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?

We got mostly quite useful things, towels, pans etc, but also three fondue sets, and an ashtray that doubled as a cribbage score board that would have been more suitable to an old mens' drinking club!

I agree with this, it was very different @suah Choosing a dinner service for our first house was an exciting (and very grown up) thing. How many vegetable dishes? Will we use a tureen? Better have one just in case. And the matching coffee jug and salt and pepper pots? Nipping to IKEA or the supermarket for a set of plates and bowls just wasn't a thing.

Debenhams, John Lewis, House of Fraser all had different ranges and we spent ages choosing ours. It's still used for special occasions. I suspect it's actually worth quite a lot of money but I couldn't get rid of it even though it fills a cupboard.

lol we also got loads of decanters. We are wine drinkers but 6 was still rather more than we needed!

Yes, this. Multiple of them are silver with engraving of our names and wedding date. One of them is heart shaped. They're not our style and I'm not sure why the multiple close family members who bought them thought they were. They've been in a drawer for three years and only at the weekend there did we move them into a box in the attic where I'm sure they'll live a long, dark and dusty life.

@mindutopia- shisha pipe 🤣🤣 - best one so far! 🤣🤣

oooh, was that The Gift of Marriage?

I have a treasured copy in which my dear friend wrote "if your marriage is anything like this I will disown you"

@merryhouse I don't remember. It was 30 years ago and I only saw it for about 10 minutes. It didn't show up when we went back the following day to collect everything left behind.

Large selection of cutlery in pattern I'd never pick from Pil....

Must admit I finally cracked after 20+ years and flogged them on ebay.

We had a very careful wedding list which started with "We have most basic stuff (often twice!) as we've been together so long, so please no kitchen stuff or towels". Obviously the guests didn't read it...

No idea why, but when I've said 'Please don't get me a present. I tend to get towels from everyone and my airing cupboard is full of them', I got a set of towels. I showed them the airing cupboard, and they said, 'I thought it was a hint'.

Not me, but some friends received a shredder as a present, thanked the gifters for the shredder. Moved said shredder (unopened) from house to house for years, until their current shredder died and they finally opened it. Only to find a crystal decanter which the gifters had obviously wrapped up in a random shredder box. Then had to go and buy another shredder.

I was married in 1981 so many many years ago. My lovely gran gave us tea towels that were offensive - 1690, King Billy type. 😱 She also gave us flannelette sheets and the sparks definitely flew when they were on the bed (once). My ex mil promised us a washing machine. I was very excited except it was a twin tub. Hours of washing bliss (not). I was expected to be very grateful. Her horrible son , my exh, never washed anything but wouldn't buy an automatic because his darling mum had given us this monstrosity

A horrendous wall barometer. We kept it for years but never put it on the wall

I forgot the mincer! It came with many attachments for making sausages of different proportions. It had to be fixed against a work surface and you risked your fingers if you used it. I didn't use it. Exh couldn't bear parting with anything someone had given him for free.

We are using the expensive dinner service that dh got for his first wedding, no point it gathering dust, apparently his first wife hated it! We haven’t drunk all our champagne yet but it’s less than a year and we got loads

I think we used all our wedding gifts except for ... the picnic basket! We've been married 17 years, and I finally gave it to a charity shop a couple of years ago.

I feel terrible.
Nobody gave us a picnic basket.

A dinner party book. On the left side page you reproduce the menu and wines served, and on the right there’s a picture of the table with chairs marked for you to write names who sat where, as well as notes of conversations that had gone well or badly. I kid you not. The whole idea being that you need never suffer the social death that results from serving the same dish to guests at subsequent dinner parties.

Sent to the charity shop.

Cups and saucers. I actually asked for these, but I don't think we ever used them. It turns out we're just not cup-and-saucer people, we're mug people.

Been married 26yrs, and have a crystal bowl that's been used a grand total of twice. Once for a fruit salad and once for a tiramisu.
Also, a cutlery set which is very ornate and the cutlery is huge. It's never ever been used, and we keep threatening to donate it to DD or DS but they don't want it! It's not silver or anything special.
I just feel guilty about getting rid of it, but it is destined for charity.

My parents have been married 50y and their box of unused wedding gifts (still in boxes) includes a Chinese tea set and a salt and pepper shaker set.

Feeling quite deprived now, not having been given a picnic basket

We got married over 30 years ago when most sensible people did choose something off the list, so we do still have, and use various things that were wedding presents.

But we also got 7 glass bowls - like trifle bowls or maybe for fruit which weren't on our list, and also some of those plates for hanging on your wall (I mean, why??). We also had 3 people embroider / cross stitch our names and wedding date which is one of those presents you can't even do anything with, if not to your taste.

First wedding we made a list of practical and inexpensive things we would definitely use. The in laws decided to ignore this because ‘these are not proper wedding presents’ and bought us a cut crystal cheese dome. I could barely lift it and the glass was so thick it was full If you put two Dairylea triangles in it. BIL also bought us a cut glass decanter glass decanter !

We got a John Lewis gift voucher that had expired! We tried to use it 2 weeks after the wedding.

I think I am super lucky that I've used every single thing (and still thank people every time I use them.. this is 25 years later). I spent a huge amount of time in John Lewis "getting it right".
I'm not sure Mum and Dad had a list but Mum still uses her Le Creuset engagement gift 60 years on

Oh God, so many!

First wedding: Several crystal ornaments of grand pianos. Kept in boxes for years then given away. Ditto several of those
Willow (?) figurines. A metal sculpture of a figure playing the piano which was hideous.

Second wedding (a couple of years ago):
China multi level cake stand (awful, cheap and horrible), Mr and Mrs glasses (ditto), Mr and Mrs coasters (not our style), and the most awful random metal sculpture made by a family member of dh's who is very "creative".
Everything except the mercifully small metal creation has gone. That one that stays in its box in a cupboard until they visit!