Wedding Gift Poll

[Rosebud]

I'm trying to decide what kinds of gifts to give several friends who are getting married this year. I thought I'd ask you which of your gifts were favorites, in hopes of giving something similarly enjoyable to my friends.


Wedding Gift Poll:

1. What was your favorite overall wedding gift?

2. Which of your gifts do you use most often?

3. What was the most unusual/ creative gift you received?

4. Anything you got that you don't use much or don't recommend giving to others?


Thanks! :D

[pride&prejudice]

Wedding Gift Poll:

1. What was your favorite overall wedding gift?
Family members who chipped in for a specific item of the wedding. (Ie. One of my good girlfriends offered to do my makeup as a wedding gift, IL's gave us our honeymoon) There are just too many to name!

2. Which of your gifts do you use most often?
My cooking stuff! I got some pots, pans, attachments for my mixer to make pasta, etc. I love to cook so that made my day!

3. What was the most unusual/ creative gift you received?
Scenic Painting from SIL, which now hangs in our bedroom.

4. Anything you got that you don't use much or don't recommend giving to others?
Didn't really get anything I didn't like. I wouldn't stray from money or the registry if you aren't definitely sure of a gift. (ie. the painting we got from SIL. We didn't have any art on our registry, but she knows that we love art, and waht type of paintings we like)

Hope that helps!

[lisainpink]

1. My sister gave us two place settings of our fine china, two wine goblets from our crystal, and two of our rimmed soup bowls. She wrapped them with recipe cards for an easy- but delicious multi course meal. I loved it. Dinner for two.

2. Our flatware. A boring answer- but my MIL bought us 12 place settings of our stainless. We use it constantly. SIL also bought us all the serving pieces- so I sometimes use it with my fine (instead of the sterling.) Oh- or our sheets!! A friend bought us 600 thread count sheets and had our married monogram embroidered on the top sheet and each pillow case. Love, love, love them!

3. A friend of my Mom's is an artist. He did an ink drawing of a winter landscape and framed it. It was perfect for our den. He asked my Mom what types of frames we had in the den- I just love it!

4. A friend of MIL bought us a gigantic silver turkey platter. I don't mean kinda big- I mean DH and I could both sit on it and have more room. It is gorgeous- and I can't imagine how much it must have cost- BUT- I don't know that I will EVER use it! Not to mention it takes up soooo much. I have a long cabinent meant for cookie sheets and broiling pans. The turkey takes up half the space! I had to keep it. MIL thought it was fantastic. If I ever host Thanksgiving, I guess I'll break it out.

[Happy1]

Wedding Gift Poll:

1. What was your favorite overall wedding gift?

2. Which of your gifts do you use most often?

3. What was the most unusual/ creative gift you received?

4. Anything you got that you don't use much or don't recommend giving to others?

1. Our favorite wedding gift was a wall grandfather clock my dad made (he's a woodworker on the side as a hobby). Since I know that won't really help you since that's probably way out of your price range, another gift was a handmade afghan someone knitted. Both my DH and I are tall so they made it extra big and I love being able to wrap up in it.

2. I use the splatter guards (just cheapie, plastic domes that go over plates when you put them in the microwave) most often. I half heartedly registered for them and actually received 2 as gifts. I love those things! I also use the pots and pans and mixer a lot.

3. The most unusal/creative gift we got was a really neat wooden, red tractor that had a corn plant growing out of it. It sounds wierd but my DH is a farmer really into the red tractors. One of the guys we invited felt bad that my DH would have to deal with all the "girly gifts" so he gave us that. We did actually try replanting the corn in the field and it didn't grow anything but we still have the wooden tractor.

4. The worst things we got were literally 6 crystal bowls. We didn't register for them and although they were extremely pretty, we're farmers and have 3 cats in our house (can't leave them sitting out). What would we do with 6 crystal bowls? We kept 2 (one I put bananas in and the other I keep to take salads to other places in) and regifted the rest. Don't worry-we also put in the amount of cash we would have spent on a gift and we gave them to people we knew wanted them and could use them.

Good luck!

Nikki :D

[sublime311]

1. What was your favorite overall wedding gift? To be honest? Money and gift cards (Target and Crate and Barrel were my faves)!! :o Those aside, I think my favorite was our HUGE electric roaster. I felt like such a grown up!

2. Which of your gifts do you use most often? Our informal place settings, towels and 3 lamps (all were on our registry).

3. What was the most unusual/ creative gift you received? Actually, I don't think we had anything really out of the ordinary. DH's best man and his wife gave us "his and her" type gifts. He received a Craftsman tool box with tools and my gift was a lamp I had been drooling over.

