I got married in the year of the.......

[Beth Y]

platter............

In the post on what casserole to take to people, it was mentioned that everyone took italian. When I had my twins, two years ago, everyone brought me chicken potpie.

Reminded me of wedding presents and how trends come and go. My oldest (almost 60yo) brother got married (the first time) in the '60, the decade of the toaster as the wedding gift of choice. For me, '86 was the year of the big fancy platter (I use them ALL!). I have friends that had fancy bowls coming out of their ears. The worst trend, I think, was the picnic basket. How many can you use? We got one and don't use it! I have friends that got 4!

What "year" did you get married??

[tbb113]

I didn't get too many duplicate gifts other than MONEY :) And since you can never have too much money, it was a welcome gift ;)

[mlynn]

I'm from Ohio where every year is the year of the Crock Pot. :D As I've gotten older I've appreciated my Crock Pot more, but I don't think I needed 4.

[tamawrite]

Hmm. I think mine would be the Year of the Knickknack. :rolleyes: I've never seen so many ceramic bluebirds.

(They came from DH's elderly reletives. To be fair, these same relatives also gave us several handmade quilts, which I LOVE.)

[Gail]

My guests, like Indiana Jones in his quest for the Holy Grail, must've chosen wisely. I didn't get one single duplicate.

...but I did get the wrong china pattern from the bridal registry. :rolleyes:

[Grace]

My first wedding was in the year of the picnic basket!! Too funny, Beth!! :D :D :D

My second wedding (1998) was extremely small and we got money, so that one doesn't really count for me gift-wise.

[HUNGRY!]

This year must be the year of the photo album. I got so many of them for my 10/2 wedding. I don't think I'll ever take enough pictures!

[mlynn]

Originally posted by HUNGRY!
This year must be the year of the photo album. I got so many of them for my 10/2 wedding.

Just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS!

[funnybone]

Originally posted by Beth Y
platter............
For me, '86 was the year of the big fancy platter (I use them ALL!).

Never gave it much thought before, but I got some pretty platters as well and I was married in '86 too. I mainly got money though, which is the most versatile gift possible. ;)

BTW - I never did get a picnic basket, thankfully. For me, if I'm going to picnic, I'll use disposibles as I don't want to have to lug dirty dishes back home to clean. :p :D

[lorilei]

Married in 1998... and it was the YEAR OF THE BREAD MAKER or so it seemed.

We got FOUR of them :rolleyes: :eek: :rolleyes:

and we didn't even register for one... *shrug*

[Gracie]

We were married on the cusp of the Year of the Tasteless China That We Didn't Register For and the Year of The Unnecessary Utilitarian.

My china pattern is Royal Doulton Albany (now since discontinued - thank goodness for Ebay) and the glassware is Lenox Firelight so imagine my surprise when we received many odds and ends of expensive china and glassware that were not even made by those 2 manufacturers. The worst was a pair of Lenox bone china candlesticks with red cardinals on them. I returned these to Macy's for a $135 credit. They were Jordan Marsh around here back then and they took anything back. I used the credit to buy more glassware.

I got married when I was 32 and had been living on my own or with DH for many years. I did not need towels, sheets, dishtowels and other similar-type items. We were hoping to discourage that sort of present by only registering for good china and glassware, but maybe that backfired on us by being too limiting.

Loren

[Mamasue]

G.E. Electric Percolator and it was a gift from two couples!

[linsleyd]

I got married at the end of 2000 and it was a toss up between stuffed animals (please, people, do not give stuffed animals as a wedding present even if they have to do with Christmas) and pitchers. Course, I have already broken all the pitchers I received, so really I could have used more. And luckily all of the stuffed animal crap was in our fire so I don't have to look at that stuff anymore!

[RebeccaT]

I was married in 1999, the Year of the Gigantic Glass (and one Gigantic Pewter) Salad Bowl. All FIVE of them were beautiful, and I couldn't bear to get rid of any of them. But, almost 5 years later, I still have never used two of them. Even with the parties I've thrown, I've simply never had a need to serve five salads that serve 25 people each.

:o :D

[memartha]

1989 must have been the year of the Covered Casserole Dish. I got at least 4, silver "frame" with legs, pyrex dish inside, silver lid. Have never used one of them. They sit, quite tarnished, in my dining room cabinet.

[colleency]

Solution to useless wedding gifts: elope!

