As my husband and I dance to our favorite song, gaze into the eyes of each other, laugh, and have a great time, the wedding coordinator gently taps our shoulders to let us know that it’s time to go so we don’t miss our flight for the honeymoon. As we say goodbye to our wonderful guests, we discreetly turn to the left and see a table full of big wrapped gift boxes. We were not expecting boxed gifts, we just thought the unspoken rule for local weddings was that guests would bring cards. 

If we had received money instead of items, we could have put it towards exactly what we wanted to purchase!

After two weeks on a beautiful island, we come home, get settled in, and start to open our gifts! The excitement and anticipation are building quickly. We rip off the wrapping paper from the different gifts to discover, a blender, plate set, knife set, glass set, a lamp, an abstract painting, a toaster oven, slow cooker, an abstract painting, rice cooker, and the list goes on. 

As grateful as we are, we are slightly disappointed. The main reason is that many of the items we received, we already have, some we just don’t need and others don’t fit into the style and color scheme of our home. If we had received money instead of items, we could have put it towards exactly what we wanted to purchase for our home or in our savings account if we were planning to save for a big purchase. 

Some challenge we came across was that some of the gifts didn’t come with gift receipts. So just think about how awkward it would be to find a nice way of explaining why we don’t want to keep the gift that you so kindly purchased for us. The alternate option would be to keep it so when “the Gifter” comes to the house we can put it out and make them feel special, re-gift it, or donate it to a charity. With any of these options, it’s just awkward and a situation we prefer not to be in.

Speaking from the perspective of the bride, boxed gifts are preferred at the bridal shower from the store the bride and groom are registered with and cards are preferred for a local wedding.  

For those reasons, monetary gifts are preferred at a local wedding.