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Original poster

Worst wedding gifts ever

182 replies

TaterTots · 25/10/2016 23:52

Seeing the 'should we buy them a wedding gift?' got me thinking - what's the worst wedding gift you received (or have seen someone receive)?

My cousin and his first wife received a teapot in the shape of a thatched cottage, decorated with rose bushes, a pair of cutesy country children and, most bizarrely of all, geese. It was one of the most hideous things I've ever seen. I think it was from a distant relative of the bride - I honestly wondered if she'd offended them in some way. Who thinks a 20 year-old pregnant bride desperately needs a cottage-shaped fucking teapot?! It gave us all a good laugh at least.

(Disclaimer - any wedding gift is a wonderful gesture, it's the thought that counts, accept with a gracious smile blah blah blah)

OP posts:
pklme · 26/10/2016 07:31

A brightly coloured soft wicker laundry basket, that was a bit squashed. We used it of course because every gift is thoughtful and reminds you of the giver... But it never matched anything and was lopsided and wonky its whole life.

user1472419718 · 26/10/2016 07:37

Cointreau- had you ever mentioned plans to him that you were planning to redo the kitchen e.g. on a home you had recently bought?

Those things are great if you are stuck without a kitchen!

InfiniteSheldon · 26/10/2016 07:37

My dm who was 'too ill' to come to our wedding gave us separate gifts, I received a rather lovely bracelet and dh received a white porcelain 'box' we believe it's an urn for his ashes.

DudeWheresMyVulva · 26/10/2016 07:38

My ILs told DH that they shelled out enough on a present the first time he got married, so that gift would do for ours. It was a set of silver cutlery and had been split down the middle during their very acrimonious divorce. Grin

It sounds grim, but actually was quite funny, and I did (and do) get on great with the ILs. :)

user1468769430 · 26/10/2016 07:45

a tablecloth from my husbands bosses wife who said we had it given
wedding present but didnt like it.

Mrsemcgregor · 26/10/2016 08:32

We didn't get any "bad" gifts as such, in fact we hardly got any gifts as we set up a donation page for cancer research because my grandad was terminal and died 6 weeks after the wedding, but we got a few token gifts from people who didn't like to turn up empty handed. Which was lovely obviously. The strangest thing we got was a bamboo photo album, it was the kind you might buy somewhere like Thailand as a souvenir. It was massive (80x80cm) and slightly fell apart every time you touched it. Completely impractical, I wonder where that went.....I would guess it's turned to dust by now in a box somewhere!

Brightsmoke · 26/10/2016 08:37

howno my mother in law and most of that side of the family turned up empty handed too...

Tbf, we didn't want anything, but even so, my grandfather in law gave us £2500, and other family members either helped set up or gave us money. I think its very bad taste to turn up with nothing, not even a card!!

SantinoRice · 26/10/2016 08:38

A pair of ceramic boots, painted brown, with a ceramic blue tit perched on one of them.

I have no idea.

muminmanchester · 26/10/2016 08:45

A single pillowcase! Very odd!

PetalMettle · 26/10/2016 08:47

One of dh's closest friends "can I have a +1" (er no you're not seeing anyone), "are you going to invite xyz?" (No I've met them once) "you're having a free bar all night aren't you, got to have a free bar." (We did post ceremony pimms, wine with dinner and champagne for toast, and then put a grand behind the bar).
Anyway, our unwillingness to centre the whole day round his desires obviously annoyed him as he turned up with nothing. Not even a card.

MyGiddyUncle · 26/10/2016 08:48

This sounds weird but the 'worst' gift we had was cash, from a friend of mine.

She was invited to the full day, along with her fiance. She's a good work friend, I speak to her daily, and we've been on a few good team nights out over the last couple of years. But she's not really pop-over-for-a-coffee close iyswim.

Anyway...she gave us £500 cash in her card Shock

I mean obviously it's lovely to get cash and was really generous but the 'typical' amount for this group of friends is about £50 (which i've given at weddings and received from a few similar friends). It was just so OTT, it made us feel really, really uncomfortable.

She's not poor but not super well off, has a similar salary to me and her fiance is a plumber. We've touched on finances during chats and she has similar money concerns as me - they were buying a new house and struggling to afford the bathroom they wanted, cutting back on holidays due to a big new mortgage etc.

Dh and I kind of decided between us that she must have had a windfall and won £10k on a scratchcard or something shortly before the wedding - but if that was the case, I wish she would have actually told me iyswim, as it would have made me feel a lot better about accepting it.

GinIsIn · 26/10/2016 08:59

We had someone turn up to our wedding and instead of a gift they brought their new girlfriend of 3 weeks who we explicitly had said was not invited when he asked (twice!!) and she rocked up in a white dress - a cottage shaped teapot would have been preferable!!

brasty · 26/10/2016 09:20

A hideous painting. Personally I think a painting is not a suitable wedding gift, as one person's gorgeous painting, is another persons' nightmare.

