Gift Expectations

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . . Just kidding! But wedding planning does make you think like that sometimes, doesn’t it? For realsies.

Anyway Hive, here’s a weird story for you. This was all back in Mid-December, by the way. Sure, it was a little while ago, but just go with it. (source)

I live with the Giraffe parents, and we get a local newspaper a few days a week, and the Chicago Trib on Sunday mornings. Shortly before the holidays, we received our paper and rubber-banded to the outside of it, was a half sheet of orange construction paper.

When we opened the paper, that was clearly cut (possibly with kid's scissors) in half. It said in marker “Merry X-Mas”. On the side, also in sloppy marker handwriting was a name, address, and “NO checks.” There were also two snowflakes drawn with blue marker, I guess that made it festive.

Okay, wait, what? Clearly our paper person was expecting something from us for the holidays. I think this is weird. It would be one thing if we had made our own decision before they left us the note, but we didn’t. I also think it’s weird because, my family has never once even seen our paper delivery person. They drop they paper off super early. What it seemed like to us, was that this person whom we’ve never seen, talked to, or received any other notes from before, was expecting a gift from us.

I’m sure you guys know where I’m going; this is a wedding site, after all ;-).

What about wedding gifts? Do we/should we expect them?

Until I got into wedding planning, I had no idea how expensive weddings can be. I now try to follow the rule of covering your plate, but I realize this doesn’t always happen. The last wedding Mr. Giraffe and I attended together, we gave a gift of $50 for the both of us. I doubt it covered both our plates, but Mr. G was still in school and I was making $80 a week at the grocery store. We really couldn’t afford much else.

Here’s where I stand I guess, to be honest, a little bit of me does expect gifts. This could be because people have been asking where we’re registered. I mean, hey, if you get us something I’m not going to complain! (source)

On the other hand, my friends are all in their early 20s We have no money, I get it, I’m there too. (Although I would have money if it wasn’t for this wedding hehehe, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!). A lot of my friends are making minimum wage and have rent and food to worry about. I’d much rather them show up to the wedding sans gift, rather than spend money they seriously need on us. My wedding isn’t a business; I mean, I like gifts as much as the next person, but I don’t expect my friends to buy me all that Le Creuset cookware. Yeah, it’s on my registry, but that’s because I’m saving up for it myself. I’ll hopefully be using my ‘registry completion’ discount in the future.

I also realize that some people (actually, a lot of people) will be traveling from out of state to sweet home Chicago. Traveling is a lot of money, yo! (I know that is expensive for serious seeing as I just bought a plane ticket to fly Mr. G out for his bachelor party camping, hiking, skiing week about 15 minutes ago). It's hard to expect people to buy you gifts when they're using their money to come out for you in the first place.

Bottom line? I want friends and family to be part of our day. Them being present (ha!) for our wedding means a lot more than any gift the could get us.

. . . unless, of course, it's the matching Snuggies we registered for, because I'm sure those would mean a lot.

What about you, hive? What are your gift expectations?