Our DIY Wedding: Gifts

A couple of days ago I heard a story on the radio about this English couple who received 24 oven toasters of the same brand for their wedding. The couple never thought that the joke they told their friends would be taken way too seriously.

For those who don't want this horror story to happen at their own wedding, a bridal registry might just do the trick. My husband and I initially wanted this one, too, especially since we were starting our marital lives from scratch. After inquiring from the malls, though, we trashed the idea due to the following reasons:

• Only selected branches of department stores offered registries.
• These stores, although belonging to the same company, weren't coordinated. This means our guests will be able to purchase only from the mall where we were registered.
• Our guests will be coming from different parts of Luzon, and most of them were far from the malls which offered registries.
• We didn't want our guests to be limited by a set of choices. We didn't want to be too imposing. And we didn't want to "require" them to buy us something just because we invited them to the celebration.

Luckily, after the wedding, we didn't get 24 oven toasters. Only a couple of items were doubled, which was not bad at all. There were some close friends who asked us what we wanted, and during those instances we didn't hesitate to tell them our needs.

Speaking of gifts, another trend in today's weddings is to indicate in the invite that a monetary present is preferred. This is very practical, yes, but my husband and I didn't opt for this, too. As I have said, giving us anything was not a requirement. We invited family and friends because we wanted them to celebrate with us. Thus, their presence was more than enough.