked the same pattern in a different color having no idea it was our pattern too.
My favorite presents were ones not on our list at all. We got a useful sized serving bowl from the NIH guy my dh worked for during his college summers. An impoverished architect colleague of mine gave us a big pile of nice dish towels. We only replaced them last year. My best friend gave me a crystal bud vase that lives on the kitchen windowsill and generally has something in it. My sister-in-law gave me (well actually she made me a pay her a penny) a good knife set. And I got a cute little pottery vase that is just right for sticking little wild flowers or herb flowers in. It was small enough it was one of the few things we brought to Germany with us when we first married. I’ve loved it ever since. It was some friend of my parent’s that I barely knew who gave it to us.
Probably the gift that made the biggest impression on me was from the wife of my dad’s childhood friend. She gave us a queen-sized handmade quilt in the wedding ring pattern. The entire thing was hand-quilted and hand sewn. Must have taken her forever. It is too nice to keep on the bed on a regular basis so I keep it on a quilt rack. However, every night from September through May, I place it on the bed for extra warmth. I’ve been doing it for 35years.
The head-scratching gift at the time was from H’s brother, the best man. He gave us 2 large heavy duty trash cans from Sears. Not a sentimental bone in the guy’s body. We still have those trash cans (minus one lid) and use them all the time for yard clean up, etc.
@eyemamom - We have the same Waterford pattern - Ballyshannon.
This thread makes me realize how few gifts, good or not, I can recall. An aunt, who I wish I’d had a chance to know better, gave us some beautiful engraved sterling serving pieces. A friend of the family (my grandmother’s age) gave us an antique bowl from the country where I was born - and felt bad because she could not afford to buy us something new. I couldn’t tell her enough how much I treasured that gift.
We were given a lot of crystal and china, but I don’t remember who gave what. I had more than enough sterling flatware already, thanks to my grandmother. One Pyrex casserole has survived >15 moves, but many other things either didn’t last or were donated.
There were a couple of oddball gifts. One was a hot dog cooker that also heated the buns. It went to Goodwill. A few of my mother’s golf buddies found it amusing to give gifts with “naughty” poems or sayings on them.
I just remembered that I got a great hammock from my childhood friend …didn’t get to use it for a few years , but it was really nice.
A lot of the useless things that I got were from older relatives and family friends. That was a different generation and they entertained differently than our generation. I would only give cash now for wedding gift, but something specified in a bridal registry for a shower
My favorite wedding gift came from my grandmother. She got us starter pieces of a very fancy Nativity scene, just a baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Then she added a piece each year for my Christmas gift, and when she passed away my mom carried on that theme.
The gift I thought was oddest at the time, but turned out to be very useful, was a polka dot pitcher and glasses set. Each glass has polka dots of a single color - one glass with red dots, one with yellow, one with green, etc for 8 glasses. The pitcher had polka dots incorporating all eight colors. I laughed at the time because it just wasn’t my style, but it is very practical for telling one person’s drink from someone else’s. Still using it 20 years later.
I went to a smallish LAC and my advisor gave us a beautiful high-end vase with a note that said it is hard starting out, but everyone should have at least one beautiful piece of art in their crappy apartment. We also got a blender from our collective group of friends, wrapped in a giant wicker basket. The blender broke almost right away, but we still have the basket in our lviing room.
Least useful present was salad bowls. We still have one but it’s in the back of the hall closet holding miscellenous items.
I love the fully loaded tool box idea! Will use that idea one day. My favorite gift was a silver cake server and matching cake forks. We use that set for all special celebrations - birthdays, Mother’s day, Thanksgiving pies. We had a destination wedding and were caught off guard by all the bulky, heavy gifts we had to pack in our luggage. Customs was a nightmare. Luckily, this was before the airlines restricted baggage allowances. We bought a few big gym bags and wrapped glass items in newspapers. Still, a few glass gifts didn’t survive the trip home.
One of those fabulous original Crock Pots. I used it for at least 35 years.
A wonderful picnic basket with a tablecloth and napkins.
@lje62 - we went through a phase where we gave everyone we knew from college a hammock! So much more fun than a casserole dish. @lookingforward - I have to ask…do you use your decanter? We received a lovely Waterford one but have never used it. Maybe we should.
My parents’ friend gave us this “craft flower arrangement” that was composed of plastic fake flowers spray painted with “antique” finishes. Large, large arrangement. They were very generous in their giving. She probably worked on it for many weeks. It was huge. We lived in a 500 sq ft apt. Even if is wasn’t ugly as sin, it was bigger than our only table.
I wrote a nice thank you note. The lady gave us a gift.
Best simple gift, as was mentioned a while back on another thread, a huge stainless bowl. Probably cost $15. Use it every Thanksgiving for stuffing, plus icing things down and washing things up.
@mathmom , what’s your Wedgwood pattern?
I’m trying to think of ones that come in several colors…Runnymede? Florentine? 
Absolute favorite gift was a beautiful china nativity set from my best friend’s parents, complete with angels, sheep and shepherd, donkeys, a cow and a camel plus all the standard pieces. One of my most favorite parts of Christmas is pulling out that box and unwrapping each of the pieces, and thinking of this special family and what they have meant to me over the years as I set up the manger scene.
Surprisingly useful gift - an all white ceramic chip and dip set. I thought it was so blah when I opened it and couldn’t imagine why my friend had picked it, but we use that dang thing almost every time we entertain a group. The dip bowl and the platter are just the right size and shapes, and any kind of dip and acoutrement looks good on the white ceramic, plus it works with any season and any table color theme. Love it!
I picked a pretty but inexpensive crystal pattern, and was therefore fortunate to receive a full set each of red and white wine glasses, champagne flutes, and high-balls. Love displaying them in my breakfront, and using them when we have company. My good china was hand-me-down from my grandmother, and I don’t use it much. Still using my everyday pattern, which is one step above Corelle!
While there were some dud gifts that were eventually given away (multiple mantel clocks!), I still have lots of my wedding gifts in use 25 years later, and I really appreciate them. I think it’s sad that the tradition of giving gifts you wouldn’t necessarily buy for yourself is fading away.
My favorite and most useful items were stainless steels bowls set of 3, mikasa serving dishes, corelle, and a clear vase with a pink rose painted on it.
The strangest gift I got was a black leather jacket made for a 12 year old. It came in a Nordstrom box but is surely was not purchased there.
I’m looking on this thread for ideas for future gifts. If anyone else is doing that, one thing we gave our children was a cleaning service for 6 months. When the grandkids were born, each time we paid for a year of cleaning.
We just celebrated 32 years last week and have most of our gifts. I remember all gifts and givers except those we received from my mother’s friends. Bless them!
Favorites - my Mikasa “Black Tie” china although we only received two settings. My father like the pattern and bought 12 settings for my mother for their anniversary. I bought 10 more settings for us and serving pieces on close out and found a big batch at a resale shop for $10. Yeah, me! Also love a white w/flowers lasagna dish and covered pedestal cake plate. The dome was broken in a move last year.
Least favorite - the two woks I’m sure weren’t on my registry. They were passed along to friends before we developed a love for Asian food.
I try to buy something on the registry or if they are particularly young or have many gifting friends, give cash. I do love Corning “French White” bowls and serving pieces and plain white rectangle/ square pieces for everyday.