Latest news with #weddinggifts
The Guardian
6 hours ago
- General
- The Guardian
Treasured wedding gifts: dusters, pegs and a tea strainer
Cliodhna Dempsey's letter (Bridal bucket is the best wedding gift, 26 May) brought back the happiest of memories. In July 1968 I was 21 years old, on the last day of my first year of teaching in Hampshire, and due to be married eight days later. My lovely class of first-year juniors, at final assembly, presented me with a huge laundry basket. Then each of the 42 children came up to put something in it: dusters, dishcloths, pegs, tin opener, washing-up brush, dustpan, tea strainer, teaspoons, slotted spoon, wooden spoons – an abundance of very thoughtful and useful gifts. The long pink ribbon to tie everything inside the basket proved invaluable: that evening, driving 110 miles to visit Tim, my fiance, the bonnet of my Austin A35 van flew up and I used the ribbon to tie the bonnet catch to the radiator grille to safely finish the journey. Nearly 57 years later, and after racking up 74 years of teaching between us, we remain happily married and still use some of the surviving SeakinsRugby, Warwickshire My sister's 1981 wedding present list included a toilet roll holder, a 'lavatory cleaning set – green', 13-amp plugs and pan scrubs. She is still happily married, with the cleaning set and holder still in KeeleyWarrington, Cheshire Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Would you want toilet rolls and kitchen towels as a wedding gift?
THEY may not be the sort of gifts that would send the recipients into throes of ecstasy, but at least they're going to be of use. Bypassing the usual crystal wine glasses, fine china tea sets and his and hers jewellery, Tesco has launched a wedding gift registry featuring everyday items like loo roll, bin bags and shower gel. The supermarket chain's Really Useful Stuff bundle also includes toothpaste, kitchen towel, antibacterial hand wash and shampoo. If you ask me it's a great idea. Unlike many wedding presents these items won't end up at the back of a cupboard for years, but will go straight into everyday use. Wedding gifts are problematic, both for the couple on the receiving end and for friends and family. When I got married we invited only a handful of guests, all close family, who asked what we wanted. Our presents included a microwave oven, a duvet cover, a lovely glass vase (also still in use) and a gorgeous wooden salad bowl, all, bar the oven, still in use today. My now sister-in-law, who had been living in China, gave us a pot of Chinese rice wine, traditionally drunk by the bride and groom to bring good luck. We were delighted with everything. But had we had a big wedding with a large number of guests, I can say for certain we would have stipulated no gifts, to avoid accumulating 18 sets of bath towels, 13 toasters and ten personalised chopping boards. As a guest, choosing a present, especially if you're not familiar with the couple's lifestyle, can be tricky. It's not only about what to buy, but how much to spend. You don't want to break the bank, but neither do you want to appear a cheapskate. Most couples already own a toaster when they tie the knot. Picture: Pixabay This sort of dilemma is perhaps even worse with wedding lists. These place people in a quandary. I've been to a few weddings where people's names are flagged up beside the gift they have chosen, so everyone knows who has opted for the set of three tea towels as opposed to the 13-piece Ultimate Le Creuset Cookware set. We were once invited to a wedding, prior to which the John Lewis gift list contained numerous ludicrously expensive items such as a sofa and a dishwasher. It was a morning suit affair too, so I was thankful that we managed to come up with a fictitious trip to Tasmania that sadly clashed with the date. We sent a gift voucher based on what we could afford. Wedding lists, and indeed presents generally, are intended to equip the happy couple for their new start in life, but nowadays most couples have already been living together for some while - as my partner and I had for more 12 years - so their household needs have already been met before tying the knot. Research carried out for Tesco found that many couples are ditching items typically associated with wish lists, like fine china and furniture, in favour of more practical goods. Cost increases mean the average couple now takes a year to pay off their wedding, which could be behind their desire to receive household essentials rather than luxuries. I like the traditional Greek wedding idea of pinning money on the bride and groom's clothing or throwing it towards them as they dance. It's a fun was of giving, with no way of anyone - guests or newlyweds - knowing how much anyone has donated. We recently attended a lovely wedding, at which there was no obligation to give anything, but if we so wished we could donate towards the couple's honeymoon, which we were happy to do. I wonder, does anyone still stock up their 'bottom drawer'- traditionally the place that a young, unmarried woman would put things - mostly household items like towels and tablecloths - to use once she was married?
