13:02 - BAHAHAHAHAHA.......

All Clad is extremely head, if the bride is petite, BTW.

What is on their registry, OP? Can you tell their tastes/needs/wants from that so you can choose something special?

My favorite was the china, seriously.

I liked the off-registry items we got. A funky pottery bowl that I use for serving when I have company, a really nice silver platter with a nice serving fork and knife, things like that.

Maybe I shouldn't have used the term upper class, but I stand by my suggestion that a nice leather album is a great gift. I said high quality in order to distinguish it from a lesser quality album from hallmark or target. People still use photo albums for their honeymoon photos and family photos (especially professionally taken family pictures, baby pictures, etc). And a nice album can be around $100...most newlyweds won't drop that kind of cash for such an extravagance, so I'm sure they would appreciate the gift (since it will get more use and hold more memories than a bowl from Tiffany).

Anonymous wrote:In response to 11:52: upper class people still print photos and keep them in high quality leather albums. Shutterfly books are cheap and cheesy and won't survive past a few years or so.

LOLOLOL
Hear that everyone? If you're not using high quality leather albums to store your high quality printed photos, you're lower class! Philistines!

In response to 11:52: upper class people still print photos and keep them in high quality leather albums. Shutterfly books are cheap and cheesy and won't survive past a few years or so.

Anonymous wrote:We eloped, so my parents gave us a check for the average cost of an American wedding. I think that was the only present we got, though.

Oh no, you ONLY got a check for $20,000?

We eloped, so my parents gave us a check for the average cost of an American wedding. I think that was the only present we got, though.

Anonymous wrote:I got three stupid cuisinarts. My best gift was a trip: two nights at a nice hotel in NYC along with tickets for a show. (this was not our honeymoon...just a nice gift from someone...we were married in the summer and took this long weekend trip in the fall).

Other nice gifts:

Truly nice leather photo albums

Money

A nice framed spontaneous photo from the wedding (taken by a friend, not the photog) along with a nice note and money.

Photo albums would have been nice 10 years ago, but nobody prints out photos to put in albums anymore. That said, a gift certificate to Adoramapix, Mpix, or even somewhere like Shutterfly for them to put together a honeymoon photo book or make their own wedding album if they're not having a professional do it, or for their thank you cards, would be awesome!

11:33 here - one unique gift that we got that I loved was for a cooking class.

The gift I use the most was a full set of All-Clad pots/pans that my college friends pooled their money to get us. It was expensive, but it was a great gift and I use it regularly.

That said, I often recommend that if you are thinking of getting a gift from the registry, that you actually get a gift card to the store of the registry instead. A large number of stores that regularly do registries have a deal that after your event, the guest of honor can purchase any leftover items off of the registry for a discount (usually something like 10%). This means that my money will go farther in buying from the registry after the event. Both our wedding and first child registries had this option and we made great use of the gift cards to the vendors in buying many remaining items on the registries.

Last, if you would like to get something memorable and valuable, then look into collectibles. You can find a lot of collectibles that will appreciate in value as they get older. And they can choose to keep, or later sell for a profit. For example, we have one friend who gives our kids proof coins. They are nice to look at and if when the kids grow up, they want to collect coins, they have a great start. If not, then as they grow older, the coins will continue to appreciate in value, since they are uncirculated and sealed. They can later choose to sell the coins.

We had a big registry and got everything we asked for (and of course we all know now most of it is never used...) So when it is someone close to me I try to think outside the box and get them something they "really" want/need or an upgrade of what I know they'd like.
When our best friends got married we found out all the details of their honeymoon and arranged for a meal at a super fancy restaurant and some spa treatments while they were there.
For our siblings we did some detective work and knew one wanted a really cool camera for the honeymoon so we got it for them with a bunch of extras. Another ask me to go with them to a furniture store to help them choose something and as soon as I knew what they wanted I sneaked and paid for it (a nice coffee table) and the little one is getting married in 2 months and I am still working on that one. They have nothing but don't really want much (peace and love...) so it's hard. I think we are going with cash on that one or maybe an out of town weekend as they won't have a honeymoon until later because of work.

By far my favorite gift was our Keurig.

I got three stupid cuisinarts. My best gift was a trip: two nights at a nice hotel in NYC along with tickets for a show. (this was not our honeymoon...just a nice gift from someone...we were married in the summer and took this long weekend trip in the fall).

Other nice gifts:

Truly nice leather photo albums

Money

A nice framed spontaneous photo from the wedding (taken by a friend, not the photog) along with a nice note and money.

I don't think there is anything wrong with spending a lot of money buying registry items, especially if those are things that they are going to use every day. Trust me, they will remember and value those gifts.

For example, I really love that one friend spent $70 on the kitchen trash can that I registered for. It may seem trivial to buy something like a trash can, but we use it more than any other gift we received and really appreciate it. Another example, my aunt and uncle bought us every single thing related to baking on our registry (all of our sheet pans, pie dishes, measuring cups, rolling pin, etc...) - a bunch of smaller things really add up and I will always think of them when I'm baking!

We also had a few big things in mind that we wanted to buy ourselves (furniture) and appreciated the Crate & Barrel gift cards that we bought, so even though you said you didn't want to give cash, I really appreciated the cash and gift card gifts that allowed us to buy large pieces of furniture that we needed.

A few people went off registry and didn't provide gift receipts - I now have more bar glasses (wine, beer, martini) than I know what to do with. I know you guys think these are things that people value and will use forever, but most couples already have a million of these. I did appreciate some off registry gifts - like things from local artisans, etc... but not things like glasses, dishes, serving trays, etc... that people already have a ton of and don't need.

Do they drink? Maybe an assortment of wine and some nice wine glasses. I would ADORE this gift. I'm from the South, where monograms are huge. I was twice invited to weddings somewhat last minute as a date to the bride's family member for both, and what I did was order a nice set of hand towels with her new monogram on them. Both brides loved these, but you know, YMMV. A Kitchenaid is awesome... if you bake. One would be wasted on me, personally, so make sure the bride or groom are bakers before you commit to that.