Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

I know this is a taboo question, but did anyone expect to recoup their wedding costs in gifts?

How did you guys fair? I honestly didn't think about the gifts I will get because whatever money DH & I had put into the wedding we didn't expect to get back at all.

Therefore, we were very pleasantly surprised by our guests generosity, esp. his parents who pretty much paid for the whole reception with their single check. It made me teary-eyed when I saw the check.

Re: Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

wow that is an awesome surprise!!!! i am hoping to get a good chunk of what we lay out back but you never know.

Re: Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

wow! Good for you!!! Cha-Ching!!! lol...

It really is great to know that people want you to have a nice start. Enjoy it!!

Re: Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

We had many generous surprises....a lot more than the few not so generous surprises!

Re: Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

we got back about half of what the whole wedding cost...

Re: Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

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Posted by allison71406

We had many generous surprises....a lot more than the few not so generous surprises!

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Yes....us, too. My dad's best friend gave us $1,000. It was unreal. And kinda odd, but hey--I'll take it. And I did!

Re: Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

I was more suprised by some people's lack of generosity...

Re: Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

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Posted by allison71406

We had many generous surprises....a lot more than the few not so generous surprises!

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Same here, but still did not come close breaking even.

Re: Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

Sometimes i wonder if DH and i nearly broke even because alot of our friends are older and more settled. I doubt that if we had gotten married 5 or 10 years ago we would have gotten as much as we did.

We definitely would be at the halfway point ourselves if it wasn't for the one extremely generous gift from DH's parents.

Re: Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

We did not pay for our wedding, so all gifts were 'profit' so to speak.. HOWEVER, we would not have broken even...NOT even close...

There were many people who were generous...many people who were the average typical wedding gift and many people who we were quite surprised at their LACK of generosity...not from those who genuinely do not have the money, but when you know people are wealthy and they give you a certain gift-it kind of makes you think twice, especially with people we have been generous with in the past...

Re: Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

I know a lot of people would think I'm out of my mind, but I'm expecting to do fine... between what my parent's have said that they'd give, our friends are all in their 30's/40's... our boss's will probably be good to us, and also - I know FH's parent's will probably give us a nice gift... even though I don't think they are going to directly contribute - his father tends to come through for us and really likes me so I think we'll at worst break even and at best make a couple of hundred. The only thing that does make me wonder is that this is a second marriage for FH - so I'm not sure if that means that his friends who were invited and gave him gifts for his first marriage are obligated to give much for ours since it is his second... I'm hearing that for a man a second marriage is as good as his first (like it doesn't count or something...). No one liked his ex so they probably skimped on him then anyway and FH was in his early 20's so with the point that our circle is a little more settled... it may help.

Re: Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

mrs. ptobe, i don't think it matters much about this being your FH's 2nd marriage.

I have a friend who got married again about 10 years after her 1st marriage and her family and friends are just as generous the 2nd time around... I think people know that a wedding is a wedding regardless of it being a 1st or a 2nd.

Now if it's a vow renewal or 5th marriage that's a different thing. :D

Re: Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

Congrats. That's so great. It's really nice to see people want to help you out and give you a good start to a new life together.

Re: Were You Surprised By People's Generosity After Your Wedding?

honestly, we didn't do too well... we got back what WE put out for the wedding ( about 1/3 of the total cost). i think this is mostly bcause all of DHs family lives out in western PA where weddings cost $20 a person, so they are just not used to te way things are done in the metro NY area... so, to them, $50 was a decent gift to us.... beleive me, i am SOO greatful for everything we got, and that they were able to travel to come... but it just shows that you should NEVER count on anything...