Ladies,
I need advice about a wedding gift for my husband's brother's wedding coming up in 2 months.

My husband and I got married almost a year ago, are expecting our first in October and planning to buy a house this summer. Money is tight between all these things and now we have a big wedding to add to it!
The cost of flying out to the wedding, hotels, tux for my husband (best man), bachelor party, etc. is well over $1000. The couple are not having a fancy wedding (afternoon wedding with cake) but their registry is a little out of our price range.
Is it better to buy one china/platinum place setting or to try to find something in a similar style off-registry? I know I can find Waterford crystal and Ralph Lauren duvet covers at Home Goods in a similar style for way less than Macy's. I want to get them multiple nice things but I'm not sure if that's tacky and I should just get them something small from the registry.
I am making them a keepsake cross-stitch thing but after seeing the registry I feel kind of stupid.
What was an awesome not too expensive gift you all received?
Re: Best Inexpensive Wedding Gift
I've also heard of friends doing "date nights" that are have a gift card to a restaurant and movie theater, or even a movie you think they'll love with popcorn and other movie-watching goodies, or a board game and some other little snacks.
Just be careful if you go with cheese - they might not open it right away
ETA: The date night in came with a rather inexpensive cheese board/cheese knife (I wanna say $15 or so) set I registered for as well. She fancied it up
You don't have to get them anything else, especially not off their registry if you can't afford it.
Gifts should not be expected anyway.