My wedding was about a month ago. A family friend attended our wedding. She's around my mom's age....really cool, hip lady! Well, when she left the wedding, she said to me, "I'll see you next week because your gift was too big for me to bring up here." I said "really?" mainly because 1) she lives a couple hours away and has never been to my house, in fact, I don't know if I'll even see her again b/c when I visit my hometown I never see her but she was special to me at a point in my life so I definitely wanted her at the wedding. 2) I was at on honeymoon "next week"
Fast forward today, she's dropping off this supposed "large" gift at my family's house so that I can pick it up when I visit for the holidays. I find out it's a painting and I really don't want this gift. 1) I don't have the room for it. We live in a tiny condo and already have artwork up. There is no room for more artwork. We have stuff stored in our laundry room and even another painting behind a sofa. I want to politely decline this gift. It seems like it will be more trouble for me to get rid of it (given that it's so large supposedly). I'd rather be honest and let her get her money back for it.
I've got to say, I know this person and it's so random that she got us a painting. I really think she is re-gifting or giving us somrthing that she had bought for herself but didnt want anymore. Why give us something that's been so hard for you to actually give us? She's never been to our house. How can you assume a painting would match someone's house or that they have room? We had 2 registries that ranged from very inexpensive items (a canister, napkin rings, etc 5.99) to fairly expensive (rice cooker). I consider a painting a type of furniture.
I was thinking something along the lines, "thank you so much for coming to the wedding. I understand you got us a painting, and we're very appreciative of your thoughtfulness, but we would hate for you to have to go through the trouble of delivering this very large item. Also, because we have a tiny place with limited space, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to display it. It meant so much to me to have you at the wedding.