Comments on: The Wedding Presents

By: SamChevre

SamChevre — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:51:10 +0000

I’d second the addition of good flatware—18/10 stainless tableware is one of the most used gifts my wife and I got.

And rugs are tricky; nice rugs are nice, but what spaces you need rugs for is often an unknown to the givers.

By: David

David — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 03:59:02 +0000

Given your line of work and your community of colleagues, you should expect some high quality syllogisms, ones that may seem cryptic today but could come in quite handy in the fullness of time. A tautology or two, appropriately wrapped, would also be welcome and useful.

By: SG

SG — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:49:38 +0000

given that most of us are living with our partners before marriage now, and a lot of young people live out of home for some time before marrying, and that a lot of men also do this and now know how to do housework, does anyone else find the focus on household items for wedding gifts a little bit old-fashioned? And also kind of banal?

Having, like most people marrying today, already established the basics of a house (or at least all the parts therein which I would reasonably expect my friends or relatives would stump up the cash for if it were to be a present) I would much rather receive something like a museum membership or a nice restaurant voucher or an objet d’art or margaritas than towels or pots. Especially since the latter seem to be a clear declaration that marriage is about home-making rather than, say, love.

Does anyone agree with me?

By: Katherine

Katherine — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:54:40 +0000

Gift vouchers. That way you can buy exactly which knives/pots/pans you want and people can give as much or as little as they want/can afford. Worked very well for me – the accumulation of modest amounts resulted in good pots and pans.

By: HansG

HansG — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 04:39:32 +0000

A great gift is a leatherbound guestbook. It’s a nice item for the household which the couple is establishing, and commemorates all the moments when people visited. And it’s not the sort of thing that people buy for themselves.

By: reason

reason — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:42:25 +0000

Harry,
are you saying you didn’t live with your spouse before marriage? How absolutely exotic!

By: Ereshkigal

Ereshkigal — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:07:31 +0000

I usually give a year’s membership at a nice museum. We have a couple of interesting places in our city that have unusual collections, excellent grounds (available for picnicking), good restaurants, and discounted rates for merchandise and space rental (which has come in handy for entertaining out-of-town visitors).

All this, and the gift supports a worthy cause,too.

By: Tracy W

Tracy W — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 17:53:00 +0000

A nice present we got was for a voucher for a meal at a very nice restaurant.

Another great present was for two of those fly-by-wire trips.

By: MissLaura

MissLaura — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 03:00:44 +0000

I always get something off the registry, of course, if there is one, and typically go for towels.

It sometimes occurs to me that if I ever get married, it’ll be as a person who already has 2 sets of decent sheets, a cuisinart, some good knives, a rice steamer, some decorative bundt pans, one very good large frying pan and a couple other decent pans. So what would I ask for? Le Creuset, clearly, and towels, but what else?

Oh well, not likely to be an issue any time soon.

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 21:21:06 +0000

Yes, to pots and pans and knives. The sheets and towels were nice, but gave out at the five year mark. I would not trust my relatives to pick out a tasteful rug. We registered for a set of everyday white dishes from Crate and Barrel, and they are still in heavy rotation. I am very, very happy I never registered for nice china.

By: bad Jim

bad Jim — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 07:52:50 +0000

When my company was very young, I was invited to the wedding reception of our newest employee, a Cambodian immigrant, up in Long Beach. I brought along a small, attractively boxed objet d’art as a token offering of the clueless.
It turned out instead that a substantial cash offering was expected, which was a relief, since I had the wherewithal in my wallet, and could be confident that no one would be distressed by my preference for Jacksons over Grants or Franklins.

By: joejoejoe

joejoejoe — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 05:55:32 +0000

“You want a VC that is a pleasure to use—not only because it works better, but because you are excited to use it, and therefore clean more often!”

Ho Chi Minh said much the same thing about the Battle of Binh Gia.

By: dbomp

dbomp — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 03:14:23 +0000

The favorite thing I’ve given (and I think they liked it) was, or were, margaritas. It was for a cousin far away, and in the package I put a bottle of tequila, some really nice margarita glasses, a bottle of mix, and a little ReaLemon bottle. (Ice wouldn’t have kept.) It’s what a couple of 23-year-olds would want.

By: SG

SG — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 02:34:07 +0000

We, living in Japan with all our friends overseas, asked for our friends to visit. Three did. The remainder we gave a list of books on Amazon. English language books in rural Japan can be hard to come by.

One of the many advantages of getting married in Japan (besides the excellent shinto ceremony, its relative cheapness, and the organisational prowess of the kimono shop) is that your family don’t come.

(And an advantage of CT is probably that my family don’t read it…)

By: Bernard Yomtov

Bernard Yomtov — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 01:25:38 +0000

Cash?