What is your favorite wedding present to give to friends and family?

Something that won't end up in storage,you know top of the cabinet,basement,garage,etc.

many years ago my husband and i volunteered at a Seniors centre and spent many hours with some lovely people. we would quite often be invited to their homes for luncheons, or dinners.
one thing we noticed was every single one of these people had one wedding gift still with them even though they had been married thirty, forty and more years. whether they were rich, or not so much, the one gift they all still had was a good quality white dining room table sized tablecloth. their tablecloths had been on their tables for hundreds of family events over the years. weddings, births, deaths, Christmas and thanksgiving celebrations, birthdays, anniversaries, christenings, etc.
my husband was so taken with the idea of this piece of cloth that was decades old still being with them, still being used, that we have given every bride and groom in our lives a beautiful, embroidered, heavy white damask tablecloth, and matching napkins as a wedding gift. we send it along with a note explaining where we got the idea and the sentiment behind it.
and at almost every wedding our gift of a fine tablecloth is the only tablecloth they receive. so, to us, this is the perfect gift.
we never received one on our wedding day, but i did purchase one many, many years ago, and it is still with us!

Honestly, money. I think this is a really good present for a newlywed couple, they have the ability to spend it on something to start their new life with. Most newlywed couples put any monetary gifts they receive in the bank so they can buy a new home, make improvements to the one they have, or use it towards mortgage payments. Stuff like that.

you can never go wrong with a photo album there are usually lots of photos taken

Every wedding that i have attended, i gave a little Elephant with it's trunk raised. One was Ceramic, one was jade, one was glass... In alot of cultures an Elephant is a symbol of good luck and will help dispell negative energy. You are supposed to face it towards a window so it can send the bad karma out of the house/apartment...

My way of giving a bit of luck to each couple.

I bought my cousin and his wife a gift card to a nice restaurant, they loved it because they said that they were short on money when they got back from honeymoon but were still able to go out for nice meal.

Go to this site http://www.fairplaymusicalgifts.com/samp... you can download a song "Song for The parents of The Bride" you can use it as gift for the brides parents, you can also buy it on CD from them. I think they used it in a video production of the bride from when she was a baby up to the wedding day.

Money. Anything else is odd. You will see when you get there. No one gives presents anymore.

MONEY

One of the girls that I work with got married not so long ago..

She is the director of the daycare center i work at, and shes a wonderful person.

I got her something a little personal, but not to personal.

I went to a craft shop and got a scrap book album (not a regular photo album..a scrapbook album)...i picked one with some of the same colors as she had in her wedding.
Then I got some of those nifty stickers (They have like bride and groom stickers, love stickers, hearts, etc...) ...
I bought Photo safe glue... some extra paper (again with the wedding color scheme)....

People get married and have so many pictures!! My mother got married last april and most of the pictures are in a box. The scrap book gives them a chance to take out their favorite pictures and arrange them in an album with their own personal touch.

Money
Clock
Waterford Crystal

My most recent wedding gift was a bucket of household necessities. The couple were moving into the groom to be's apartment and it was nasty dirty so I bought all sorts of household cleaning items..a broom, mop, etc they loved it! I also find what colors the bathroom is and buy a full set of towels for each couple. I usually try to go with what they have on their registry, that's always a safe way to go, this is the stuff they have asked for so more then likely will be used.