On 25/03/2011 11:33 AM, Brooklyn1 wrote:
> On Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:06:42 -0400, Dave Smith
> > wrote:
>
>> On 24/03/2011 10:01 PM, Goomba wrote:
>>>
>>> Who gives consumables for a wedding gift!? Not what I consider de
>>> rigueur at all. Traditionally people gave gifts of lasting value (not
>>> necessarily expensive) which are meant to help set up home and *last*,
>>> not be disposable.
>>
>> I'm with you Goomba. I don't even like to give cash.
>
> Cash is always appropriate for a wedding gift (actually the most
> appropriate gift), especially when you don't know the couple well
> enough to give a *thing* you know with certainty that they need. And
> age doesn't enter into it, cash is most appreciated at any age.

I suppose cash works if you don't know them well enough to know what
they want or need. But then again, if you don't know them that well why
are you obligated to spend a lot of money on a present for them?







> I actually think it's insulting to give any comestibles, especially to
> to a mature couple... that's like giving charity, a care package...


I agree. I don't know the couple or their circumstances but IMO that
might be an appropriate house warming gift, not a wedding gift.



> For a wedding gift one either gives cash or
> something in the original packaging, with the reciept so it can be
> exchanged.

Gift with the receipt in it so that they can exchange it?? I Sure, if
it turns out put to be a duplicate. I don't think it should be exchanged
because they didn't like it or wanted something else. Maybe I am now
old enough to be a curmudgeon who figures they should take what they
were given and be grateful for whatever it is.


> There are some couples that an appropriate wedding gift is
> a case of good wine and cash, but never ever coffee beans... may as
> well be jelly beans.

I can think of people for whom that might be appropriate. One of them
would be a niece of mine who was married last year. She and her husband
had been working overseas and were starting fresh. They had no car and a
friend of her parents who is in the used car business gave them a car.
It was an economy model with a manual transmission, a few years old but
apparently in excellent condition. She didn't like it and complained
that it had a manual transmission and she doesn't know how to drive a
manual. After about 6 months she sold it. Sure it was a used car, but
it was worth a hell of a lot more than friends of a bride's parents
would be expected to spend on a wedding gift. They even had the nerve
to ask him to sell it for them. I would understand if he if took the
car, sold it and kept the money. Ingrate.