Trust the New York Times to come up with laughably, ridiculous wedding gifts. I don’t know many people who can afford a $609 espresso maker as a wedding gift. I don’t know that many people who really need a $609 espresso maker. Here’s my list of the best wedding gifts:
1. Cash. It never goes out of style. I’m Italian, so this is what we do. $100 if you don’t go to the wedding; $150-200 if you go to the wedding. I’m not a big fan of the tradition of the wedding couple walking around the room to collect the checks in a silk bag, but money is always good.
2. The Gift Registry. People put stuff on the list, because they really need it. Get it for them. You can throw in something small of your own to add creativity. A couple of my friends bought us sheets off the registry then added candles and some Al Green tapes.
3. Pots and pans. 11 years later and we’re still using our set from the wedding.
4. An excellent set of knives. Still using them.
5. Wine and martini glasses. There have been casualties, but there are still enough in circulation.
Harry b had a good post at Crooked Timber a while ago on this.
Much more HERE.
Apt. 11d 
I’ve been really impressed with our young relatives’ and friends’ wedding registries. They’ve been very basic and very practical. (I’m sure the big expensive department stores are gnashing their teeth over Target’s wedding registry, which is where we’ve been doing a lot of our shopping lately.)
We got almost all cash for our wedding, which we immediately turned into IKEA furniture and housewares (before I got married I literally didn’t own a spoon), almost all of which is still with us ten years later. I’d like some nicer dishes and furniture sometime in the next five years (after we buy our first house), but at the moment I really can’t justify it.
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I’ll add: nice dishes, particularly nice serving dishes. We got a number of those for wedding presents, and they get used a lot.
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Twnety-six years later and we’re still using a high-quality pepper grinder that, truth be told, we laughed about at the time. Great gift!
We were married at the Wok Era. I think we got four of them. Never actually used one!
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After twenty-eight years the electric knife (something I would never have bought for myself) still saves me at Thanksgiving….
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My best wedding present was three bottles of seriously good red wine – the appropriate ages to be drunk on the 1st, 5th and 10th wedding anniversaries. “After that, you’re on your own.”
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I remember being brought up (in the south) to think that cash was tacky and knives bad luck. Apparently in some parts of Eastern Europe, the couple gives a nominal euro or so in exchange for the knives, thus avoiding the bad luck associated with getting a knife
in the backas a gift.LikeLike
Ack, JC McW was me.
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Friends gave us a really good picnic basket, complete with a cloth and lightweight plates, cutlery, etc., cleverly attached within by straps (oh, and a bottle of wine!). We’ve not used it too often in the past 10 years, but when we do, it’s perfect. We’d never have splurged on one ourselves.
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Pyrex!
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Setting the couple on a nice honey moon getaway is the best for me. It maybe a little bit of expensive but a newlywed couple will be surprise for that kind of gift!!
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