[Grace]

This thread is really making me laugh! :D

I mean, STUFFED ANIMALS?? :D

And I forgot about the HUGE ceramic "chicken" with the dried flower arrangement built into the chicken's back that I got.... ugh.

Although I think I'd like one of those big bowls or covered casseroles! :p

[nowimcooking]

Originally posted by linsleyd
(please, people, do not give stuffed animals as a wedding present even if they have to do with Christmas)

One would think we would not need this instruction!!! :D That's the weirdest wedding present I've ever heard of! :)

[gertdog]

I guess I got married in the year of All-Clad. We got lots of duplicate pieces.

We didn't have a very lengthy registry- there were far fewer items on it than there were wedding guests. We just didn't need that much stuff. But we did register for several individual pieces of All-Clad, and I think what happened is that people saw that most of the registry items had been purchased, and rather than trying to guess at what we might like, they bought something they knew we'd return for something we really liked. Convoluted but that's my best guess. We got 3 four-quart saucepans. :)

[Gilgamesh37]

Originally posted by memartha
1989 must have been the year of the Covered Casserole Dish.

How odd. 1989 in Connecticut was the Year of the Picture Frame. I think we got 7 or 8. Which is really okay, because it's the sort of thing of which you can use many. We also got two picnic baskets, and 4 salad bowls, all of which I used (or did, until my ex-H broke the Tiffany crystal one during a poker night at our house. He blamed the cat. :rolleyes: )

You know, this thread has made me realize that for the most part, I still USE almost all of the wedding gifts we received (even though we're no longer "we"). The one notable exception would be the board game I got from a college friend. A board game? For a wedding present? (even worse, he'd told someone else that he was giving us windchimes, which I actually really would have liked)

[tbb113]

Originally posted by nowimcooking


One would think we would not need this instruction!!! :D That's the weirdest wedding present I've ever heard of! :)

At least her's were stuffed. We received an actual love bird from friends :rolleyes: I had to buy a cage, etc. And I've never in my life wanted to own a bird

[MusicMom]

Originally posted by Beth Y
For me, '86 was the year of the big fancy platter (I use them ALL!).

More evidence that 1986 was the year of the platter: we received two crystal platters and one silver platter for our wedding that year! They're so bulky to store that I only use one.

[jphilg]

2001 was, in our neck of the woods, The Year of the Hideous Crystal Vase. Between the wedding and the second little reception thing my MIL threw for us in her hometown to indulge her own wedding fantasies, we recieved at least 10 glass or crystal vases. 3 of them I liked. The rest went on ebay, or back to the store (I was the only broke newlywed I know who got significant jewelry from Tiffany for Christmas. We had SO many returns, and were pretty disinterested in most of the Tiffany housewares, so DH just did his Christmas shopping with the store credit).

Ebay is the greatest gift to the bride with well-meaning guests with different taste.

[nowimcooking]

Originally posted by tbb113


At least her's were stuffed. We received an actual love bird from friends :rolleyes: I had to buy a cage, etc. And I've never in my life wanted to own a bird

I can only imagine the thank-you note! ;)

[Gracie]

Originally posted by tbb113


At least her's were stuffed. We received an actual love bird from friends :rolleyes: I had to buy a cage, etc. And I've never in my life wanted to own a bird

Tyra, I almost spit out Diet Coke on my keyboard reading this!! What happened to the bird??

Originally posted by jphilg
Ebay is the greatest gift to the bride with well-meaning guests with different taste.

I wish Ebay existed when we got married. I had to take care of everything the old fashioned way - returns with no receipts!

Loren

[HRJ]

Originally posted by tbb113


At least her's were stuffed. We received an actual love bird from friends :rolleyes: I had to buy a cage, etc. And I've never in my life wanted to own a bird


Tyra, they gave you a bird, without a cage?. LOL.

And, to add to what Martha and Gil have said, 1989 was also the Year of the Hideous Crystal Decanter. We received three of these -- I guess we just seem like people who like to decant!

Also received two sets of espresso cups -- we didn't own an espresso maker (still don't), and, to be honest, I don't really like espresso very much.

Without getting into a whole discussion about the pros and cons of registering, I think our problem was that we didn't register for anything, and, in hindsight, that was a BIG MISTAKE. Lots of people who didn't know us very well (our parents' friends, for instance; older relatives) had to guess about what we would like, and guessed very wrong.

