S/O What memorable, non-$ wedding gift(s) did you receive?

[indimom]

My aunt/godmother crocheted our name and had it mounted and framed. It's beautiful and hanging in the dining room today. Nearly every member of the family has one in their home.

A quilt in our wedding color made by DH grandmother. We used it until we upgraded the bed size. Now it's hanging on a quilt rack.

We received plenty of other gifts as well, it was common when I got married, but those were the most memorable.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Not so much a wedding gift, but bridal shower. DH's gradmother, who lived across country and who I met all of twice before she died (the first time being my wedding day), sent along a waterford crystal ring holder. It touched me because she sent this gift, which she knew would never be used by her grandson, to someone that she'd never met. I use it every day.

 

[luvsJack]

My grandmother gave me her china. A friend of my mom’s made pottery and made me a little tea pot. Still have both and treasure both.

 

[tcufrog]

Our most memorable gift was the beautiful stained glass window our best man made for us. I had it framed to protect it. My most memorable gift for negative reasons was the regifted frame some friends who got married just before us gave us. We know it was regifted because they didn't tear off all of the previous card envelope.

 

[Meriweather]

Someone had our wedding invitation mounted on wood & sealed. It was very pretty & I loved it.

Similar ...our wedding invitation was put on a decorative ceramic piece. all sculpted and then sealed. It still is hanging on our wall over 44 years later.

 

[KPeterso]

My cousin got engaged at Disneyland and loves Disney. So for her shower, my Mom and I had one of those names painted at Disneyland with her first initial with her favorite princess and his first initial with the coordinating prince, and then established in 2015. Or something along those lines. I am having a hard time describing. Now that they are divorcing (or maybe that is final now), I have no idea what happened to it.

 

[AndreaDM]

Divorced now lol, but we got 3 non-cash/gift card gifts. A picture frame, a photo album and 2 beautiful pieces of hand made pottery - a platter and a pie dish. The platter broke a while ago but I still use the pie dish all the time.

 

[mrodgers]

Also divorced now, but got very few cash gifts.

She worked at Wendell August Forge. Some of you probably know what that is. They make hand carved die plates than stamp them into decorative plates, bowls, ornaments, etc. When we first got together, they were making an anniversary plate and they put our names on it as the display piece in the showroom. When we got engaged, all the girls working with her pitched in and bought it and had the date added and gave it to us as a gift.

 

[rigs32]

A giant wall clock that was both engraved and not my style at all. I also lived a thousand miles from where the wedding was and had to either ship or fly home with any gifts. I only felt partly guilty for taking off the engraved portion and donating the clock.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

I have several memorable gifts. The best was from a co-worker who had just gotten into woodworking, in particular bowl making. Anyway, he decided to buy a truckload of random exotic wood from someone in town and was using it to make his bowls - only he hadn't done his research and didn't realize that some of those exotic woods were poisonous. I had admired one bowl in particular that he had brought in to show us, turns out that bowl was made of some pretty potent wood (sorry, can't remember what it was) that actually made him sick as he continued to work on it.

A few months later, guess what he gave me for a wedding present? That's right, the poison bowl. It's fine now that it's sealed and still beautiful 20 years later. Even better, it has a little bit of a story.

My great aunt gave us a George Foreman grill. They were new at the time and I remember looking at it and thinking "I wonder if I'll ever use that?" We have replaced it several times over, it ended up being the most useful thing we got.

We got a broken christmas ornament with no tag on it, no idea who it was from. Also a beautiful crock that I put my kitchen utensils in, also no tag and no one claimed it when I asked.

 

[soccerdad72]

Our nativity set that my aunt (and godmother) made for us - all ceramic hand made pieces, probably 20 or so in all. We still set it up every Christmas time.

 

[Klayfish]

DW and I just celebrated our 19th anniversary yesterday.

We had a mixed religion ceremony. I was raised in a Jewish household and DW was raised in a Christian one, so we had a priest and a rabbi preside over the ceremony. A Jewish tradition is to smash glass under your foot after the ceremony. DW and I stepped on a light bulb together, which was wrapped in a fabric napkin. Unbeknownst to me, my best man picked up the napkin after we walked down the "aisle". He had a company reassemble the broken pieces of the light bulb to look like it has just exploded (i.e. it's still in a light bulb shape but all the pieces are separated) and it's inside of a square paper weight looking thing. It has an inscription on it with our names and the date. Pretty awesome!!!

