I’ve got three of my mother’s Revereware pots. I suspect she gave them to me so she could get the good stuff. I thought about bringing her cookware home after she died but it was too expensive to ship and I couldn’t carry it on the plane. I think it was Calaphon–really heavy and bright colors.
Really heavy & bright colors, I think of Le Creuset
Best/ most useful - a very good quality set of stainless flatware in a nice, plain pattern that I love (from my Grandma). A picnic basket set, with plates, bowls with lids, plastic wineglasses, an opener, heavy plasric utensils, ground tablecloth (we liked this so much that we fot the same for at least two other couples). The pieces wore out or got lost over time, and I think we ditched the rest when we moved, but we had lots of nice picnics with it. A set of nesting pyrex bowls with plastic lids (still have 3/4).
Saddest - a really beautiful set of crystal candlesticks. Sad because I broke one about 5 days after the wedding. I think I still have the other, couldn’t bring myself to junk it.
Coolest/oddest- a struggling artist friend gave us a small woven rug from South America. We still have it after30 years, and it’s amazingly sturdy. Another friend gave us an ounce of good pot and a couple of tea towels, I think the tea towels were maybe “cover”?
Worst - nothing really. A couple of shower gifts were weird - like a cozy for a teapot with a weird cat design.
I have a question, though. A good friend is getting married next week, and I’m an estate planner. Would it be weird for me to offer to prepare their estate plan as a wedding gift? We’ve talked and I know that they don’t have any thing in place, but want to do it. They are young professionals, planning to have a child, and I know she would not prefer to have another attorney to do it (we’re that close, personally and professionally).
@Sweetbeet I think that would be a nice gift as long as you are confident that she AND the new spouse wouldn’t mind you knowing all their intimate financial details. On the one hand I know it is expensive to get it done, on the other some people might prefer more of an arm’s length from their personal life for such things.
Good points. We live on a very small island with few specialists in this area, so they don’t have many choices. But I should ask her, she’ll run it by him and be honest with me.
Personally, I’d be fine with such a gift! 
Go for it! You can represent the couple - as long as you spell out all of the consequences of you working for them both (e.g., no expectations of confidentiality and hiding things from each other, like secret loevrs and kids born out of wedlock ).
What we liked…money.
What we didn’t…any kind of bedding or towels…because I’m a little nuts and have issues with linens.
I have weird taste. I’m not into matching services of things. I love eclectic and artistic and unique. When people buy me tan towels…I’m grateful, because I think towels are a very practical item that I’ll use. But secretly, I’ll wish they could have been jewel green…and instead of two sets of hand towels and wash cloths and standard bath towels…I would have wished for two huge bath sheets. Extra thick Egyptian cotton. I have strong opinions about this stuff.
You can’t buy me sheets because I’m a sheet snob. It’s a character flaw. I would rather buy super luxury sheets of a certain type that don’t match at an outlet mall…than get a matching set of what most people would consider to be good sheets. Call it a fetish. My sheets have to be thick, study, no iron, and super smooth and cool to the touch. High thread count, high density thread. Texture is everything. I couldn’t care less about color or pattern.
Someone got me a beautiful down alternative comforter. I like it very much…but I wish I could have applied the money to a real down comforter. Pretty jerky, right? Objectively, I know this…but my heart needs dead geese in my bed…in a blanket with good baffles and not too much shift.
I feel ashamed of my ingratitude. it’s really only linens and towels that cause me to be a jerk. i just really love good towels, sheets and blankets…have been collecting and researching what I like for a long time.
Some unexpected gifts that we LOVED:
A really nice tea pot.
A truck load of rescued rehomed house plants in beautiful pots.
Camping gear.
A beautiful glass hummingbird feeder.
A gift certificate to pick out my own scrapbooking stuff
A romantic basket of wine, cheese, crackers, chocolates, candles and bath salts.
An immersion blender (had no idea how much I’d love these things)
A canning set…that I thought would be an absolute bust…but as it turned out, I REALLY like to can stuff. Who knew?
A stack of high quality lined laundry baskets. So much nicer than plastic ones, and you can store towels in them in the spare bathroom and they look nice…this person understood my linen fetish and enabled me.
@Consolation We have almost all of our 1985 stuff too and use it. We did get rid of the set of casual dishes and broke some of the drinking glasses, and the bed sheets have bit the dust.
Wait, they can’t just pluck the geese and let the feathers grow back? Rats, now I have guilt about my down jacket…
@MotherOfDragons , I totally get you on the linens thing. Really, I cannot imagine buying bed linens for someone else, unless they registered for them. It is such a personal thing.
I know people who love flannel sheets, for example. I am all about high thread count, all cotton, and cool. Incluing in the winter. The ONLY time I have enjoyed sleeping on flannel sheets was on a camp bed in a large canvas tent on a platform in a girl’s camp in Maine after the end of the season, when it was cool at night.
When there is something you are particular about, it’s just the way it is.
I am with you! I like my linens the way I like them - no flannel (I despise flannel to begin with). A friend gave me a set of fleece sheets. They made great bedding for shelter cats and dogs… (donated!).
I didn’t think I was a sheet snob until I had to sleep on jersey sheets. Polyester, pilled, sweaty. I had a serious princess and the pea moment and ended up sleeping on top of the comforter.
I love percale. Don’t like the glossy fabrics. If someone gave me sateen, have to admit, I wouldn’t use them, either.
Few things can equal the horror of having to sleep on pilled cotton/polyester sheets. 
Microfiber sheets seem to be quite controversial. I have liked mine, but I don’t live in a hot area and I like the softness
Loved - padded folding chairs from my husband’s fraternity brother. His wife kept apologizing, but 31 years later we still use the 2 that we still have!
Worst - it’s a tie! There was a really strange planter that looked like a project that might have I made in grade school, but it still had a price tag, so not home made. The re-gifted coffee grinder with the original gift giver’s card, “Happy coffee times Caroline & Jeff. Love, Aunt Rose.” We re-gifted it our father-in-law when he asked for it and made sure to include the 2 previous cards as a joke.
We are about to get rid of the engraved and tarnished silver plated water pitcher which we received as a wedding gift from an aunt. It was a kind and beautiful gift, but for us it was impractical and has been collecting dust all these years…
I’m old fashioned, and frequently use my mother’s china (It helps that it’s white!) and my grandmother’s sterling flatware, both wedding gifts. These come out a few times a month for no reason at all.
I don’t remember the hideous things we got, but am sure we received some. My favorite gift was a picnic basket.
I have had both real down and down alternative comforters. Definitely prefer the alternative- lightweight and doesn’t shift along seams. To each his/her own. Up north I switched out the cool summer sheets for flannel (here in FL I switch comforter to blanket).
Pots and pans. My sister still loves her cast iron. I got rid of mine. I absolutely love nonstick because I hate scrubbing stuck on/burnt stuff… Also dislike metal handles even if they stay cool- softer materials so much nicer. Therefore you can rave about a brand but it is a no go if the handle is hard- metal.
Folding chairs- sounds like the card table and chairs sets we have owned. Got a second set for a vacation condo which we later sold. Let son have the oldest/least nice table and 4 chairs for a college apartment with several other guys. They had a small balcony and one chair was ruined by spring. Son still has the table and… 3 folding padded chairs. Easy to move from place to place, cities.