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?
Top Comments
I'd happily give that couple money for a painting if it meant not having to use a MYER gift registry ever again!!! Have just wasted the most ridiculous amount of time trying to get my friend's gift off their MYER wedding registry - the most pointless system I've ever come across. Can't view the items online, can't buy them, can't reserve them more than 3 days, no response when writing to the email address that MYER supplied for the registry and no answer at the phone number provided for more than 40 mintues! Finally got through to someone and I politely said that this was the most difficult registry I've ever used and she responded with a disinterested, "That's unfortunate, anyhow..."
Please, brides to be, don't subject your guests to this, it's crap and takes away all the joy of giving a gift!!! There are much better retailers you can use if you want to do this!
Four years later and you STILL can't do any of this! What a nightmare...
For our engagement, my fiancee and I asked our friends for money towards the connection fee for our internet. As we'd recently moved to a new city, this meant that we could overcome one of our big household setup costs, as well as being able to keep in touch and share experiences through the online games that we play with our friends.