<p>I thought I would start a new topic. Since we’ve had so much fun on the Wedding and bad guests threads.</p>
<p>Wondering about everyone’s wedding presents. We got lovely presents. To this day I still remember and think about the people who gave them. I picked modest china, still like it and love it to this day. My H was adamant that we keep most of what we got and only return duplicates. We were happy with money that we received but honestly the things we received packed more punch. </p>
<p>My sister returned all the presents she could. They went on a honeymoon with the money. My SIL registered for a very expensive china (over $200 a place setting which was a lot for the time). She only received a few place settings so she returned it. She did register for a nice everyday set which she does still use.</p>
<p>It was so nice to have my MIL add to my crystal at holidays. Don’t have sterling, my mom and MIL do but seems so old fashioned today.</p>
<p>Want to add my thanks to ellebud for this. She inspired me to start this.</p>
<p>We were the first of our friends to get married, so nobody had jobs. We got a lot of towels! A favorite gift was from my college professor/advisor, who was at a dinner our college held for academic achievers. At our table, the conversation turned to wedding registries, and I said I didn’t need china or crystal, I needed regular people stuff. And he said you should always start life with something beautiful. </p>
<p>When we unwrapped his gift, it was a gorgeous-but-small-high end vase, with a note that said “here’s the something beautiful. Go have a beautiful life”.</p>
<p>We received place settings and individual pieces of the silver we registered for. We didn’t register for anything else, since I already had 6 or 7 china patterns and other household stuff. People also gave us crystal candlesticks, platters and serving pieces and other nice things. Bizarrely, one of my best friends gave us a houseplant! I never figured that one out, since she later went out and bought herself 12 place settings of MY silver and a couple of my china patterns! (She actually bought some of the same items people gave us for wedding presents, also. She said, "I don’t have any personal taste, and I like yours, so I just copy you. That really was rather odd, don’t you think?) We did not receive any money. Neither of us came from a background where giving cash was considered to be in good taste. We also had a very small wedding–only about 50 people–so we didn’t get vast numbers of wedding presents.</p>
<p>Greenbutton, I love it. That’s my general philosophy of wedding present selection also. :)</p>
<p>Oh, that is so sweet, greenbutton! My favorite wedding gift is a blown glass vase with the artist’s initials on the bottom. Classic and beautiful.</p>
<p>We got married rather late (early-mid 30s), and we got some fabulous gifts…not necessarily in terms of value but in terms of sentiment. Many of my friends knew I loved Christmas ornaments and we received some lovely and unique ones. We also got china and crystal and stainless. We also got a wonderful ceramic bowl from an artist friend of my mother’s. My sterling is an old, discontinued pattern, so difficult to buy except online. But I already had almost a full set - so I didn’t tell anyone about it.</p>
<p>During our engagement, my DH kept warning me that we would get lots of card tables/chairs - because he had several aunts who always gave those as presents (usually for showers). I was excited because we really could have used the extra tables/chairs for our crawfish boils, BBQs, etc. Ironically - we didn’t get a single one! ;(</p>
<p>I didn’t register for china or sterling, but some decent Dansk dishes and a nice flatware service, and we didn’t get all of either of those (in part because Bloomingdale’s registry made it so difficult). But what we did receive was FOURTEEN vases. Just what a couple in graduate school in Manhattan needs–we certainly didn’t have enough money to buy flowers, and we had NO storage space. I regifted as many as I could.</p>
<p>I didn’t register for much, since I had been living in an apartment by myself for 5 years before we got married. We did get much of the items we registered for. One gift that meant a lot to us is my paternal grandmother insisted on buying us a complete set of china rimmed in gold and hand-carrying it from Sacramento to Honolulu, along with a complete set of gold-colored flatware. It was so sweet of her, but we haven’t used it yet.</p>
<p>We did get a lovely platter that is stainless which we do use. We also use a very nice Henkel stainless carving set, several serving pieces, and some tupperware. We got a LOT of cash and checks, which is well-accepted in Hawaii. Also got some jewelry, which was all stolen when our house was burgled about two decades ago. H got a VCR as the Bachelor Party gift, because the bar hostesses & strippers they knew had all retired & raised their families (we were older when we met & married). My sister gave us a 19" color TV, which we kept for over 20 years.</p>
<p>DH and I married very young. I was still in college. He was one year out of college. We needed everything. His parents gave us a bedroom suite. Thirty years later…still using it. My Mom paid for the wedding and bought the wedding pics for us.</p>
<p>Since DH and I were from the same hometown, there were lots of wedding showers/gifts. We got almost every possible piece of our china (inexpensive Mikasa…still like/use it) including all the serving pieces, full set of stainless and glassware,lots of towels, Some small kitchen appliances (still have the electric knife…ditched the hot air popcorn popper),multiple pieces of CorningWare. My favorite aunt gave me an iron and an ironing board…still use it. My brother built us a kitchen table that I studied on in college,S1 used it on the porch of his college house,S2 used it in the" study room" of his college house and now DH uses it in his ManCave. We didn’t receive any money. That wasn’t a traditon in our rural southern hometown.</p>
