Wedding presents are meant to last forever, right? I always thought that was the way the world worked: The marriages that inspire the gift, are meant to last a lifetime and so should the presents.
I think back to the day Mrs Adams and I found ourselves in a department store that shall remain nameless. It’s well known for its wedding list service and along with numerous other couples, we found ourselves wandering around scanning all manner of homeware items that were on display.
I found it an exceedingly odd experience. We were immersed in this hot bed of consumerism scanning furniture, bedding, towels and electrical items, both future husband and wife with their heads down, focused not on their vows but scanners and bar codes.
I could personally have bypassed the wedding list altogether, but people are generous and want to give. They want to see your marriage get off to a good start.
I feel the same way when I receive a wedding invite and see the list. I want to help out.
If you don’t have a wedding list, you may find yourselves receiving all manner of items you don’t need or want. I therefore made my peace with the wedding list.
A decade(ish) later, and I’m facing an awkward truth. Those wedding list items don’t, necessarily, last forever.
We were advised by the salesperson to put one expensive item on our wedding list. It was a great sales pitch. Apparently work colleagues might want to club together and buy us the one expensive item.
We put a docking station on this list for this very purpose. To our amazement, a family acquaintance purchased it for us. This was someone we have lost touch with as she moved away and we could never really visit her because of her violent dogs. It was an exceedingly nice gesture and we got a huge amount of use out of it for several years.
Only thing is, that technology is now obsolete. Mrs Adams, a self-confessed technophobe, still uses it from time to time with her ancient iPhone4. It can only be used with an unsightly cable and I’ve made repeated efforts to try and remove it from the house.
We have a Google Home that has access to all the music Mrs Adams could ever want to listen to. Alas, she likes listening to mp3 files she’s physically purchased. I don’t think Mrs Adams has realised it yet, but her Docking Station Years are about to end because she’s upgrading to a new phone that can’t be used with the docking station.
Not, you understand, that I particularly want to get rid of the docking station. It was a wonderful gift and works perfetly. It’s just that my old ipod is no longer supported by Apple and my phone and other devices can’t be used with it.
The crockery we were given is another example. Unfortunately, crockery gets broken. It’s a fact of life. We’ve had almost ten years of use out of the bowels, mugs, plates and pasta dishes we were given as wedding presents but we were getting short of various items.
We’ve just bought a whole load of new crockery to replace the broken bits and pieces. As a result, I’m in the process trying to find a new home for the various crockery items we received as wedding gifts. I’m hoping to find a charity or someone who will take it as it’s too good to simply through out.
Don’t, however, mention the wine glasses.  We put wafer-thin wine glasses on our wedding list. They looked nice, but I wasn’t entirely convinced this was the best idea.
Sure enough, they lasted all of 10 minutes. I much prefer the thick wine glasses you get at cheap tapas restaurants because they bounce. For a family home, they’re much more suitable. I think you can guess what we have in our kitchen cupboard now.
In retrospect, getting 10 years’ use out of anything is impressive. Wedding list items perhaps don’t lasr forever, but they’ve certainly got us off to a good start.
What’s your experience of wedding list items? Are yours still in use? Are many of them still packed away in a loft and only bought out for special occasions? Do you also have a docking station that is now obsolete but you just can’t get rid of it for some reason? Do please leave a comment below.
6 thoughts on “Wedding presents: Are they meant to be forever?”
I’ve only just got engaged myself but so glad I read this as my partner has mentioned “registering for gifts” several times when we’ve been in department stores. Mostly in a “why do people need all this” manner thankfully- I don’t know how we could possibly fit more things into our home and lives.
I totally get where you’re coming from, but towels, bedding, crockery etc are all immensely useful. My advice: don’t go for tech equipment as it dates! Wishing you all the best when you get married.
I have been married for 30 years and only a few items that I received as wedding gifts are still with me. Along the blessed route of marriage many have met their end and yet the marriage continues on so to answer your question. I am happy to say that my marriage has outlasted many of my wedding gifts.
Well Angie, that just goes to show doesn’t it, wedding gifts aren’t forever. I think I have changed my thinking now. The gifts get you off to a good start, the rest is down to you.
Love this mate we never had many presents very small wedding so I guess they have all gone now haha,! Thank you for linking to #ThatFridayLinky Please come back next week
Well there you go, a small wedding with fewer gifts to break / damage / lose! Probably the best idea Nigel. As I said, i wasn’t all that into the idea at first.