The top wedding presents to buy now for the home
Portuguese hand-glazed tableware from the Considered range by Helen James for Dunnes Stores includes mugs €8, plates and bowls from €10.
Fans of Virgin One’s programme might remember the episode with a segment on truly awful wedding gifts, when viewers rang in regaling their horror stories of receiving things like a used toaster with crumbs still in it and cheese bits stuck on, and another who was presented with a pre-loved deep fat fryer.
Does this sort of thing happen often, I asked Sara Kennedy, owner of and author of . “There’s less chance of that happening now with money gifts but my aunt got married in the ’90s and got 10 clocks,” she says.
But registries are thin on the ground in this country, unlike the UK and US where they are very much the standard.
“We have no big providers in the market,” Sara says. “There are 22,000 weddings a year in Ireland, with 120-140 guests. That’s 60-70 couples buying gifts.”
So what exactly are they choosing?
Every year Sara runs a poll to ask what’s going on in wedding gifts and the spend involved. Her most recent had 7,000 respondents.
While silver, wares and glass are traditionally gifted, Sara has seen some new ideas emerging which is not surprising given we’re living in an age when everybody has their home interior essentials before marriage and often much more besides.
“Champagne in nice nostalgic boxes, wine, art,” she says. “A lovely idea is a hand-painted portrait of the couple on the day. Scented candles, especially the three-wick on a par with a cash gift.”
Surprisingly, technology was low in popularity according to Sara, “Unless it was something like a flat-screen TV that the bridal party might come together to buy.”
But it seems there has been a big shift overall, with many couples favouring cash gifts, the going rate dictated by the level of involvement in the wedding, or not as the case may be, as Sara says.
“If you’re in the bridal party, the range is €200-€500; other guests €150-€250. If you just go to the ‘afters’ it’s a choice between a physical gift or €50 per person, but if you’re a neighbour who’d like to give a gift, then something like glassware. Often guests will contact the venue and ask the price per head and put that in the card.”
Gift givers who prefer a physical gift and are looking for something different but which will appeal to the couple, some new trends have emerged, according to Sara. “Fancy coffee makers, Smeg appliances and ornamental pieces like the pestle and mortar sets; decanters; luxury candles can be used to scentscape the wedding.”
But the surprising development is the emergence of a gift registry of a different kind.
“Travel agents are doing gift registries to fund the honeymoon in advance,” Sara says. “Or you can add something to the trip, like a bottle of champagne, or a safari or wine tasting if they’re going to South Africa.”
But given that we’re living in a cost-of-living crisis, there’s bound to be a wedding guest who is financially stretched and while they really want to be there on the family member or friend’s big day they are fretting about not being able to contribute the appropriate cash gift.
“Don’t get caught up in the cash game,” Sara says. “Go with the heart rather than the cash. The physical gift is something they’ll always have in their home.”
And it seems that even when couples express their preference for cash gifts but receive some physical gifts too, in Sara’s experience they turn out to have a particular value.
“In the lead-up to a wedding, we can become very consumed by the money side, but it’s not until after when we’re looking back that we can really appreciate those house gifts.”
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