4. Anything you got that you don't use much or don't recommend giving to others? Pretty much anything not on my registry. We received candles and glasses that didn't go with our style/decor. It's not that I wasn't appreciative, I was, it's just that I had no use for them. They sat in a closet for a few months and then went off to Goodwill.

[ajlanden]

1. What was your favorite overall wedding gift?
By far, my favorite gift was from my boss. She gave a us a GC for 4 free house cleanings by her house cleaner. OMG, I am was heaven!

2. Which of your gifts do you use most often?
Our nice fluffy pillows.

3. What was the most unusual/ creative gift you received?
????? See #1.

4. Anything you got that you don't use much or don't recommend giving to others?
I would stay away from doing a display with a wedding invite. We got 4 of these. Although they are nice, I don't need 4! :) *ETA...We also got a lot of crystal that we didn't register for. Some people like it, but if they want it, they'll register for it.

[heather1029]

1. My favorite gifts were some canisters from Horchow...I LOVE THEM!

http://www.horchow.com/products/mp/HCK4901_mp.jpg

and my copper pots from Williams-Sonoma!

http://a1412.g.akamai.net/7/1412/243/0080/image2.styleinamerica.com/wsecimgs/images/products/200553/0013/img65m.jpg

2. Most often: Silverware from our Hecht's registry. Good standby gift!

3. Unusual: Box of treasured family recipes in a pretty box that matched my kitchen decor

4. Least Fav: Toaster oven. They're stupid! Use the oven or the microwave! I also didn't like the TWO pyrex hot/cold carriers we got. So random!

[Janey]

1. What was your favorite overall wedding gift?
I am not sure how to answer this one. The practical side of me wants to answer the same as #2. But I loved the tea set, and two of my great aunts gave me heirlooms which really touched me.

2. Which of your gifts do you use most often?
Basically "the things we use to cook/eat dinner with." Cookware, Knives, Denby, stainless.

3. What was the most unusual/ creative gift you received?
From two of our very good friends who are masters students & spent the bulk of last year in China, we received a Chinese ceremonial tea set. It is amazing. :D

4. Anything you got that you don't use much or don't recommend giving to others?
I'll echo Sublime - unless you're really good friends with them and know that they will love it... the registry is a Good Thing. I got a ceramic pitcher shaped like romaine lettuce :confused: that I hate to give to goodwill, but that's what will probably happen to it cause I just don't know what else to do with it.

[Hello Kitty]

1. What was your favorite overall wedding gift?
Besides what our parents did for our wedding/honeymoon, I'm not sure which tangible 'gift' to pick. Most people stuck to our registry, which was much appreciated as we were setting up house for the first time.

2. Which of your gifts do you use most often?
Stainless flatware & pots & pans; bed linens

3. What was the most unusual/ creative gift you received?
DH's friend got us an advertising lithograph from our first date (DMB concert) and framed it. Not only do we love the colors/style, but it's got so much meaning.

4. Anything you got that you don't use much or don't recommend giving to others?
Yeah. :o A lot of picture frames and decorative items. I feel terrible for a lot of it because people spent money on things we didn't really need or want. We were able to exchange a lot of it w/out receipts, and got cash or other things we needed.

A comment - we registered for a nice bed set that only came a-la-carte. My mom bought the duvet, but my aunt came in and filled out all the other pieces. I thought that was very, very nice. I think a lot of times people shy away from getting parts of gifts because it doesn't seem like a 'complete' enough gift on it's own. We received other gifts like that and I loved it.

[flygirl]

1. What was your favorite overall wedding gift?
Besides the family contributions, I think my favorites are a model of an WWI plane called, "The Jenny," and a boxed clock-radio that looks like airplane instruments.

2. Which of your gifts do you use most often?
Besides the every-day placeware everyone mentions, we use our fondue set and wine decanter.

What was the most unusual/ creative gift you received?
Besides the above-mentioned model plane and radio, my MOH's wedding-pic scrapbook is beautiful, and a cousin crocheted gorgeous placemats.

4. Anything you got that you don't use much or don't recommend giving to others?
Yeah, that which was regifted :rolleyes:. We got at least 8 gifts that were obviously regifted and nothing we wanted. A friend of mine received a bunch of gifts that were cheaper versions of what she had on her registry. Not that she expected the people to spend more, but why didn't they just spend that amount on something on her registry? She didn't need a $20 coffeemaker when she wanted an espresso machine, and she didn't need flatware not in her pattern.

