Tell me your best wedding gift ideas

[0verth1inker]

Attending a friends wedding next month. Haven’t mentioned a wedding list/no poem asking for money so would like to get them a nice gift. Budget £75 or so. Is there anything you’ve been given a gift that you have loved? Thanks :)

My dm always goes off list and buys something she thinks the couple will love. I always roll my eyes when she shows me what she has. Honestly, if they haven’t given you any ideas or you don’t know them well enough to buy something you know they would use, either give cash or vouchers. I like the vouchers for a meal out idea.
I would have no idea where to put a painting of our wedding venue. It would have been such a waste of money. Large Photos, paintings and other art works are such a personal thing I’d always stay well away from them as a gift.

There was a thread on here a few months looking for a very special Christmas bauble for a wedding, some of the suggestions were incredible!

Cash, always cash.

A weekend away about 3 months into the marriage x

The one wedding gift we have that gets used every day without fail is a personalised wooden chopping board.

White company electric diffuser

photo frame
champagne bucket
picnic rug and basket

Amazon Voucher.

White company electric diffuser

But, again, that is such a niche, personal taste thing. Yes, I know the OP asked what gift you had had that you loved, but I think it is something that a few people will love and others would think was a massive waste of money. I had to look up what it was, and, having done so, can say if someone gave me that - whereas I would smile and politely thank them at the time - it would go in a cupboard until it had sat there long enough I could give it to a charity shop. Now, buy the time half a dozen guests have spent £65 on something you'll never use, you could have had enough cash to buy something you really would like to either have in your house, or 'experience'.

I got my friends a night away in a nice hotel, booked them in for afternoon tea and had some drinks when they went into their room x

I gave a friend a painting. I got it from a graduate student show. She loves it and three properties later is still hanging in her living room.

A voucher for a meal out for their first anniversary, I usually go for the hotel where the wedding is. So they can reminisce a year on. ... Do you remember .. When I was over there ... Talking to x

You know @Kite22 you could have just written nothing at all couldn't you? Just skipped on by.

I'm a new convert to cash - always thought it wasn't ok but it's actually liberating to give something you know will be appreciated and used.

Somethinh nice off list I was given was a small acer tree in a pot. I did eventually manage to kill it by moving it after it was planted out, but it was so pretty.

I could TSSDNCOP, but the point of the OP starting the thread was to find out what a couple might like to receive. So it is a perfectly valid comment to note that there are a lot of things that some people would like, that others really wouldn't, so, if you aren't really sure, then it is best to stick to cash as the couple can then get something they really want.
When it is your sister, or a really close friend that has been in and out of your life and your home for 15 years or whatever, then you can be really confident though goodness knows, my sister gets it so wrong on many occasions but, as the OP doesn't know this couple that intimately, then lots of people are pointing out it is best not to 'guess' and get it wrong, but to give the couple the chance to buy something they really want - whether or not that is something you would have thought of, or if it is something you would like, or if it goes towards something no guest could afford all of.

Just the same when people ask what they should buy for a friend who is turning 50, or 70, or 18, or whatever - we are all different people with different tastes. What one person suggests, another wouldn't want at all.

Just give them cash. Mumsnet is so fucking weird about this. £75 is a fair bit of money and if the majority of their guests give a similar (or even less!) amount they could end up with something/doing something they actually really want, rather than 30 things that they don’t really want but the giver has chosen to give them bc of some weird mumsnet hang up about giving people things they actually want.

You said yourself they have neutral decor. That means they probably will not want whatever tat mumsnet seems acceptable, like a painting of their wedding venue or a white company diffuser.

Best gift I got was a cooler backpack with plates etc plus a rug, still use it 23 years later despite divorce

I always feel weird giving cash because it feels so impersonal. And also because I imagine the happy couple having a spreadsheet of how much each guest contributed

Second the suggestion of something from etsy or similar. It doesn't have to cost as much, but it's because it's professionally handmade, it shows a bit more effort than cash/voucher. And it can be really tiny too, so won't take up too much house space. Things like silver keyring charms, or (latest present I bought) a pewter 'small spoon' to keep in a sugar bowl. Useful, but lovely to look at too. I quite want to keep it for myself tbh.

I think it's always OK to give a good quality version of a household item AND give a gift receipt with it and a note saying they can exchange it if it isn't to their taste. Eg a really nice set of bathroom towels from JL plus the gift/exchange receipt.

But I also think the restaurant voucher idea is lovely, as long as you know enough about them to know that's something they would enjoy.

We gave BIL3&SIL3 a massive pass-the-parcel, it was the size of a disco ball.

within the layers we hid little practical items for a laugh: pocket tissues, tooth paste, matchbox, small sewing kit, a tea light candle, a rubber, hair comb, chewing gum, hairbands, paper clips, post it notes, small packets of ketchup, salt, pepper, sugar, toothpicks and so on.
In the very centre was a £1 coin taped to a tiny envelope, we had a reasonably generous cheque inside.

They told us afterwards it was the most fun present to open, they indeed laughed a lot.

And they made us laugh as well, they gave us a thank you card for every single item🤣

We gave our niece a neutral style glass biscuit jar filled with their favourites and £50 in the bottom. Went down well.