To preface, my bridal shower was this past weekend (!) and we are so very lucky. So many family members and friends drove 2-3 hours just for the shower on a Saturday in August, and I was just overwhelmed with the generosity of everyone! It was a gorgeous day and beyond anything I imagined.
The shower guests were beyond generous with gifts, and almost all of the bigger items on our registries were purchased. I did notice a couple days before the shower that not too many registry items overall were fulfilled, so I figured there were probably a lot of group gifts (there were). But, we got more off-registry gifts than I was ever expecting... probably almost half the total gifts were off-registry. We had made sure to have a large selection of things in all price points since we have a large guest list. I am of course so thankful for anything our guests gave to us, but in reality we just have no use for some of the items (i.e. full ceramic tea set that does not match our style at all, duplicates of items we registered for but not the actual one we listed (and we did get the actual registry item as well from someone else), lots of things with Mr. & Mrs. on them, serving dishes and baskets that are very style-specific, etc.) None of the off-registry items came with gift receipts.
Just wondering what you all did with some of the items that were nice gifts from your guests, but not anything you could ever see yourself using and cannot return? I feel like such a brat for wondering why some guests just kind of disregard your registry and/or personal style and get you something that THEY would like in their own home, but there it is. Very gracious thank you notes will of course be written. Any ideas to put these kinds of gifts to use? Re-gift? Donate? I am an asshole?