<p>Packmom, we’ve been married almost 29 years and STILL don’t have a bedroom suite (or anything resembling matching furniture)! We have been contemplating…</p>
<p>We registered for Mikasa china, did not sign up for silverware or crystal. My folks got us some stainless, which we use as our good stuff and one of my sisters with the same set uses as daily. They got us a microwave – that thing was HUGE. Mom also picked up some stoneware at the Sears outlet which we still use. The guys (DH and boy guy) don’t want me to get rid of it. DH grumbles that he “doesn’t get rid of stuff that’s gotten old and used up and replaces it with a new and improved model…” Guess I should be grateful. ;)</p>
<p>We were a year out of school and most of our friends were still in school/just starting out. Several of them pooled funds to get us colanders, knives, etc.</p>
<p>I don’t think S1 and fiancee have even thought about a registry or gifts. Her GPs just gave them a check and the two of them are dumbfounded at the concept.</p>
<p>Yep, we don’t have any matching bedroom furniture either. We do have a dining room set that H bought long before he & I met. We did get a set of silver but don’t use it. </p>
<p>In HI, gifts of cash are very common–for most important occasions, for nearly all cultures (sure beats having to do a lot of returns/exchanges). Part of it may be that many live in rather small spaces and no point in having a lot of duplicates taking up space. Many in fact live in extended family situations because rental & housing prices are so high. For showers, that is one of the few times actual gifts are purchased instead.</p>
<p>My MIL got both our names and wedding date engraved on a cake-cutting knife. We used it that day and at most every festive home entertaining moment since. She’s gone now and I choke up whenever I use it. She was a very thoughtful lady.</p>
<p>We married later than most of the family, and received many lovely gifts–china, crystal, flatware. DH’s aunt brought 4 place settings of everyday dishes on the plane…I appreciate them all. But I use those William Sonoma oven mitts nearly everyday and they are still going strong. Love the crystal salad bowl, the pierced serving bowl, and the hand mixer. One cousin gave us a Belleck cake server, we use it frequently.</p>
<p>Oh, and we received cash and checks. Very traditional here. And more cash in the bag for the money dance. That was something of an issue. MIL wildly opposed, my family would have been very hurt. Decided people could particpate or not, it was up to them. DH was shocked at how generous those gifts were…</p>
<p>We married a couple of months before DH was sent to Germany in the Army and we knew that was where we were headed. We did not register for gifts. We got married in Connecticut where his family lived hoping his very ill mother might be able to attend ( she could not)and then had a reception in Iowa in my hometown. We had no duplicate gifts and did not return anything. We did get some cash and we used it to buy our flatware and a German wall unit; we still have and use both.</p>
<p>My mother-in-law’s friends had a shower for me and one woman gave me a pretty crystal vase with directions for DH to keep it filled. He does a pretty good job, but I use a slightly bigger vase.</p>
<p>My best friend at the time gave us a set of Laura Ashley towels. Those towels have been in constant use for 27 years and are still in good shape. And she’s still my best friend.</p>
<p>My son and wife were gifted a wooden salad bowl set where the big serving bowl was filled with “mixed greens” = a bowl containing crumpled up $10, $20, and $50 dollar bills with a note to be served “without dressing” ;)</p>
<p>Was quite the fun and thoughtful way to present cash!</p>
<p>We did not register for anything. We had a very small wedding, and plenty of household “stuff” we had both accumulated. We were asked if we wanted china or crystal and said we didn’t want either. The person who asked bought us crystal which we really haven’t used much at all. We have 12 wine and water goblets. </p>
<p>We did get 12 plain cream color Lenox plates that we love. </p>
<p>The gift we used the most was a crock pot. I just replaced it after over 25 years of use!</p>
<p>I love the wedding gifts that just become part of everyday/regular use! I have a couple of Nambe pieces (silvery/pewter items)- one well used as a spoon rest by my cooktop and one is used regularly as a bread tray. The lovely hand-made ceramic bowl is always full of fruit, and the crystal champagne and wine glasses are used on all special occasions.</p>
<p>Some of my favorite gifts that are used to day: a magnificent carving block…I keep it on my counter. After 33 years I rarely use it because the wood is so amazing. I don’t want knife lines. Husband’s side got me a Steuben ginger jar vase which I love. (Started my collection of Steuben…clean lines). While I am very traditional in many respects we received a Sasha Brastoff (spelling?) bowl that wasn’t new…recycled. I love it. One of my cousins sent a chicken head casserole…yeppers…head on one side of the top and the neck stretched to the other side. That was an abomination which did get lost when we moved to our second house.</p>
<p>We did receive 12 place settings of our everyday china (Villeroy & Boch Basket) and 8 of my “good” china…a Limoges. Sixteen place settings of our sterling. My stainless was from a trip to New York: Fortunoff’s super discount buy. I think that the whole set was$25.</p>
<p>I too received some pewter…use it ALL the time.</p>
<p>Nowadays I buy Nambe, Orrefors because that seems to be the taste. My kids know that at some point they will be dividing up my stuff…I hope they like it…if not THEIR children will probably like it.</p>
<p>Oh…and I who have 9 full sets of china, service for a regiment in sterling…we tend to grab the old stainless and the melamine plates that we used when our kids were little…nice.</p>