The BEST wedding present you got...

[TravelingGal]

OK, so this talk about registries and what not got me thinking...

What is the best/favorite wedding gift you received? And was it off your registry or not?

I have not gotten gifts yet, and while I think it will be nice to get gifts off our registry, I can already bet our best gift will come from my best friend. She bought me something she thought that I would like TWO years ago...before I was ever engaged (or had the prospect of getting engaged for that matter!) I think she saw it and told her husband she had to get it for me, but it was too extravagant a gift just for any occasion so she saved it. She always used to ask me "when are you getting married...your gift is taking up space in my house!" I don''t know what it is, but just the thought of her thinking of me makes me smile.

 

[Mara]

hand-crocheted pot warmers!!!! YAH!

just kidding.

our best gift was probably the one my MOH got us, the silver memory box she had engraved with our names and date and put a bunch of mementos and pictures and stuff from the planning and actual wedding and trip to hawaii etc. it was really sweet, and totally up my alley. and now when i come across things from the wedding or planning stuff, i put it in the box. it''ll be fun to go through it again in a few years!

 

[sumbride]

We haven''t received any gifts yet, but I''ve been told of one that I''m ecstatic about! My friend Heather is a professional wedding photographer. She doesn''t want to be ours because she wants to be a guest, but she said she would take pictures before and after and such, and with the disc from our photographer, she will make our album for us. That not only saved us money on photos, but I know it will include more and her creative style is just so amazing that I can''t wait to see the finished product. Plus the value of the gift will be close to $1k had we actually had to purchase it. I''m glad SHE''s not buying off the registry. When she got married I bought her sheets and a crock pot.

 

[ChargerGrrl]

Less than 3 weeks to go, and we haven't received many gifts. A couple of placesettings, wine glasses, etc...

This is soooo silly- I was SUPER excited about the asparagus dish I registered for at C&B. And was thrilled when I got it! It's my favorite so far...

But my nambe kissing s&p shakers and candlesticks are still out there!

 

[scarlet16]

For our engagement party, totally unexpectedly my oldest friend and her family bought us the Swavorski Crystal toasting flutes. Clearly NOT on our registry. Honestly, I don''t even like china but these are AMAZING!

 

[widget]

Interesting! I bet "non-registered" gifts will win out over "registered" ones.

I CLEARLY remember my favorite wedding gift...I got it 39 years ago!

It was an antique ''canape set''...a small knife, fork and spoon in an old box. With it was a typed card from the antique store describing the style and age...I was blown away!!!! It was my first antique..

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[TravelingGal]

Date: 9/12/2006 1:22:56 PM
Author: widget
Interesting! I bet ''non-registered'' gifts will win out over ''registered'' ones.

I bet you''re right...I think that non-registered THOUGHTFUL gifts will win out over registered ones!

 

[Mara]

i totally agree widget...BUT on the other hand...(worms! worms!)

i bet that if there was a thread on WORST wedding gifts you got (i think there is already one from the past) they''d all be OFF registry as well!

so when you buy off registry you take a risk. they will either love it or they will hate it. hopefully if you know them quite well and put thought into what they would like then they will love it.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

The whole gift thing REALLY surprised me. Who gave what, who didn''t give anything. Very interesting! The best would be from DH''s 2nd cousin. He has a villa in Jamiaca and are letting us have it for a week! Yah! Vacation! It is a four bedroom house with a pool, maid and chef so we are inviting our parents as a special thank you for giving us the wedding of our (well, at least my

) dreams.

 

[woobug02]

SDL you crack me up!!!!

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Oh, SDL, I might have you there. Our worst was this bear made out of an old wedding dress. Who''s wedding dress? No idea. It was stained and smelled bad. Very strange. I didn''t even like stuffed animals when I was little. At least your gift was new.

 

[Blenheim]

I''ve received one engagement gift and no wedding gifts, and have yet to register. So take this with a grain of salt.

The gift that I am currently most excited about is my family''s china and silver. My grandmother has a couple sets of each, and has told me that I can pick one out when I visit her over Christmas and she''ll give it to me as a wedding present.