 

[BLAZEY]

We got a print of the place where we got married and had some of our pictures taken. It was painted years prior to our wedding and my grandfather was dear friends with the artist wo gave him the print as a gift. Grampa had it professionally framed. It still hangs in our living room with some of our wedding photos.

 

[OhDannyBoy]

My Aunt and cousin, who are both very well off attorneys, are notoriously cheap. I mean ridiculously. The whole family knows it.

So it came as no surprise when we opened our $12 spice rack for our wedding gift.

The fact that it was $12 isn't what made it memorable. The fact my cousin got married 6 months later and we rewrapped it and gave it back wasn't even the memorable part.

What truly made it memorable was when her sister, who I swear is adopted because she is NOT like her mother and sister AT ALL, was married a year later received that same rack. Yup. Her sister gave her a re-re-gifted spice rack for a wedding gift.

Now my wife keeps saying they could have bought another one from the same store. NO. This is the same rack. I just know it is.

I tried talking my cousin into giving it back again when cheapo spice had her baby, but she couldn't. It's been a running joke for 8 years now and is by far the most memorable of all my wedding gifts.

 

[OhDannyBoy]

DW and I just celebrated our 19th anniversary yesterday.

We had a mixed religion ceremony. I was raised in a Jewish household and DW was raised in a Christian one, so we had a priest and a rabbi preside over the ceremony. A Jewish tradition is to smash glass under your foot after the ceremony. DW and I stepped on a light bulb together, which was wrapped in a fabric napkin. Unbeknownst to me, my best man picked up the napkin after we walked down the "aisle". He had a company reassemble the broken pieces of the light bulb to look like it has just exploded (i.e. it's still in a light bulb shape but all the pieces are separated) and it's inside of a square paper weight looking thing. It has an inscription on it with our names and the date. Pretty awesome!!!

We did something similar. My wife is Jewish and I was raised Catholic. Her aunt kept the glass shards in a tube and affixed it to a picture frame in which she got a pic of me stomping the glass.

 

[mousefanmichelle]

For our wedding 26 years ago we received 2 non-monetary gifts that I can remember. 1 of them was a blue cooler and a metal tin full of old buttons that still had thread on them. Both were from my aunt. Weird. the other was a cloth basket full of food for us to eat after the reception. We got to our apartment about 1-130am and we devoured the food in that basket! BEST. GIFT. EVER. In fact we had given the same gift to several of our close friends who got married at the time and they said the same thing!

 

[Simba's Mom]

Forty two years ago, my former mother-in-law gave us a hand-held mixer. It's memorable because I still use it regularly. Several years ago, I bought a new one for about $15, figuring this one was due to go any time-probably in the middle of me baking something. Yet, the original wedding gift keeps on working!

 

[tex1989]

Kitchen knife set. Chef's knife, boning knife, roast slicer, parring knife, sharpening rod with wood block holder. 37 years later an it is still my knife set for cooking.

 

[AndreaDM]

Also divorced now, but got very few cash gifts.

She worked at Wendell August Forge. Some of you probably know what that is. They make hand carved die plates than stamp them into decorative plates, bowls, ornaments, etc. When we first got together, they were making an anniversary plate and they put our names on it as the display piece in the showroom. When we got engaged, all the girls working with her pitched in and bought it and had the date added and gave it to us as a gift.

I forgot, we got one of those too, it was heart shaped. Not sure what happened to it, it was a beautiful piece but I didn't want to keep anything with our names & the date engraved on it.

 

[disykat]

I am at almost 28 years. I still use a lot of stuff daily that I got for both showers and wedding. I didn't get much cash for our wedding, gifts were more common. I registered for dishware, etc. that was nice but practical so I could use it daily (lenox grey pinstripe chinastone,) not just for formal holidays. My dishes, my silverware, my knives, much of my glassware, many of my serving platters, etc. are still in use and were wedding gifts. I also have picture frames, vases, Christmas decorations, etc. that are still in use at my house. I remember who gave me most things. Even things like dishes, I sometimes think of the people who gave me parts of it when I use it.

I lost a potato peeler that I loved that had been part of a shower gift at a volunteer gig a few years ago and still miss it. I took it because it was such a good one and I had many pounds of potatoes to peel. I've never been able to find one that matches it, even with the same brand. So now, everytime I peel potatoes I STILL think of the person who gave that to me.

Back at the time I registered, people only registered for china, silver, and glassware and then put down color schemes. A local store in my hometown displayed people's place settings in their front window!