Yesterday we stopped by the gift-opening brunch for the couple who got married Saturday in the prettiest wedding ever (see my post below.) They got a beautiful sterling silver picture frame from the groom's cousin and his wife (both very famous - you'd all know them). I cannot remember the brand of it but I'm super curious how much that frame cost. I'm not sure why I'm so curious...I guess the idea of enormous wealth and what people do with it intrigues me. I *think* the brand started with a B, does anyone have any ideas?
DH's friend has a couple of very wealthy relatives and they got a check for $1,000 for their wedding!
Have you heard of any crazy expensive wedding gifts that "regular" people got?
Re: Expensive wedding gifts?
Reed & Barton maybe? Those aren't crazy expensive though. Maybe like $300 (which is crazy for me, but not OMG crazy.)
Judging
Yep, we've seen some crazy ones...
From excursions on honeymoons to 10k checks to $150 each place settings where the gift was the WHOLE SET OF CHINA...
We've been to a variety of weddings over the years, the last few ones have been extremely elegant and we've seen some fabulous gifts.
Hmm. Nope, it was one word. I want to say Baccarat but that is crystal. My mom guessed this frame was hundreds so now I'm curious. I can't imagine having a frame that pricey in my house. No doubt it would be the first one Boston's tail would knock off a shelf. :-)
No, I'm familiar with Nambe. This was a brand I'd never heard of before.
Oh well. :-) I'll stick with my Target frames and call it good.
I have no idea, but I'm curious about who the famous people are...
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I can't think of any name for expensive silver except for Tiffany. The only other brand I can think of is Blue Nile, but they aren't expensive.
We are "regular" people and we were gifted a Dyson, which we thought was insane...!
We got a few $300 checks as gifts, which I guess some would consider crazy generous, but it's all relative, I suppose...
One thing I will say.. is that I loathe gift opening brunches. Tack-y. In my (not so) humble opinion, at least. We had brunch at my IL's the day after our wedding but we wanted to ignore the gifts. We did, mostly, except for the one OOT relative who wanted us to open their gift before they left for the airport.
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I totally agree that they are tacky. They didn't actually open the gifts while people were there. They had opened and set out the frame though because people had been curious what this certain cousin and his wife would send. :-) We had a brunch on Sunday morning and then opened gifts later that afternoon. A few family members were still around but for the most part no one paid much attention.
Totally agree. I just don't see the point of sitting around and watching someone open gifts. Boooooooring.
We did not open our wedding gifts in front of anyone because we didn't want to put people through such a boring event. However, there were several people who were interested to find out what one particular gift was, just because of the size & shape of the box ... which turned out to be a lefse griddle. One of my favorite gifts!
As much as I usually loathe gift-opening parties, my SIL got married a few weeks ago and I was actually sort of curious to see them open their gifts. Alas, no gift-opening party the one time I actually want to see the gift opening! They registered for some crazy expensive stuff that had been fulfilled on the registry (an $1100 cutlery set for example). I was curious about whether one person/couple bought each expensive gift, or if it was groups of people who chipped in and bought group gifts. The groom's family is loaded, so I bet some of the crazy expensive gifts were purchased by one person/couple and not a group.
Mr. Sammy Dog
baccarat?
http://baccarat.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=prod980001&parentId=cat5430&masterId=cat5426&cmCat=cat000000cat5426cat5430&index=1&tid=C9
Baccarat is crystal. This frame was sterling silver. My brain keeps wanting to say baccarat though because I'm pretty sure the brand started with B. Or P... shoot I don't remember :-)
FOUND IT.
Buccellati!!!!!
This stuff is priiiiiiiiicey! Wow!
ETA: Link to frame. Whoah. Wow. Jaw drops at price of one frame.
http://www.lbgreen.com/ItemDetail.aspx?id=36349
Judging
I'm about 99.9% sure it wasn't bought locally but they could maybe ship it back?
Part of me would be tempted to keep it because it's kind of a fun story :-) I really doubt the cousin and his wife would ever come visit their apartment so they wouldn't ever have a chance to notice the frame is missing!
Who am I kidding....I'd want $1895 in cash. :-)
I know! Crazy isn't it?
They made about 30 million last year though so I'm sure they didn't even notice!
Me too!!!!
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We received a three-night, four-day trip to Montreal. Airfare and accommodations (at a really nice boutique hotel) paid. We received a cute little book they'd made describing the trip and the phone number of their travel agent, who arranged everything for whenever we wanted to go. Airfare ended up being about $800 for both of us, and I think the hotel worked out to be about $500/night for our suite, so almost $2500 all told.
In addition we received pretty generous gifts from parents (we paid for our own wedding), but I don't think those really count.
WOW! What an amazing gift!!!! That puts a $1895 frame to shame!
Wow, what a waste....$1895 for a picture frame!!?? I hope they can return it, that would be awesome!
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It was truly amazing. And really, how do you write an appropriate thank you for that? We ended up writing a regular thank you initially, and then, when we went on the trip, sending gifts we'd bought in Montreal.
It was definitely more fun than a $1895 frame, I'll tell you that!
I'll bet!! I love Montreal. Did you go to the basilica? It's hands down one of the prettiest I've seen in the whole world - and I've seen a ton of churches! :-)
I also loved Habitat67 by Moshe Safdie because I'm an architecture geek :-)
Yes! We went to the basilica (beautiful!) and also drove by Habitat67. I too love architecture!
Wow - That is an insane price for a frame!!! And while it is amazing that the Richies spent that much, I wouldn't say that a lot of thought likely went into such a gift - and it seems rather flashy and generic ("Ohh, I don't know what to get them or what they'd like - how about a picture frame worth a few mortgage payments?"). Certainly the couple would have preferred the cash or at least something, at that price, that was a bit more practical?
But I am big on the practicality thing, so who knows - maybe the couple is into that sort of thing and it will become an heirloom to be passed on . . .
As for us and crazy gifts - nothing too much - but we didn't really register for anything too crazy - maybe the most expensive single item was a panini maker at $125?
DH's parents gave us a complete set (10 or 12) of our crystal wine goblets - however, it was a combined wedding and Christmas gift. For the wedding they gave us a substantial amount of money - I think they felt bad that my father was paying for everything. It was incredibly generous and kind. I will say one thing - the people might drive me nuts sometimes, but they are exceedingly generous!
My brother gave us a week at his time-share (which could be anywhere in the world) and all we had to pay was airfare to get there. That was pretty overwhelming and amazing.
They signed the card (which was also fancy) but I wonder if a personal assistant just went out and picked it out not even knowing the bride and groom. Maybe they have a stack of them at home and just send one out as their standard wedding gift? Not sure. :-) And while it seems impractical to US, they probably didn't even blink at how much it cost. It probably didn't even computer in their heads that the price and practicality of this particular gift seems a bizarre match for this couple who are actually really down to earth and prefer earthy rustic things. Boggles my mind though as I balk at spending $20 on a Target frame :-)