The other most exciting gift, also not on the registry but they''re really working with us, is the honeymoon from our future-in-laws. They''ve suggested a week in Mexico or the Caribbean, which sure sounds good to me!

 

[DonaBella]

When I got married years and years ago, we got alot of interesting and very nice gifts. Of our gifts, the one that proved very useful but strange was a ridiculously huge roll of Christmas plaid wrapping paper. I thought, wrapping paper? Christmas plaid? Seriously, it was HUGE. It had alot of square feet on it and it was exceptionally nice quality and we used it for about three or four Christmas'' cuz we were poor. I did use wire ribbon or other decorative ribbon when I wrapped but we had two babies back to back (14 months apart!) and by the time the third child came, we had a little more $ so were relieved to used something else. Needless to say, I am not fond of plaid anything...

 

[DonaBella]

I guess outside of the wrapping paper, which was very useful, I would say it was the nice vacuum my folks got us. We really were poor college students and could not have afforded such a nice vacuum. We used it for years until it fell apart...

 

[Dee*Jay]

Date: 9/12/2006 2:12:30 PM
Author: DeannaBana
When I got married years and years ago, we got alot of interesting and very nice gifts. Of our gifts, the one that proved very useful but strange was a ridiculously huge roll of Christmas plaid wrapping paper. I thought, wrapping paper? Christmas plaid? Seriously, it was HUGE. It had alot of square feet on it and it was exceptionally nice quality and we used it for about three or four Christmas'' cuz we were poor. I did use wire ribbon or other decorative ribbon when I wrapped but we had two babies back to back (14 months apart!) and by the time the third child came, we had a little more $ so were relieved to used something else. Needless to say, I am not fond of plaid anything...

Please at least tell me you got married in December!

 

[widget]

"I bet non-registered gifts will win out over registered ones..."

Author: Mara
i totally agree widget...BUT on the other hand...i bet that if there was a thread on WORST wedding gifts you got....they''d all be OFF registry as well!

I gotta agree with you, Mara...touche!


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[JCJD]

My dad gave us their old dining room table and chairs - it has 2 leaves and a total of either 8 or 10 chairs, in great condition! The dining room set I grew up with.

J's dad bought us our queen size bed too.

Non-parent best wedding presents? A relative of J's made us a little mailbox-shaped stamp dispenser. It holds a roll of stamps and the stamps are dispensed out of the front of the mailbox. The mailbox flag sits on the side and holds the roll in the holder. It also has our last name on the top. It's really cute and really useful.

Clearly, none were on our registries!

 

[NewShiny]

This is a great thread!

The best (besides the gift of the wedding itself from our parents) was a set of silverware from my parents. It has been in dad''s family since 1847. The set is almost complete. One day I''m going to polish it all and look for the replacements to make it whole again.

The worst? I think I can top you, Tacori. We got a set of used cookbooks. How do I know they were used? Well, we got married in 2005 and the book was "The best of cooking light 2004". To top it off, the books themselves were dusty and there was dried up food splatterd on them. gross!! The guest BTW were my parents friends son and his fiance. I don''t really know them at all and hopefully won''t be seeing them again for a long, long time.

I''ll also add that although we got so much and everyone was so generous to us (notwithstanding above), we only got 2 pieces of crystal. The crystal is what I was really hoping to get. But, I''m adding to the collection slowly. Its become a project for me. I shoudn''t be complaining at all though, since we did get all of our china and just about everything else we asked for kitchen/diningwise.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Newshiney that is gross! Some people just don''t get it huh?

 

[MustangGal]

My best gift was from a old (she''s like 80 or 90 now) friend of my mom''s family that I don''t even really know. She gave us an entire set of silverwear from 1946 that had never been used. It was still wrapped in the original packaging. It was sooo cool to find something that old that is still "new". My worst gift was actually getting nothing from two families that attended the wedding each with 2 children. I babysat all four kids everyday for almost a year, and got nothing for a wedding gift? Makes my hope that maybe it got lost or something...

