Holiday Gifts

I also had a customer call wanting to order a book for a friend’s wedding that was about a week away. She thought that it would be a great wedding gift. We are, in fact, out of stock of the particular book she was seeking. When I broke the devastating news to her, she replied with “Well, you just ruined my life!” I almost couldn’t believe my ears. This one book that she wanted to get a friend, the wedding was a week away mind you, was not available and that just ruined her life.

My Great-Auntie Vera passed this week. She was 86! I’m sad that we lost her, but how cool is it that she lived to almost 90? Cool, indeed. Yay for long-lived family members. She was funny and sweet. She was a great cook, and sent us a family/church cookbook for a wedding gift. Then my grandma swiped it, then she gave it to my auntie and uncle. I finally tracked it down and got it back. HA! Ha to you, grandma! (Who is herself 87 this July.)

My niece is getting married in a few weeks. She has already been down the aisle one time and already has a household. It’s a little more challenging to get a wedding gift for a second marriage since she pretty much has everything she needs.

Couples can also offset the carbon emissions produced as a result of their nuptials by making contributions to an eco organization of their choice or requesting that guests do the same in lieu of a wedding gift.

There are times when I feel helpless in arriving with an idea that I like best. The entire weekend, I had dedicated myself to find a wedding gift. Perhaps it is my first time shopping for newlyweds, and the gift is for someone who is important to me, I started with many possibilities, but were shorted in settle with one gift.

As a gift for Paul and Jordan, Jamie got them a sugar cookie as their wedding gift since we, as a couple, totally forgot a gift. Well, I kinda forgot too since Kyle and I got them a tent from REI. So, I can see how it happened. What I didn’t expect was the following:

overall, the wedding stuff is going well. i finally started looking for a dress. i’m pretty sure i know what i want. not saying anything else about it because burnaby can’t know what i’m getting. no peeky peekoo, mr wallace. =P also we be looking for florist/decoration/pretty stuff to prettify everything. we gots some ideas, so we’re getting therrre. and we’re going to the catering fair tomorrow to decide on the food. this is when we can taste all their food offerings. it’s buffet style so you get your grub on during this event.

Some tips on buying proposal ring now. First of all, I think a solitair diamond ring is most suitable for proposal. Do not buy fashion rings eventhough they are cheap. For diamonds, it depends on what is ur intended purpose for this ring. Is it meant for daily wear? Or only for special occasions like the actual wedding day only? Remember that a wedding band is already a daily affair. For me, I wanted the proposal ring to be a ’semi-formal’ thing, something suitable for daily wear but not too glamourous that can grace the Star Awards. Also remember that some ladies may not find it comfortable wearing a $10,000 ring due to the mental burden.

Which brings us to the mixing bowls over there, I used up the rest of a wedding gift certificate (we got married in ‘02!) from Williams Sonoma to get these. I love them and just realized now from looking up the link they sell them as “kids” mixing bowls. hah!

I pull out the griddle and set it on the stove while Jake dumps the Campbell’s Tomato Soup into a cheapo, wedding gift sauce pan and sets it on a back burner. He twists a burner knob on high while I count out slices of bread. A moment of collective effort like this is rare for Jake and me, but I love it.

Hi friends/family, Andrew here. Lisa and I recently registered at honeyfund.com for a honeymoon registry. Basically it allows people who would like to bless us with a wedding gift to do so by helping us pay for our honeymoon. Pretty cool, huh? We’re planning on going to Kona, Hawaii. Check it out here. Hope all is well with everyone.

One of the dearest people in our office was getting married that Saturday and I mentioned I needed to get to the store and buy her wedding gift.

Finally, to Ian Gobert for driving up from Virginia and bring with him his wit and charm to complete the circle of friends that mad this event what it was. And for knocking my socks off by giving Elizabeth and I a SGI O2 as a Wedding Gift. Thank you!

Ardyn Reyes Wolfe has set up a system in which the guests contribute to a fund that will help the newlyweds on a down payment on a house. KMTR NewsSource 16's own Keli Warner and Nohelani Graf spoke with them today.