[Chris~n~Jen]

1. What was your favorite overall wedding gift?

2. Which of your gifts do you use most often?

3. What was the most unusual/ creative gift you received?

4. Anything you got that you don't use much or don't recommend giving to others?


1. Our favorite was our honeymoon that was given to us my IL's. Favorite gift from a guest was pretty much anything on our registry. Each and every thing we register for were things that we really loved and/or needed.

2. Actually we use pretty much everything (that was on the registry :p ). See a theme here.

3. The most creative was a shadow box that my grandmother made us. It includes fabric that was used throughout the reception and our save the date and invitation. I wouldn't say it is my most favorite gift but it was our most creative. Nothing really usual since most things were from the registry.

4. Least favorite was some candles and potpouri. Not that there is anything wrong with those things but mostly it was just that they were all baby pink. My home is decorated with all neutrals with bursts of bright colors (mostly red). So they just didnt' fit in with my style. I ended up re-gifting them at my company christmas grab bag. :p The girl that I gave them to is a very girly, flowery, pinky kind of girl and I knew they would be displayed and used properly by her instead of just hanging out in my spare closet!

ITA with everyone saying that unless you know these people super well, play it safe with the registry. You can be guaranted that they will really like anything that they personally picked for themselves.

[Sazoo]

Wedding Gift Poll:

1. What was your favorite overall wedding gift? - Waterford crystal beverage glasses. These were a last-minute addition to our registry, & we really didn't need them. We had already registered for every day glasses at Target, plus crystal wine goblets, etc. from Macy's. But I LOVED these Waterford ones & was totally excited when some of our friends gave us 8 of them as a gift (4 DOFs & 4 high balls). We use them all the time too - I decided not to hide them away only to be used on "special occasions". Instead, they are mixed into our cupboard right along with our cheap regular Target drinking glasses. :)
http://slimages.macys.com/is/image/MCY/products/0/optimized/111840_fpx.tif?wid=214&bgc=196,194,194&qlt=90,0&layer=comp&op_sharpen=0&resMode=bilin&op_usm=0.7,1.0,0.5,0&fmt=jpeg

2. Which of your gifts do you use most often? - Several things: flatware, towels, Henkels knives, Denby dishes, glasses...

3. What was the most unusual/ creative gift you received? - Here's the winner of the "most unusual & so not us" gift from our wedding...we received a pair of these funky blue & yellow vases, which we, for obvious reasons, referred to as the "fishy vases":
http://images.snapfish.com/345%3A97569%7Ffp63%3Dot%3E2329%3D%3A%3B9%3D493%3DX ROQDF%3E23238%3A947%3C665ot1lsi
I ended up pawning them off onto 2 of my friends. One of them only took the vase when I told her it would be okay with me if she smashed it & used the broken pieces of colored glass to make into some sort of cool art project. :p

4. Anything you got that you don't use much or don't recommend giving to others? - I won't say "things we didn't register for" because actually a few people gave us some things that we liked that were not from our registries. However, other things that people went out on a limb for weren't so great for us - we got 2 spice racks (full of spices), a set of somewhat ugly plastic serving platters, some picture frames that are not really our style, etc. My advice is that you should only venture off of the wedding registries if you know the couple *really* well & are sure what you're getting them is their style, etc. Plus, give a gift receipt just in case. ;)

[PG-rated]

1. What was your favorite overall wedding gift?
Honestly, it's really hard for me to pick just one; we got a lot of wonderful things. A top one is our luggage set, which we've used constantly since the wedding; I love not having to use duffel bags anymore.

2. Which of your gifts do you use most often?
Probably the hammered highball and lowball glasses. Second place would be our knife set. Gift that we use way more than we thought we would: the ice cream maker.

3. What was the most unusual/ creative gift you received?
We had several of these. An old friend gave us a beautiful carved wooden box with an elephant design. A friend of DH's (who inadvertently introduced us by casting us together in his senior directing project) made this really funny cardboard storybook about the beginning of our relationship, complete with cast pictures from our first play together. My brother and his (now ex-) girlfriend made us the quilt that's on our bed.

4. Anything you got that you don't use much or don't recommend giving to others?
We only returned one gift, and that was a crystal bowl that wasn't the pattern we registered for. If a couple has crystal on their registry, you should always stick to that pattern. The only other gift that wasn't really useful was a set of bath towels MIL gave us. They're very nice and we use them, but we had plenty of bath towels already and didn't need any more.

The only other thought I have to offer is that a gift is always more personal than money. We were extremely grateful for the generous cash and checks we got, but I always think of the people who gave us the household items that we use constantly.