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bridal bucket is the best wedding gift
Re wedding lists (The toilet roll wedding list – is this the least romantic gift request ever?, 20 May), when my parents announced their engagement in 1951, one of my mother's sisters, then on a low wage, bought a bucket. Each week on payday, she added some household item to it – a scrubbing brush, a mop, a floor cloth, shoe polish and brushes, cleaning products. It was the most useful wedding gift they received, according to my mother. Cliodhna Dempsey Bereldange, Luxembourg • 'We have created incentives to try to retain our most precious resource, which is our management team,' the chair of Thames Water is quoted as saying in your article (23 May). I would suggest their most precious resource is clean water. Their management is pretty inept if they don't realise people reckon their track record warrants no bonus. If anything, they should be paying fines for the DunnSt Andrews, Fife • I wholeheartedly agree with Lucy Mangan in her defence of the semicolon (Digested week, 23 May); however, I note with regret that she has not seen fit to use this valuable punctuation mark in her CopasBrentwood, Essex • At school in the 1950s, we were told that, if in doubt, we should read a sentence aloud and if a pause sounded right with a count to one, a comma was required, two – a semicolon, and three – a colon. It seemed to RowleyDidsbury, Manchester • Stand by for balaclavas becoming ubiquitous fashion wear (Live facial recognition cameras may become 'commonplace' as police use soars, 24 May).Colin Prower Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire • 'Artificial intelligence to play increasing role in armed forces, says defence secretary' (20 May). Could this be one small step on the road to the dystopia envisioned by the Terminator franchise?Tony RimmerLytham St Annes, Lancashire
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Bridal bucket is the best wedding gift
Re wedding lists (The toilet roll wedding list – is this the least romantic gift request ever?, 20 May), when my parents announced their engagement in 1951, one of my mother's sisters, then on a low wage, bought a bucket. Each week on payday, she added some household item to it – a scrubbing brush, a mop, a floor cloth, shoe polish and brushes, cleaning products. It was the most useful wedding gift they received, according to my mother. Cliodhna Dempsey Bereldange, Luxembourg 'We have created incentives to try to retain our most precious resource, which is our management team,' the chair of Thames Water is quoted as saying in your article (23 May). I would suggest their most precious resource is clean water. Their management is pretty inept if they don't realise people reckon their track record warrants no bonus. If anything, they should be paying fines for the DunnSt Andrews, Fife I wholeheartedly agree with Lucy Mangan in her defence of the semicolon (Digested week, 23 May); however, I note with regret that she has not seen fit to use this valuable punctuation mark in her CopasBrentwood, Essex At school in the 1950s, we were told that, if in doubt, we should read a sentence aloud and if a pause sounded right with a count to one, a comma was required, two – a semicolon, and three – a colon. It seemed to RowleyDidsbury, Manchester Stand by for balaclavas becoming ubiquitous fashion wear (Live facial recognition cameras may become 'commonplace' as police use soars, 24 May).Colin Prower Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire 'Artificial intelligence to play increasing role in armed forces, says defence secretary' (20 May). Could this be one small step on the road to the dystopia envisioned by the Terminator franchise?Tony RimmerLytham St Annes, Lancashire Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
A Wedding Gift Tradition That Keeps on Giving