Since the days of kings and queens, important pieces of jewelry were always presented in ornate cushions or pillows. Whether for a coronation or a royal wedding, a beautiful sewn pillow would set the presentation in a glorious way. Let's fast forward a few hundred years and you've got ringbearer pillows. They come in all sorts and in varying prices.

After much hemming and hawing and discussion with The Husband, I decided to spend our remaining Williams-Sonoma wedding gift card on a KitchenAid Artisan Standing Mixer.

my friend is getting married aug 6th and i cant make it to the wedding because i am going to a family reunion in hell-hole small-town prairie land where the evil step-monster just happens to live as well. anywho, she is having cupcakes made and the baker wants more for the flowers than the actual cupcakes, soooooooooooo being the carazay wild and whacky bitch that i am, i offered to do them for a wedding gift.

Many have emailed in to ask if we have a wedding registry - and, at first, we didn’t have one. Our feeling on the whole wedding gift thing was.. we didn’t want any! Initially, we decided that since we’re having the wedding in New York - and every single one of our guests have to travel to get there.. so airfaire and lodging costs.. we decided that, alone, was the perfect gift. Just having them there to share our special day with us was gift enough for us.

So right now, we’ve constructed the bookcases and put the books in, thereby clearing out about half the boxes. We unpacked a lot of the clothes. We started discussing where we want the “real” furniture when we get it (like a couch), possibly with the anticipated wedding gift money. And we’re thinking about paint and curtains and things of that sort.

18. Cut bar costs - Champagne toasts, wine with dinner and an open bar can ratchet up the reception costs. A champagne-punch fountain is considerably cheaper than glasses of champagne all around. Limiting the alcohol choices to beer and wine can also save money.

An important part of getting a lot done around the house is having a good breakfast that doesn’t take a lot of time. Our staple has become banana bread. We always keep bananas on hand for snacks for the two-year-old of the manor. A side effect seems to be that we often have over-ripe fruit to use. The perfect solution is banana bread. The recipe I use has been in the family for awhile–we received it as a wedding gift from my grandmother. We love eating it with a little peanut butter, which adds protein and helps it stick to our ribs.

I went to Target this morning to buy a wedding gift and exchange some shorts for Little Girl. Every time I’ve bought something off a registry in the past (be it wedding or baby), all they do is scan the bar code attached to the couple’s name and then scan in the products you are buying. Simple. Makes sense. But apparently at Target, you are expected to CIRCLE the products you bought so they can scan them in off the registry as well. Because you know I have nothing better to do while I’m shopping with my toddler.

In 1890, Chicago millionaire Marshall Field bought the small house and property at 1919 S Prairie Ave, located right next to his own spectacular home, and commissioned architect Daniel Burnham to construct the 30,000-square-foot mansion for his newly married son. Sure makes that cappacino maker you gave for your last wedding gift seem inadequate.

so. Bikermommy’s money for our wedding gift arrived yesterday… which means i can finally pick up my Kitchenaid mixer! and B.J.’s has the Pro for the same price as others have lesser ones… so i’m getting the 5-quart Pro. i can’t wait to make petits fours with it!

At least this request is more literate than most. However, if you were a vendor of frou-frou wedding dresses, sparkly rings, or overpriced bouquets, would you really want your business associated with a site like this one that features things like cigarette lighters dressed up as a wedding party? And more to the point, what relevance does this business have to Tacky Living's readers, unless one considers weddings inherently tasteless?

Have you ever wondered what kind of wedding gift a feminist would present, if she ever had occasion to give one? I found the perfect gift; a Raffaele Iannello designed Knife Block.

I’m stunned - and humbled - and very pleased. I’ve worked hard on this. My wedding gift to them is the ceremony itself, and I’m glad it’s turned out well.

I, on the other hand, was given a complete set of Good Housekeeping cookbooks as a wedding gift from my mother. (Since I possessed very limited cooking skills, she had hoped to spare Taki’s stomach.) Although the gesture was well intended, the reality of the situation thirty years ago, when Taki and I were married, was that there was a very limited selection of Western- style food products available to the local market, in fact it was almost nonexistent. Instead, I learned to try and substitute various items. And although the food line has improved greatly, there still is a lack of most of the main products in local supermarkets.

