Why wouldn’t you want an oil painting of your pet, hmm? It’s not hard to imagine going rogue when it comes to searching through yet another friend’s wedding registry. How many sets of champagne flutes can you really buy? But veering from someone’s wedding registry is a slippery slope, and there’s a fine line between wanting to gift newlyweds something more personal and gifting them something they don’t actually need — or want.
But in some cases, the gift-giver knows something even a bride- or groom-to-be doesn’t, and the newlyweds wind up with something they couldn’t live without. Like, say, a gigantic oil painting of their dog. These gifts real brides received perfectly toe the line between “WTF?” and “we love it!”
1A Decoupage Waste Paper Basket
“My grandma decoupaged a wastepaper basket with our wedding invitation suite. Someone did it for her when she got married — and today it's the only physical copy of her invite she has left. It's kind of become a tradition. She did one for my sister, too.” —Ashley, 31
2A Painting Of The Wedding Venue
“The most unexpected gift we got was a painting of where we got married. One of the guest's mothers is a pretty well-known local artist. At the time, I was kind of ‘meh’ on it but I've grown to really love and appreciate the level of thoughtfulness.” —Krystina, 31
3A Fireproof Safe
“One of my husband's family friends bought us a fireproof safe. At first, I was like 'really?!' But to be honest, it's perfect. We use it for all of our important documents, which we have tons more of now that we're married.” —Tina, 25
4A Photo Collage Blanket
“A well-meaning guest gave us a blanket that had photos of us screen-printed all over it. It was actually kind of sweet and funny, but certainly unusual!” —Allison, 31
5A 6-Foot Wide Longhorn Skull
“My friend came up from Texas for our wedding and bought us a 6-foot wide longhorn skull. We live in an 800-square-foot Philadelphia row home and have no idea where to put it, but it's my absolute favorite thing. Our other friends commissioned an illustration of us and our dog as different versions of David Bowie.” —Caitlin, 28
6A Karaoke Machine
“A karaoke machine. It was a group gift that a bunch of my friends in a group Slack chipped in on. We use it constantly. And love it.” —EJ, 29
7A Costco Membership
“My fiancé and I were gifted a Costco membership when we got engaged, which I thought was kind of surprising. At the time, we weren’t sure we would enjoy or even use it, but it’s ended up being one of the best gifts we were given — we’ve gotten a ton of stuff for our home through their deals.” —Chrissy, 29
8An Air Fryer
“I never knew I wanted an air fryer! I didn’t know what it was at first. I used 75 percent less fat to fry foods using heated air. It’s amazing for heating up leftovers like fried chicken or french fries without losing the crunch.” —Meg, 31
9A Pizza Stone
“Our strangest gift was a pizza stone. It can’t fit in a cabinet or a drawer, and it weighs a ton. But now we cook everything on it!” —Kat, 30