 

[Maria D]

I didn''t register so I can''t compare registry to non-registry. The best gift is a set of dishes given to me from a college friend. He was a waiter at the time we got married and when I was at the restaurant I really liked the plates they used and mentioned it. He got us a set of 16 of those plates. They were brand new, but for all I know he stole them from the restaurant! (He was a struggling grad student at the time.) They now have huge sentimental value because he died a couple of years later. I still use them as my everyday plates but I think we''re down to 12.

We got mostly cash so there wasn''t anything outstanding enough to be "worst." But I think my worst presents period probably come from my husband! One year, he got me a, I kid you not, wind-up car flashlight for a birthday gift. I guess that one was worth it for entertainment value alone.

I would put used cookbooks and smelly bears right up there with dead roses on Val. Day.

 

[GarysBride]

We have yet to even register. But the best gift I received was from my fiance, a mini doxi puppy! I know alot of you have seen pictures but if not heres a recent one! we named him Duke and hes currently 19 weeks old hes the best gift yet better than any crystal candy dish!

my loves....

 

[TravelingGal]

Oh, I love the puppy!

LOL...I thought I should ask about the best gifts since worst gifts could open up a can of worms, but they are always so funny. I''d be interested to see where the worst gift thread is on PS, since someone said there was one.

I like reading about the best gifts though, since it''s great to see some of the thought that goes behind a "best gift."

 

[KimberlyH]

We requested no gifts, if people were insistant we said donate to a charity and selected a few of our favorites in case they wanted to know. About 1/2 the guests (14 couples in total) gave gifts anyways, including lots of gift cards and a few things to remember the day by (crystal serving pieces, a vase, and a bone china hot chocolate pot), but since there was no registry and no expectation they were all great and so generous of everyone!

Aside from the wedding itself, paid for by my mom and dad, they gave us champagne glasses with our initials inscribed, I hadn''t thought of toasting glasses and I just love them.

My sister is the scrapbook queen and made us a blank book with a Hawaii theme so we can add our honeymoon pictures, I love that too.

For the non sentimental a fab set of Calaphon pots and pans from my aunt and uncle.

They''re all my favorites I guess, how silly!

 

[njc]

Favorite gifts:
- Pressed glass candy dish with lid that belonged to my fathers maternal grandmother and a picture of her in her rose garden
- Pressed glass cake stand that belonged to my fathers paternal grandmother
- Waterford pitcher that MIL gave to her sister (DHs aunt) when she got married. She recently died from cancer.

Worst gift:
A cotton throw blanket with our wedding date and our names... except they are our middle names?!

 

[flopkins]

Best - I have two. From the registry, the best gift we got was our Wustof knives. My grad school friends all pitched in a got the whole set, basically, and we use them almost every day. I can''t believe how awesome they are.

Non-registry the best gift was SIL''s gift - she hand stitched two matching blanket/pillow sets, one pink, one blue, with our wedding date and initials on them. THe cutest part is the pink pillow has a small blue heart on it, the blue pillow has a small pink heart.. they are so cozy and comfy, we use them all the time!!! (esp me, the one who is always cold, no matter what the season!) They were wrapped in the Sunday comic strips (this was a family joke, that DH would get his wedding gift wrapped in newspaper) and labelled ''His'' and ''Hers''.. what a thoughtful and special gift!!!!

The only prob is DH is so anal about them he doesn''t want anyone else using them, and is afraid to put them thru the wash... bc of the hand stitching and all that.

 

[MINE!!]

I got a bottle of wine from a New Zealand winery from a very very old friend of mine. He and his wife went there for vacation and thought about us. It was very special... He said that even though we did not drink, we could keep it as a reminder that ,like wine, freindships just keep getter better with age.... We love it.

 

[MelissaSue]

My sister got me our Calphalon cookware set as a wedding present. I think it was my favorite because I did not expect to get it.. and especially not from her.. lol.. because she was definitely rubbing me the wrong way leading up to the wedding.. and we were just in general confict for most of the months leading up to the wedding.. So it was a very big suprise when she gave it to me (She actually brought it over the day after the wedding..)..