The first is permanency. I ran into this problem when picking out a wedding gift for my friend Megan earlier this year. We've known each other since we were 12, and I wanted to give her something she and her husband would always have, would remember where it came from, and would actually use. I grew up in a house with a mother who knows the story behind every piece of crystal and china and interesting bowl and who has been kind enough to pass a lot of them down to me, and I wanted Megan to have a little bit of that. But the trouble is finding something both gorgeous enough to keep that long and useful enough to have out. I found something -- an Irish wedding cup -- that didn't score high on the useful factor but topped the charts on the meaningful scale.

My sister Elyssa can be a real knob sometimes. My father - also my boss - gave her a $45,000.00 car for a wedding gift, which is a “company car”. She refuses to admit that this is rampant favoritism. And then she says I’m jealous of her. Darn right I am! I’ve been working her for crappy wages for 10+ years, and when they came back from their free trip to Switzerland, I got a knife. A $10.00 knife.

In the Roman Catholic Church, before a couple weds, they are supposed to participate in an Engaged Encounter weekend. This is a period of exploration, both of self and each other. It is designed to help a couple about to enter the state of Holy matrimony get to know each other on a level which will make adjusting to married life that much easier. As we are not Roman Catholics, Amber and I did not go on such a retreat. However, our friends Matt & Crystal got so much out of their weekend that they made us a “home edition” and gave it to us as a wedding gift.

Moving on into the weekend, Matt was in town for Mark and Angela’s wedding. The wedding was great, outdoor, very quaint and simple, yet visually and emotionally interesting! By far I think it was one of the better weddings that I have been too. Not coordinated the best, but overall it was very nice. Tried to take a few pics for them for my wedding gift, why not use my talents to provide a thoughtful gift. Ok then came the receptions and yada yada yada, it was typical reception, food and cake. Then Matt, Jordan, Emily and I were planning to go to the haunted hayrides. Well I had to photograph some stuff at The Walker Center before I went. Well I rush to The Walker Center, shoot till about 6:35, then run to the Hampton Inn to meet them, change in the lobby bathroom, and then off to the rides.

Imagine my surprise when twenty years after admiring that incomplete, yet respectable in number, set of china to be opening a box that my grandparents hand delivered to Colorado from Minnesota as part of our wedding gift! It was a lovely surprise and a forgotten memory so was really two surprises in one.

A while later, I convinced Coffee that we needed a toaster oven - with just the two of us in the house, it doesn’t always make sense to fire up the gigantic oven to cook three little fish sticks (or whatever) and a toaster oven would be quicker to heat up, too. So we pulled together some wedding gift money and headed out to purchase one, and it’s been happily sitting on my counter ever since. Our lesbian membership toaster oven, purchased with the wedding money received at our very hetero wedding. Welcome to my world.

I also had the, ahem, pleasure the other week of sorting out my wedding gift list which involved going into the John Lewis store, and then zapping the barcodes of everything we wanted with a handy PDA. This would have been great fun had it not been for the fact that it was the start of the sales that day and it was a weekend. Grrrr. And what has all this to do with web stuff? Well the fact that we couldn’t do our list online was a bit annoying. In the last few years I have rarely ventured to the shops, instead preferring the comfort of being able to shop online, anywhere and anytime. That’s not to say that the web can ever replace being able to touch and feel and smell your potential wares (well not yet), and there’s certainly room for improvement with most sites. Here’s my wishlist for ecommerce sites:

If anyone is interested in paying our Honeymoon Airfare (or half?) as your wedding gift, please let me know ASAP. I miscalculated what it would cost to fly to Mexico. Prices are at about $417 per person right now, but I am sure priceline.com can get it for cheaper.

I would also like to send an Internet-wide shout-out to our friend Erin, who was kind enough to send us three gorgeous paintings as a wedding gift. They are absolutely lovely, and I’m crazy about them. Thanks, Erin!