Jill and Curt Cost were living in a Volkswagen bus on Maui when they wed in 1973, but Ms. Cost knew that she wanted blue-and-white dishware for the home they were planning to build. Her mother found the perfect set at an estate sale on Oahu — all pieces from Hadley Pottery, a sought-after ceramics brand in Louisville, Ky. — and gave it to the Costs as a wedding present. They became obsessed. Today, as the couple approaches their 52nd wedding anniversary, their daughter, Julia Cost, said the family home is 'stuffed with Hadley.' Generations of couples like the Costs started out with Hadley pottery that they received as a wedding gift. When Brenda Stanhouse was married in 1983, the mother of one of her fiancé's close friends promised them pottery if she was invited to the wedding. 'We were going to invite them anyway,' Ms. Stanhouse wrote in a Facebook group for collectors, who call themselves 'Haddicts.' It's fitting that the pottery has become a popular wedding gift given that the pottery was itself the result of a marriage. A Blue Horse With a Back Story Mary Alice Hale was born in 1911 to a family of clay tile makers. She married George Hadley in 1930, and the couple eventually moved to Louisville, where Ms. Hadley — a painter with an interest in folk art — decorated a whimsical set of stoneware dishes for a cruiser they kept on the Ohio River. The Hadleys entertained a lot on the boat, and friends who saw the ceramics began to request their own. The couple opened the Hadley Pottery factory in Louisville in 1945. Mr. Hadley managed the business and machinery, while Ms. Hadley designed and — along with a team of protégées — hand-painted household items that ranged from candleholders to lamps and tableware. The white-glazed wares featured folksy imagery in blue with green and pink accents. Best-selling patterns have always included 'Blue Horse,' an indigo-colored colt with a flowing mane, and the larger category 'Country,' which depicts farmhouses, farm animals and a farmer and his wife. The cute couple was based on a pair of close friends, at whose wedding the Hadleys had been maid of honor and best man. Ms. Hadley's figurative style was reminiscent of Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso, and the Museum of Modern Art selected her 'Brown Fleck' — a black tableware collection decorated in tan polka dots — for its Good Design exhibition in 1952. The collection, now retired, sold out at Bloomingdale's. Ms. Hadley was a social butterfly with a sense of humor, said Sarah Baker, Hadley's sales and marketing manager: The bottoms of many of her cups and casserole dishes read 'The End' and a cup for measuring alcohol declared 'Tell Pitiful Story.' After Ms. Hadley died of cancer in 1965 at the age of 54, her ashes were put into a Hadley flour canister with scenes from her life that she had painted for the purpose. Mr. Hadley received the same treatment later on, and the couple's remains were ultimately released into the Ohio River. Hadley Pottery continued under various ownership for decades but was set to close in 2022, when Brook Smith, a Louisville businessman and philanthropist, decided to buy the brand and bring it back to life. Wedding-Ready Again One of the company's goals was to restart the personalized pieces it had historically offered — especially its plates for milestones like weddings, which are inscribed with the couple's names and date of marriage. Liz Gorey, Hadley's business manager, said personalization 'is still probably the most popular thing that we do,' and that 'it's really neat that the tradition has persisted.' The new iteration of the company initially struggled to meet the demand and difficulty of producing custom plates, which take around an hour to paint and often fire imperfectly. With new kilns, new clay sourced by Kentucky Mudworks and a newly expanded team of artists and technicians, Hadley reintroduced the personalized dinner plates, which retail for $180 each, in February and lunch plates, which retail for $149, in April. Last year, the company launched an online gift registry. Maggie Ratliff, its first user, knew she would eventually be willed Hadley by her grandmother — but not for a while. 'She told me I'd have to go 'years and years without it,' as she wasn't dying any time soon,' Ms. Ratliff, 24, said with a smile. So for now, Ms. Ratliff, a prop stylist in Birmingham, Ala., and her husband, Sam, were gifted a wedding plate, plus some 50 pieces in the 'Country' scheme. Hadley is often an heirloom. Sheila Pfeffer Hauersperger, 68, who lives in Jasper, Ind., found the big bowl and mugs that she inherited recorded in her mother's bridal gift book. 'I treasure them,' she said. This month, Michaella Gaines, a 32-year-old who lives in Boston, registered for pieces to backfill a family collection that pictures clipper ships and whales — a nod to her childhood on Martha's Vineyard, where she will be married in September. The pottery is as an 'approachable gift,' she said. It's 'something we'll use for years and years down the road.'