UnderCoverGuvnor · 26/10/2016 09:20

My husbands first cousin gave us a £5 argos voucher!

Cousin, husband, 2 children (12&14) all invited to full day. We included the children because they did not live locally and it seemed the right thing to do. Both adults had good jobs, nice house etc - I still can't get my head around the £5 voucher even now, we didn't need or expect gifts so this seemed really strange, I wouldn't have thought anything if there had been no gift but £5 ?????

Rubies12345 · 26/10/2016 09:23

Sister invited Aunt and Uncle, their adult kids and adult grandkids and they all sat at one table.

There was 2 bottles of wine per table, I guess they're not wine drinkers because one remained unopened. They dashed out got a gift bag and card, passed it round their table to sign and gave the unopened free bottle as a gift. No other gift/vouchers between 10.

hippopootamus · 26/10/2016 09:31

user1477282676 "People give gifts out of affection"

Not always - sometimes they are given with indifference, passive aggression or spite!

ClarkL · 26/10/2016 09:31

I was a bad gift giver in my younger days - I didn't realise quite what went into a wedding, one girl from work invited me when I was seeing one of her close friends, by the time the wedding came around we weren't seeing each other, I'd moved on (this was all within a month) and asked if I could bring a plus 1. She was so polite and said yes - she got a grand total of £20.
He arrived without a date as he thought it would be rude knowing I was there...
To this day I still feel bad about it.

LaPharisienne · 26/10/2016 09:35

I personally hate wedding lists. Want to get married - great! Want to throw a party? Go ahead! Want me to come? Sure... Then expect me to buy you a present? Hang on... I didn't make you get married or choose to spend loads of money on it... why am I being punished?!!!

Therefore my response to wedding lists has been entirely random. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with affection for the couple and buy the hoover or whatever that is left. Sometimes I forget and buy them a fun present en route to the wedding. Sometimes I buy something off list. And sometimes... I don't get around to it and don't buy anything.

I am sort of waiting for someone to appear on this thread complaining about the hoover...

whifflesqueak · 26/10/2016 09:43

I went to my best friend's wedding without a gift. I felt so so awful about it, but I had just had a baby and I hardly had a roof over my head. I have never mentioned it (too embarrassed) and neither has she, but I will never not feel rotten about it.

a knee high concrete windmill. that might be the strangest.

paddypants13 · 26/10/2016 09:44

My cousin and his now ex wife were in the papers because his mates played a joke on them and they got 24 toasters given!

They were able to return 23 of them! Grin

SantinoRice · 26/10/2016 09:45

LaPharisienne - we got a hoover & I bloody love it. If that was you, thank you :)

moreslackthanslick · 26/10/2016 09:45

One of my bridesmaids didn't even give us a card. :(

Bear in mind we had paid for everything, dress, shoes, make up and hair trials, jewellry for the day etc - asking approval all the way and a night in a hotel before the wedding.

I didn't ever say anything but thought it was off. She earns an excellent salary and her husband has an ok salary. No DC. Maybe she just forgot....

Otherwise some of the photo frames I could have done without and charity shopped them but we were mainly happy with our lot. We had 2 houses between us, didn't ask for cash but ended up with a lot of cash and vouchers plus some really thoughtful gifts too.

moreslackthanslick · 26/10/2016 09:46

(Oh and lots of champagne! 8 bottles! Spent a while after the wedding in a drunken haze)

Maraschinocherry · 26/10/2016 09:48

LaPharisienne

traditionally wedding gifts were there to help a young couple settle in together. Even if many brides and grooms are now living together before the wedding, it's still a nice thing to do to offer a gift. Would you turn up without anything for a birthday party?
You know that nearly everybody will want to buy you something. A wedding list is so much easier to deal with than having to treck round the shops trying to figure out what the couple might like.

Fair enough you don't want to buy from the list, even if it's a bit mean, they are not designed to demand something but to guide you. Turning empty handed? really rude. I don't even turn up without a small gift when I am invited for diner.

DudeWheresMyVulva · 26/10/2016 09:48

Rubies that reminds meof a friend who got bling drunk at our wedding, and before he left swiped a bottle of champagne from the drinks station (we paid for and provided all the drinks) and gave it to us and said; 'Shhh.....take this, it's my gift to you'. I was a bit bemused. Um, I'd already paid for that bottle, thanks.

He had form for that sort of thing i later found out.We were at a mutual friend's DS's 21st and he went quite brazenly and slipped a bottle of champagne into his wife's bag.

It is one of many things of that nature that made us pull back from the friendship.

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