My brother and sister-in-law picked me up at about 11 p.m. Friday and took me with them back to their apartment in New Orleans, where I spent the night and woke up at 7 a.m. Saturday to help them move to the house they just bought in rural Covington. Along with the two of them, my sister-in-law's brother and parents helped us move stuff into the U-Haul and then all of us drove over the Causeway (formerly the longest bridge in the world) to the Northshore and their new home. After unloading stuff there, we went back to my parents' and my sister-in-law's parents' and sister's houses in Slidell to pick up yet more wedding gifts and furniture others had given to them. Last night there were 14 of at their house (including a 2 year old and 2 month old) helping them unpack. It was chaos, but glorious chaos nonetheless. It's beautiful and a perfect starter house for newlyweds.

The weather was fantastic out there. Ninety degrees but with a cool breeze coming off the ocean so it never felt too hot except when we were in our black tuxedos. The food was pretty good all weekend, and it came nonstop. As soon as we arrived, I had lunch with J&A at a restaurant on the harbor. Between apps and entrees, we each had about a pound of seared ahi. A few hours later we went to dinner at a fantastic bistro called French 75. Live lounge music, which I totally dig, and awesome escargot, lamb chops, mussels, tuna tartare, carpaccio, of course seared foie gras (with a lovely poached white peach) and I don’t remember what else. Also had a bottle of Flowers pinot noir followed by a Cakebread cabernet. We were still full from lunch when we sat down, but the food was so good that we couldn’t resist stuffing ourselves silly. The following day we had brunch at the Ritz where the buffet featured the best Belgian waffles I’ve ever tasted. They were crispy on the surface yet ethereally light and airy inside. There were also a few different kinds of sausages that were terrific as well as some excellent smoked salmon. Brunch ran until 10:30 or so, and then we went to meet up with the girls for lunch at an Italian restaurant at noon. As full as we were, nothing jumped out at me, so I just had the crabmeat salad, a glass of mediocre house pinot grigio, and then some espresso and some black sambuca. I just asked for a shot of it to accompany my espresso, but apparently they only do one size- half a snifter full! So lunch ran until about 2p, then we had rehearsal at 3p, and then dinner at 6p! Dinner was quite good, where most of us ordered the rack of lamb, and it was indeed a full rack of perfectly cooked lamb for each of us. Still too full, I didn’t touch my potatoes, but I did finish the entire delicious rack. Had a sapphire and tonic along with a few glasses of the unspectacular house merlot with dinner. Then it turns out we were $200 short of the minimum for reserving the room, so we rounded out the bill by ordering 2 bottles of Cakebread cabernet! We drank that and enjoyed some mild cigars outside. Then we went back to the Marriot bar to have some drinks.

Just a few days after Charlie and I married, I received a heavy package in the mail with Mom’s return address. I slowly and carefully removed the paper and packaging, and there was Dad’s favorite hammer, clean and polished. That was the most wonderful wedding gift that I have ever received. It wasn’t a cold hammer, it was a piece of Dad and every time I use it, I think of Dad. I think of the way he threatened to cut the excess handle off if I didn’t learn how to hold the damn thing on the end of the handle–not next to the head. I learned.

I’ve just set up a wedding registry over at Amazon.com so head over there and buy me the one item I think I may want a year and a half from now. They require a date and location just like Target does, but at least they make it easy to edit if it changes.

Last night, over a couple of glasses of wine, an old friend casually mentioned that he was having trouble deciding what kind of wedding gift to buy my ex. Excuse me??? You’re just going to slip that into conversation? That kind of announcement (that the guy you once thought you were going to marry is, in fact, marrying the girl his mom told you he was cheating with) requires set up. Preparation. Appropriate framing to couch the blow. You don’t just say, out of the blue, “What should I get … for his wedding?” Like I’m going to give you advice on that?

LaPora Designs is the cutest bags on the market for brides right now. Make sure you go instyle this season with these hot new accessories, including the bride's bag, bags for the bridesmaids, mother-of-the-bride bags, the ring bearer's pillow and a covered photo album.