Wedding Presents you never used

[MargoLivebetter]

Having just moved house again, I realised that I have moved 3 picnic baskets 4 times since I was married 28 years ago and I've never once used them. Some of them, I have used a few of the bits inside them, but I've never ever taken the baskets on a picnic or anywhere else for that matter. They have just moved from garden shed to garage etc. They were not on my gift list, they were just random gifts that people gave us. It made me wonder what other MNers might have in their cupboards that they were given as wedding or other gifts and never used?

I think we have used everything except for a very large Lazy Susan. We did have a list (1995.) We still have the intact dinner service and half of the glasses and many of the saucepans, carving boards, trays, etc. The towels and bedlinen faded and grew threadbare, but there may be a towel or two still lurking somewhere, used for the dog.

Endless photo frames. So many of them. My mum kept a few and some ended up in the charity shop. We just don't display any photos and had no use for them.

A very nice tablecloth for a round dining table - ours was rectangular and far too big for the tablecloth.

I fear DH's cousin will be on this thread next week as PIL (very old fashioned) are going to their wedding and she has bought them a pair of these beauts, despite my gentle suggestions that they would much prefer £50 in the card.

Sorry Morag if you are on here, I did try...

Fruit knives, forks and spoons, they are beautiful but unused. Second time around told everyone not to bother and just make a charity donation.

I came on to say....a picnic basket!

My old best friend bought it for us. It's huge, wicker, and has four proper places settings and champagne glasses. I really marvelled over it when I opened it and my fiance declared privately "we'll never use that!". I disagreed but sadly he was right.

It's just so cumbersome. And there's no room for any food in it so you have to take a second bag.

It would be nice if you were picnicking in the grounds of a stately home or something where the car park was close by.

I can't recall if it is still in the attic or away to a charity shop.

Why on earth would you not open them?

Crystal. So much crystal. It was not on the list.

We've been married 40 years this year, and we have a few wedding gifts that we still use regularly, and I think of the people who gave them to us.

I know it's not the trend now, but was thrilled when one of the couples whose wedding we are attending this year did a wedding list, and I could choose a 'proper' present!

@HelpMeGetThrough - please open the blessed presents - we all need to know what's in there!

We lived in a 1960s semi and were given a chandelier - fake gold ornate twirly arms with fake candles!
It got broken in one of our many house moves.

its funny how time can decide the gifts. I remember older people saying at one time it was common to get things like alarm clocks, toasters, teas maids, as wedding gifts.
then it was things like decorative glass plates, Irish coffee glasses, crystal glasses
then lazy susan's. slate table mats I wonder what is the thing to give at the moment

Open the presents! I got a nice picnic basket at a resale shop that was clearly never used. Tucked in an inside pocket was a gift certificate for a local gourmet store that was worth WAY more than the lovely picnic basket. Another time my MIL gave me a basket of fruity stuff from Bath and Body works. I realized it was a regift when I found the small card tucked inside that was addressed to her and included a salon gift card. Again, worth way more than the fruity stuff (which I hate, and she knows that). So no, before you ask, I did not tell her about the gift card.

We were given a huge basket full of dried flowers by work colleagues. I'd been asked if I liked dried flowers months before the wedding and said no! We kept it hidden in the spare room, ready to take downstairs in case anyone from work came round. We moved away 2 years later and I very happily threw the dusty thing away.

Honeymoon contributions! Although I did get one person a velvetiser.

I was thinking the other day that dinner services don’t really exist the same way now that they did decades ago. You can still get boxed sets of 4 dinner plates, side plates and cereal bowls but you don’t really see the full ranges with tureens and serving dishes and multiple sizes of bowls and all that nowadays, let alone department stores having multiple designs of ranges of that extent.

I feel the same about that post to be fair. It seems very ungrateful and unthoughtful, when people may have put a lot of thought and time and money into buying a gift, even if the gift may be not quite what someone would choose.

As an aside, any other olde spinsters reading this list and thinking 'I'd have LOVED a picnic basket!'😂

Wine glasses. We are just not good at breaking them so they have been waiting for 10 years to be used.

A couple of presents had unfortunate accidents when we moved. An interpretative piece of pottery with our wedding date that was neither useful not beautiful for example.

I loved the nice pottery pieces i got, a huge Nicholas Mosse bowl that we use as our fruit bowl and a matching platter i use rarely but still love. Also got a tart/quiche dish which i do use and a very expensive water crystal lamp which is lovely. Also got a cutlery set which we really needed and still use and ive augmented it. but really we didn't get a large amount of gifts and those we did get were mainly useful so i was happy with them. Even the wine glasses. I'm sure i will eventually break my other ones.

I do remember when my brother got married that he got about 5 Newbridge cutlery sets. THere really should be a swap shop for newly weds who get duplicates.

You've all reminded me that I also have an unused Lazy Susan too. I can still remember exactly who gave it to me. I remember I had to ask my Mum what it was (days before Google) as I'd never seen one before!!!! I thought it was a potters wheel. I've just moved it to the top of another fridge, as it is too big to fit in a cupboard. When I'm dead DS & DD can give it to a charity shop or turn it into something interesting.

I honestly love the thought of a picnic basket but they are so impractical. Big bulky and so awkward to carry. It is like they were designed for your team of servants to bring for you, rather than actually be of practical use. Nothing seems to fit in them properly either. The three that I have are entirely different styles and all utterly devoid of practical purpose, except they look vaguely attractive.

I've never been married, but I have had friends do artwork for me that isn't to my taste or doesn't go with my decor. I have learned now to put them up regardless. Not always in pride of place, but it still makes me happy to see little snippets of my friends everywhere. Even ones I have drifted apart from-I think It's a good thing to do.

My parents married in the 1950s, both are now dead but I’m still using some of the wedding gifts they received… a mixing bowl, I have fond memories of many cakes and Christmas puddings mixed in that bowl, and a serving dish, again happy memories, my mother kept it for ‘good’ use so i associate it with celebrations. I’ve also kept a china teaset that I use occasionally and my mother’s rolling pin.

Married for 30 years and don't know why I thought putting a fish kettle on our wedding list was a good idea. Anyway, we still have it, I don't really like fish, have never poached a salmon in my life and so I have wrapped it up ready to hand over when I depart this world as a family heirloom. It's become a family joke!!! 😄

I think those huge wicker picnic sets were big when very few people had cars, and you'd put your picnic set in the boot and drive to somewhere scenic, where you'd get your picnic set (and your folding chairs, rugs and table) out of the boot and then all sit round the car and admire the countryside.

They're all too big to carry further than the end of the road anyway.

Really ugly wedding-themed photo frames. Put them straight into the charity box.

But loved the fancy picnic basket and we use it all the time!

Got to find them first. They are in the garage, but under a “few” other boxes (I think).

We didn't have any useful wedding presents, but this thread moved me to buy some cream so my DW and I can have Irish coffee this evening!

BTW, I love using my fancy dinner service, silver ware and crystal. It makes dinner at home far more of an occasion. The only thing I don't like is not being able to chuck it in the dishwasher!

2nd marriage here and there were a pile of unopened wedding gifts in the attic for over ten years before I got around to opening them and sending to the charity shop. I can’t remember what they all were as they were so generic apart from photo frames, statues of wedding figures??!, napkin rings and wall plates and candlesticks. But there were some generous restaurant vouchers that presumably had expired. I should have checked if the restaurants would honour them many years later 🤣

I am baffled as to why people gift art. It’s such a personal thing when you don’t know people’s homes.

ETA I’ve just remembered that there was a toy remote controlled sports car too!