An acceptable wedding present? Ideas please!

[heartonsleeve]

My SIL and her H2B are getting married soon. They don't have a wedding list, and have said they would rather have money towards their honeymoon, or vouchers or for people to get whatever they feel like getting.

My DH and I don't like giving vouchers, and we don't want to pay anything towards their honeymoon either, so have been stressing about what to get.

I think we are going to go for a hamper (home-made) of more luxury food/ingredients etc, as they are quite into cooking. I was thinking posh filter coffee, wine, vinegars/oils etc.

My question is this...
1, do you think it would be an 'ok' present to give as a wedding present and

I would love to hear your ideas! Thanks
2, what can I put in it?

[leftangle]

Id love a hamper but only if the giver knew me really well and put things we'd like and use in it.

[OldLadyKnowsNothing]

I like the hamper idea. Include chocolate.

And a bottle of champagne, some flavoured oils? If they'll be able to keep it chilled, good cheese, smoked salmon and so on?

[brimfull]

why don't you want ot give vouchers or money towards honeymoon?

[brimfull]

hamper nice idea as well though

be nice for when they come back from honeymoon

[FritesMenthe]

Hamper is a lovely idea. To make it longer-lasting, you could use a really nice basket that can be used afterwards (for laundry, or as storage maybe) and include some teatowels or oven gloves or an apron to match their kitchen, or foodstuffs in lovely re-useable containers.

[FritesMenthe]

Or a scented candle in a jar, to take away cooking smells?

[spiralqueen]

Perhaps you could add a recipe book like this one www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/1401099424/sr=8-13/qid=1253135903/ref=dp_image_text_0?ie=UTF8&n=2&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 66239&s=books&qid=1253135903&sr=8-13?

Hamper sounds great - any gift that takes some effort to put together and shows that you know their tastes is much more memorable IMO than just money or vouchers.

We had a small wedding list and said we would love vouchers to kit out our first proper family home but we knew some people found giving vouchers or buying from a list uncomfortable. Although most guests did buy vouchers there were quite a number who did their own thing. Some bought champagne or photoframes, someone else bought napkin rings and we had a few gifts that people had made including a cross-stitch sampler with a bride and groom with our names and the date on it. Someone else did a collage (?sp) with our names and the date.

[LoveBeingAMummy]

HOw much were you thinking of spending?

[CarGirl]

Do they have a garden?

A couple of nice bushes/plants/trees in containers

[heartonsleeve]

Thanks everybody for your ideas!

[Cies]

My siblings gave us a hamper when we got married, and I still use the basket to this day (it's got my nappies in it!).

We actually had a self catering cottage for our honeymoon so they filled it with things we might like to use on honeymoon - wine, champagne, cider, chutney, mustard, tinned salmon, smoked mackerel, chocolate, cheese, fudge...

It was such a touching present and so personal. I think it's a lovely idea.

Top tips?

A lovely basket /hamper they can reuse for years.
Maybe include a couple of "whole meal" ideas, eg dried mushrooms, arborio rice, good stock cubes and white wine = risotto.
Focus on the types of food they like and don't get carried away in the deli (obvious but my siblings did include a bottle of hemp beer as a joke which is quite possibly the most revolting thing I've ever tasted).

[GiftTeller]

Hey heartonsleeve I have some hamper ideas on my blog if you're interested in checking it out here.

[Habbibu]

Sounds lovely - another idea is a couple of these, which are fun and appropriate...