Our best gift (besides money) was a Weber Kettle Grill.

Helene

[tbb113]

They gave us the bird in a small travel cage. So, we had to go out and buy a real cage for the bird. Hubby didn't want the bird to be lonely, so he bought it a friend as well (which died quickly thereafter). We had the original bird for a little over a year. We moved to a new house and we were going to keep the bird in our bedroom so it would stay warmer at night. Took the cage outside to give it a good cleaning. Told hubby he should put the bird in the travel cage so it wouldn't escape, but he didn't listen. Bird pushed the food dish out of the way and flew the coop. Hubby was convinced it was flying to Mexico. Never saw bird again (and I really didn't care either ;) )

[linsleyd]

Originally posted by nowimcooking


I can only imagine the thank-you note! ;)

Oh lord, a real bird? That would just be the final straw!:D

[CompassRose]

1997 was either the Year of the Teapot or the Year of the Salt and Pepper Grinders. We got about four or five of each, I can't really remember. Some of them were packed up in pretty gift baskets with tons of other stuff... I confess we re-assembled some of those as soon as we were decently alone and re-gifted them.

We also had a HUGE garage sale right after we got married, since A. ended up with a lot of the stuff out of his grandmother's house when she died. His grandmother kept everything, and stockpiled stuff (it took us years, for instance, to get through the contents of her Cupboard of Wraps... dozens and dozens of packages of vintage foil and waxed paper in groovy sixties and seventies boxes...) so it was spectacular. Quite a number of antique dealers showed up, visibly slavering over the mint-condition vacuum coffee pots and such (and our low, low prices -- we didn't care, we just wanted it all out of our attic!). All the homelier wedding gifts got slipped out onto the lawn with everything else.

[JanetJ]

I was married (3/13/04) in the year of the Spice Rack. We got 4 different ones, none of which hold all our Penzey's spices. :)

[pambrack]

Boy I'm feeling like the old lady here...in 1977 Toaster Ovens were the latest and greatest appliance out there and we got three. It was also the year Elvis died. That happened a month before. Strange the thinks that stick in your mind.

[crlykat]

We got married in 2000. For whatever reason, all vendors we met were just overwhelmed with the '00 weddings. Seems that everyone wanted to be married in that year, because of the century change or what, I'm not sure. Perhaps when you're getting on in years, its easier to figure out how many years you're married if you got married in '00? Not sure.
We got duplicates of picnic baskets and about 6 white picture albums.

[Cookin4Love]

1977 was the year of fondue pots and woks. We got several of each. Never used any of them.

[mbrogier]

I got married in 2000. I received 10 or more vases and glass bowls. We also received a ton of picture frames. I have declared never to give anyone a vase, bowl, or picture frame.

As for the thank you note for the lovebird, here it is:

Thank you so much for the lovebird. He was delicious. :D

(just a joke, I love birds. I would never give one as a pet.)

[lhall]

We pretty much got what we registered for, with only a few duplicates. I got a china cream & sugar set, and a crystal one. I returned the china one since that was a late gift.

The on odd gift we got was a huge electric skillet. It wasn't one of the small square ones, it was round with a large handle in a box that was over 2 feet long. No way did I have room for this in our apartment, nor did I want something that big. The problem was it came from some friends of the family in California and did NOT have a name with the gift. I had to find out the area code for San Luis Obispo, call the store, eventually get the shipping department, and find out who sent the gift so I could send a thank you note. Macy's was nice enough to let me 'return' it to them. :D

Leigh

[NewMrsG]

This is hysterical - and I can't decide which is weirder - stuffed animals or a real live bird!

We got married in 2003 and the only duplicate we got was vases - 4 of them. One was on our registry and we really like it and use it. THe other 3 were hideous (one had a New Testament quote on it - which would be fine, if not for the fact that we're Jewish). :rolleyes:

Interestingly, almost all of our gifts were from my side - people who live in the midwest. People from the Boston area just gave us money. I am glad we registered - we got exactly what we wanted that way.

[muriel3002]

Let's see - my first marriage (1979) was the year of the wine glass and matching decanter. I still have the glasses, but the decanters are long gone.

My second marriage (1995) was a decidedly small affair, so there wasn't anything that I could mark it with - except DH & I were already established, so I guess it was the year of the money gift. Presents really didn't matter to us. I did receive a silver coffee service. It looks nice in my antique china cabinet, although we don't use it.

