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Wedding gifts: "We want a painting not a toaster."

Felicity Smith and Paul Lowe in front of the $12,000 painting they are hoping to buy.

Let’s be frank: toasters as wedding gifts are SO 1992.

As are microwaves and kettles and pie makers. If you get someone a sandwich press as a wedding gift, chances are you’ll be the 7th in line which will be useful one day in the distant future if the wedded couple actually need to press seven sandwiches at once. Maybe in some kind of weird game show. Maybe.

If we wanted to show somebody how intensely we disliked them, we’d buy them a toaster.

Unless, of course, they asked for it.

The gift registry, provided it is restrained and not outlandish, is a God send. Didn’t even know there was a corn kernel cutter but if you’ve requested it, it’s yours!

But what’s to stop couples aiming a little bigger? Say … asking guests to chip in for some expensive art?

“By the time Felicity Smith and Paul Lowe decided to get married, they owned a house in Darlinghurst and had enough kitchenware and manchester to last them decades. Rather than risk an avalanche of salad bowls and steak knives on their wedding day next month, the couple have asked guests to contribute towards a $12,000 abstract painting.

”Some people ask for cash, but I felt uncomfortable with that,” Ms Smith said. ”Most guests do want to bring something and I’d rather have something I want than something they think I need.”

How far could this high-end registry idea be extended? What if the couple wanted to kick-start a killer wine cellar? Or put a deposit on a rare Patagonian flower cutting for their mountain home?

What’s the weirdest gift you’ve bought, or been requested to buy, for a friend’s wedding or engagement? Have you asked for anything a little bit out of the box?

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