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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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:

MrsMerchant · 27/10/2016 06:52

Wow it's just a joke! I personally think asking for money in lieu of a gift is far ruder than any bad gift!
I'm getting married in a couple of years and we will have no gift list and no cash request but asking everyone to choose a book for us. Second hand is fine but at most people will be spending is a tenner.

TipsyHasSmellyBreath · 27/10/2016 09:23

A single slice toaster. Single. Slice. Single. The way I should've stayed

thecatsarecrazy · 27/10/2016 09:41

2 hand towels and a "worlds sharpest knife" but to be fair the knife is still going 10 and a half years later

KimKsButt · 27/10/2016 12:49

I think USER sent the Teapot 🙈 Thats why she's taken umbrage/umbridge!!!

stealmyhappiness · 27/10/2016 13:27

My sister got bike locks

RaspberryOverloadTheFirst · 27/10/2016 13:38

An Italian colleague gave me the most beautiful set of table linens, layer after layer of cloths, place mats, napkins, all beautiful white lace. My style is chuck the kitchen roll on the table, so not sure why she gave us something too beautiful to use.

Cherrysoup You really should use them, it'll be a waste not to. Have you seen this thread?

M0stlyHet · 27/10/2016 13:52

Okay, here's what makes me uncomfortable about these threads... it's not so much the laughing at other people's taste thing (I've had some hideous presents in my time), more the fact that there are always people who make fun of the £5 voucher, or the £10 cheque. I'm a single parent, there's not usually a lot of spare money at the end of the month. I dread choosing wedding presents because I know I can't afford much, and I always worry that the recipient will think I'm really, really tight. I'm not really tight, it's just that by the time I've paid the transport, and possibly a B&B, I genuinely cannot afford a £50 wedding present. Fortunately I've now reached an age and stage where all my friends are married off now and I can stop worrying about it - but it used to be a real source of worry.

OhTallulah · 27/10/2016 14:05

I once saw someone get a set of knives in a block that had come from points on a petrol card.

Original poster

TaterTots · 27/10/2016 17:13

I think USER sent the Teapot 🙈 Thats why she's taken umbrage/umbridge!!!

Damn, I was going to say that!

OP posts:

SpongeBobJudgeyPants · 27/10/2016 17:36

Mostly I get the impression that people are mentioning the £5 gift vouchers etc when the people concerned have given every impression of being very well off. Your case is quite different, and would not produce the same response in any sensible person.

HeatherW27 · 27/10/2016 17:48

The worst one we got was from my Mil. It's was a huge picture wrapped up really nicely that she gave to use the day after our wedding (as we were leaving the venue). She said to me you are gonna love this, you saw it one time with me and said how much you loved it, so here it is.

We opened it when we got home and I had never seen the picture before. Asked new husband if he knew what it was, for him to say yes it was a picture my ex girlfriend really liked not you!!!!!

Needless to say it is still in our loft!!!

yeayea89 · 27/10/2016 17:55

I didn't have a worst present.... but after us paying the bar tab for everyone..... my so- called really good friends and their two children who came for the full day which cost us £150+ each for the whole day evening gave us £20.... I know they were going through hard times, others gave between £50-500, they went to the bar and we over heard him saying 'the wines free so I grabbed two bottles' before even I, the bride, had had a drink.... luckily one of the bar maids noticed and went to one of the other bars to grab me my own supply of drink 😂

Then all we got was an invite to the evening do to their large wedding!!!!!!
If I ever got married again/ renewed vows it would just be me my husband and my kids! No one else!!!!

Janey50 · 27/10/2016 17:59

Equimum - What's a 'solid silver cheese prick'?

OrangePeels · 27/10/2016 18:08

We did a gift list with Argos. Some people collected the gifts and brought them to the wedding and others had them delivered to us. Some people bought things not on this list too.

We were most befuddled by the solitary camping chair that arrived, to our door, from one of DH's close friends. We didn't have a camping chair on our list and why buy just one?

Thankfully, we received the list from Argos before we sent out thank you cards as he had actually ordered a lovely pan set that we had wanted.

Argos sorted it out pronto and we even got to keep the chair

It had us saying WTF for 3 days though!

StatisticallyChallenged · 27/10/2016 18:11

It's perfectly possible to get bad presents and there's nothing wrong with laughing at them. If I didn't laugh at some of the monstrosities I've been bought over the years by various relatives I'd go nuts. Our mums in particular are legendary.

Some folk are way too serious.

OrangePeels · 27/10/2016 18:25

On a sad note, a friend from DH's school days invited us to his wedding and DH to his stag do. DH made the stag do but we couldn't make the wedding.

They had a gift list set up with a website and we chose a silver photo frame for them. It was supposed to be delivered in one go to their home.

We received a lovely thank you note and thought nothing more about it.

Several weeks later we received an email from a very embarrassed and upset couple saying that they had sent out thank you notes from the list they received from the website. Unfortunately, the site had gone bust and they were not going to receive any of their gifts

They advised if ordered by credit card you could claim back the funds but debit card payments were lost.

We had paid by debit card but I was so gutted for them I ordered a similar frame from another place and sent it direct.

How utterly gutting?

BreakfastAtStephanies · 27/10/2016 18:28

Coming at this from a different angle, OP, because I am guilty of giving a bad gift to my cousin and his wife. It was a naff ornament of a badger. He opened the presents at the reception in front of all the guests, took it out of the box and said " it's a. . . . .badger. Of course it is." He went on to thank me graciously but I have no idea why I bought them that when I should have stuck to maybe a pair of wine glasses or just about anything else really.

HolesInTheFloor · 27/10/2016 18:31

We received a gilet printed with horses hooves so it looked like you'd been trampled by a horse. There was no label, it was just in the pile of gifts (wrapped up, someone hadn't just left a gilet). We never did work out who it was from.

Clarabellb · 27/10/2016 18:42

chipmonkey
That's hilarious 😂

oompaloompaland · 27/10/2016 18:44

We got a set of vivid pink napkins made from hessian (!), hand printed with fertility symbols! They looked as delightful as they sound.

Jayfee · 27/10/2016 18:50

now i know my paranoia about giving the wrong gift is not misplaced.

1Potato2 · 27/10/2016 18:53

My husband's mates clubbed together and got us a bonsai tree and....a chainsaw to trim it. I didn't really see the funny side.

Managed to sell the chainsaw on eBay for a decent amount thankfully. Weird

Jayfee · 27/10/2016 18:56

and what is hideous. i find some staffie dogs hideous but red setters beautiful but that doesn't make me right??

MrsHathaway · 27/10/2016 19:00

We married young so our gifts were "set up home" gifts - in fact we didn't set up home until about three months after the wedding. Most of the gifts are still in use twelve years later (though the toaster recently blew up).

I didn't notice who didn't give us a present; we carefully noted down who gave what and sent thank-you notes, but we didn't cross reference that list against the guest list.

Nonetheless, I did sigh a bit when DH's eccentric uncle gave us a rolling pin with a long letter scolding us for not putting a rolling pin on the list and explaining the varied uses of said utensil at length.

We already had one.

On a related note, I know someone who had a big 21st birthday party with a no-gifts policy. A few of us ignored her so she got some champagne and the watch she was still wearing when I saw her a decade later. And an awkward relative came up trumps with a startling coral necklace which would have been ageing on a woman of forty.

florencebabyjo · 27/10/2016 19:51

A blow up mattress! I think they thought we couldn't afford a bed, and a ginormous pepper grinder.

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