I have to spend HOW MUCH for a wedding gift?

This article on “Worst Wedding Gifts Ever” was impressive.

(Note:  Link updated to the same content from another website, as the original one is no longer available.)

Not really because of the content but because it highlights just how materialistic our society is.

This article is just one part of a large collection of propaganda by an already-ridiculously-expensive industry that ups the ante as to what a “respectable” wedding is — and what respectable wedding gifts are.

A lot of people who attended our wedding traveled several hundred miles (or more) AND paid for a hotel room. And I'm supposed to be put out if they don't shell out at least $50 for a gift? Oh, please! Who comes up with these figures anyway? The article doesn't say. We got some $5 and $10 wedding gifts and we've been perfectly happy with them. I'm glad they thought of us. (We were registered at Wal-Mart, for goodness' sake!)

One of the $10 gifts was a book on relationships — supposedly a no-no gift, according to the article. I have no clue why this was on the list of gifts not to give. The divorce rate might not be so high, and married couples would probably be happier, if they knew better how to nurture their relationship with one another.

As far as the “cheapskate” section, some of these gifts (like “nothing” or “an IOU”) could just as easily have been the senders sending a well-deserved message to the bride and groom. Since one of them volunteered that they received an IOU as a wedding gift, that perhaps tells me more about the bride (or groom) than it tells me about the giver. But what stands out more is this: How petty are the bride and groom to keep track of who gave a gift and who didn't? They might as well have had someone take the gifts before allowing people to enter the reception! Who cares whether everyone gave a gift or not? They shared the special day with them! (This is not the same thing as keeping track of who gave what as you opened them so that you can personalize the thank-you notes.)

I'm all for regifting, too — as long as the gift is appropriate, it's in the same condition I got it in, and the recipient doesn't know it is a regift. It's not “a crime,” as the article states. If it's still new in the box, who cares whether you bought in a store yourself or someone gave it to you, you already had five of them, and you couldn't return it?

The rest of the bad gifts, well, I suppose it's a matter of taste — and no, I'm not just talking about the fourth item on the “Incredibly Inappropriate” list! If you get something like this and don't like it, then sell it, regift it, return it, donate it, or toss it! Don't complain about it — unless you don't want to receive anything from them ever again!