The live bird one - that's a riot. Why do people wish to "endear" :rolleyes: :mad: themselves in that way??

[tbb113]

Originally posted by muriel3002

The live bird one - that's a riot. Why do people wish to "endear" :rolleyes: :mad: themselves in that way??

I think they thought they were being extremely creative. You know 'a love bird for the love birds' :) And it was three female law students that went together on the gift :rolleyes: You would have thought that ONE of them would have screamed "NO" :D

[cniles]

Too funny Tyra!!

1995 was the year of the wine picnic baskets/backpacks.... We got 4 various packs ranging from the evergreen backpack (room for 2 bottles) to the wicker basket.... I don't think we've ever used them. NOT that we don't drink wine, mind you - we had DS one year later and have not had a lot of opportunities to pack a picnic lunch complete with a bottle of wine, drive somewhere that will ALLOW alcohol on grounds to have a picnic!;) :D

[Emmalani]

Another "oldie" here. The year was 1977 (2 months after Elvis died)and it was the year of the Fry Daddys and Fry Babys. Does anyone remember those? We got a total of 6. After several years of moving them with us they went to goodwill.

Fast forward to 2002 and my second wedding. It was small, just close family members. Everyone on my side of the family gave us Home Depot gift cards because we really had all that we needed. We LOVED them!!!

[newtricks]

In 1993 we got two trays for eating breakfast in bed. Have never used them.:rolleyes:

[honeygirl1971]

This is a really funny thread!! :D I have a question for you experts...I am getting married in March, but in France, and I am moving there at the end of the school year (I am finishing a graduate degree and I am a teacher). The wedding is going to be very small, probably about 30 people, but there will be others invited who won't be able to come (family members I have to invite, but who won't want to travel to France). I was actually thinking I wasn't going to register at all, or maybe just not in the states (maybe I could register in some French stores for the French guests or something), because shipping is so expensive and so on, but is this asking for disaster? If there were more French stores with online shopping that would be easier, but they are really behind the times on that. Or should I register, but just pick small things that would be easy to bring over in luggage? I don't want to receive a lot of gifts at my address here that I have to pay to ship over, because I really can't afford to do that.

[mbrogier]

I think you're sunk, honey. Personally, I would rather have mostly French things. The china is beautiful and so is the housewares, etc. Some people will figure out, "Hey, she's moving to France, and she's not going to want to move a bust of Elvis...so I'll give her money." Other people will think, "I could give her money, but I'm so-and-so her dearest so-and-so, she won't mind if I give her a huge box of rocks...it will be the only one she has to move."

You'll wind up with $30 cash and a shipping container full of rocks. :o ;) :D ...at least if you're Southern. If you're from the Northeast, you do have a fighting chance, since most people give money for gifts.


If it were me, I would register for light things like towels, bed linens, etc. and ask my family to try to get the word out that I'm moving to FRANCE, so I can't drag a bunch of knick-knacks along. I would also sell anything that I couldn't return on EBAY.

Good luck, and please tell us what happens.:p

[boisewinesnob]

Originally posted by mlynn
I'm from Ohio where every year is the year of the Crock Pot. :D As I've gotten older I've appreciated my Crock Pot more, but I don't think I needed 4.

1987 checking in ;) (No death of Elvis...our "headline" was the Ollie North hearings)

Crock pots: 2
Sets of knives: 2

Regifted one of each :)

I didn't see any other 87s check in, but the 86s mentioned platters. We didn't get any, but we got a BEAUTIFUL light blue/clear/glass cake stand which I used all the time until DH (or MIL?) broke it :mad: . Besides the quilt from my grandma, that was one of my favorite things.
Someone else got us a recipe box...the old-fashioned kind you put 3x5 cards in. I still use it even though it looks terrible now!

[honeygirl1971]

Originally posted by mbrogier
Some people will figure out, "Hey, she's moving to France, and she's not going to want to move a bust of Elvis...so I'll give her money." Other people will think, "I could give her money, but I'm so-and-so her dearest so-and-so, she won't mind if I give her a huge box of rocks...it will be the only one she has to move."

You'll wind up with $30 cash and a shipping container full of rocks. :o ;) :D ...

Although this is what I feared, and not what I wanted to hear, it did totally crack me up! :D