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Wedding Accessories Knowledge Base - What are wedding gifts?
The purpose of inviting guests is to have
them witness a couple's marriage ceremony and vows and to
share in the bride and groom's joy and celebration. Gifts
for the bride and groom are optional, although most guests
attempt to give at least a token gift of their best wishes.
Some brides and grooms and families feel, contrary to proper
etiquette, that, in return for the expense they put into
entertaining and feeding their guests, the guests should
pay them with similarly expensive gifts or cash.
The couple often registers for gifts at
a store well in advance of their wedding. This allows them
to create a list of household items, usually including china,
silverware and crystalware, and often including linen preferences,
pots and pans, and similar items. Registries are intended
to make it easy for guests who wish to purchase gifts to
feel comfortable that they are purchasing gifts that the
newlyweds truly want, and the service is sufficiently profitable
that most retailers, from luxury shops to discount stores,
offer the opportunity. Registry information should, according
to etiquette, be provided only to guests upon direct request,
and should never be included in the invitation.[24] Some
couples additionally register with services that enable
money gifts intended to fund items such as a honeymoon,
home purchase or college fund. Some guests find bridal registries
inappropriate. They contravene traditional notions behind
gifts, such as the belief that all gifts are optional and
delightful surprises; they take away the element of surprise;
and they lead to a type of price-based competition, as the
couple knows the costs of each individual item. Since it
is inappropriate to invite people to the wedding who know
neither the bride nor groom well enough to be able to choose
an appropriate gift, registries should never be necessary.
Letters of thanks for any gift must always
be sent promptly after the gift's receipt. Wedding gifts,
themselves, however, may be sent up to a year after the
wedding date, assuming that the person chooses to send any
gift at all. Thanks should be sent as soon as possible,
preferably within two weeks. Merely receiving an invitation
does not require the invited person to give any gift to
the couple; the invited person's sole responsibility is
to answer the invitation with a note of congratulations.
Giving gifts to your Best Man, Bridesmaids
and Ushers derives from the above but is basically a thank
you for thier services.
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