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?

Picnic basket. Sold on EBay.

Agreed. The ingratitude on display here is awful.

Very expensive set of wine glasses and a set of also very expensive whiskey tumblers. I’m clumsy with wine glasses (especially after just half a glass!) so was too scared that use them. And neither of us drank whiskey. They sat in their boxes in the attic and were still there when I moved out/divorced!

We were given a huge framed map of a country. We have no connection to the country whatsoever and have never visited it.

Some cut crystal glasses. They’re lovely but very delicate and not our style at all.

We were married over 20 years ago and already had most things so had a Good Gifts wedding list where guests could buy chickens, goats, shoes etc for people in need. A few of the more old fashioned relatives were very vocal in hating this and wanting to buy a ‘proper’ gift so we set up a small Debenhams one to appease them. So despite having TWO lists to choose from one of DH’s friends still went rogue and presented us with a giant pepper grinder like the ones that the waiters come looming up to you with at Italian restaurants. It was too big to fit in any of the kitchen cupboards and would probably have taken about 50 quids worth of pepper to refill, but they were so proud when they gave it to us I did try and use it. But as I had to use a step stool to grind it into anything I was cooking it mostly just sat phallically judging us in the corner until I finally came to my senses and charity shopped it.

We could hold a Swap Shop, for those of us old enough to remember Noel Edmonds in his heyday!

An arty display vase
A collectors coin
A prescious stone in hideous brown
Silver platters
Photo frames
A tablecloth

We did quite well. We didn't have a gift list so mostly just got cash which was much better so we could choose our own. Most pointless was a set of Mr&Mrs mugs. Not something we would have ever picked.

@HelpMeGetThrough So that means that some people have spent 26 years waiting for you to thank them for the present they gave you and you have never done so???? Thats awful. How ungrateful.

And don't say you sent a generic, "Thank you for the gift" card, as thats almost as bad.

Second marriage, in our 40s and been together years so asked for nothing. However, our guests knew us well and still got us lovely gifts. A lot of champagne and whisky and those huge 3 wick candles from White Company, a Freddies Flowers subscription for a year and things like that. Really good stuff.

Apart from one who gave us a flimsy flip-book for photos that you used to get free when you got your film developed. Thats was odd. Still thanked her though.

I was given six brierley liqueur glasses - they’re quite pretty but they’re absolutely microscopic! They’ve gathered dust in the glass cupboard for the last forty years (and lasted 25 years longer than the marriage for which they were a present…)

A very large thermos flask, I have never ever seen such a huge one in any shop, we use small ones as we hike.

Giant phallic pepper mill here too!

It was 3 feet tall and 30 years later I think it's still at the back of the wardrobe at my mum's house.

I'm sure the giver (middle-aged work friend of DH's who I've never met before or since the wedding) thought giving us a kitchen object that looked a bit like a big wooden penis was HILARIOUS.

What country ? 😀

Haven’t seen it for years as it’s in a cupboard somewhere… I think Vietnam. We’ve never spoken about even wanting to visit there.

I expect they didn't want to either travel or skydive either, so passed it on?

I have no issue ignoring vouchers that are completely inconvenient and require me to spend plenty of money on travel and probably a hotel too, though.

That’s so weird @PeachPumpkin

I'd be so annoyed if I found out that someone was ungrateful for a gift I gave them that they couldn't even be bothered to open it.

I mean, 80 people would be likely to include some families, and mostly couples, so far fewer than 80 notes to send.

I think it's pretty bad form not to have sent thank yous to people who came to your wedding and got you a present.

I don't remember the programme but years ago we did a swap on mn, not wedding related but a thread where people said 'I've got one of these, I'd like one of these!'

It worked well from what I remember. I got some nice things and got rid of a lot of exercise bits and bats that I didn't use.

Of course it has to be within reason, not 'I've got a spare rolling pin and I'd like a state of the art laptop', but overall if works well if people are sensible.

Perhaps we could do another🙂

If you get a personalised thanks it's nice but not a big deal if you don't, it's not as if you don't know whether it got there or not like a posted gift and it can be a bit of an overwhelming task for a big wedding (ours was much smaller than 80 and I remember it being a big job). I honestly wouldn't be bothered. The gift giver in this case will never know it never got unwrapped, so no harm done. In any case it was meant to be a light hearted thread.

It’s incredibly rude to not thank people for a wedding gift. And frankly, if someone has the wherewithal to organise a big wedding and all that goes with that, sending thank you cards afterwards shouldn’t be an overwhelming task that’s beyond them.

I chatted to a RL friend about this yesterday and she told me that she was given a set of embroidered handkerchief cases. There were matching sets; one in pale green and the other in pale yellow (she thinks a kind of his and hers thing) and each set had the days of the week embroidered on them, so that you could put a fresh hanky in every day of the week. If the box that they came in hadn't clearly stated what they were for, she said she would have been clueless. She's going to leave them to her children in the hope that one day they will be historical artifacts! 😂(She also confirmed that she did send a thank you note.)

A wedding planner book!!! Yes really!!! Couldn’t believe it….. got sent to a charity shop!!!