Gift opening -- thoughts?

tpender13 · August 2010

Okay, neither FI nor I like the idea of opening our gifts in front of everyone, or at least whoever would show up to a gift opening the next day. I (we) would both feel uncomfortable having people sit there watching us open every gift. Besides the fact that we'll probably be getting more money than gifts. I think people would just get bored with that anyway.

FI brought up that maybe certain people would be upset that we didn't have one. Case in point, FMIL threw us a small engagement party, and I'd said earlier in the day that I don't like opening gifts in front of people. Of course after dinner, the gifts were brought out and we had to open them in front of the guests.

I'm thinking if anything, we can send the people who care a list of stuff that we got, not necessarily attaching names to it, like "We got a total of $1037 in cash, a new bedding set, and a $200 Ikea gift card, and a homemade quilt." What do you ladies think?

Bimbi284 · August 2010

I'm right there with you on the gift opening thing! Its such a hassle to clean everything up and then make sure you've got all of the receipts together without making seem like you're gonna return a bunch of stuff haha. I'd say skip it. No one even noticed that we didn't have one.

hkiesling · August 2010

I know that several people were really excited to see us open our gifts. My aunt's family (mostly my two younger cousins) had made us a ceramic plate with our monogram hand-painted on it and in our wedding colors. They really wanted to us open their present. Honestly, the gift-opening goes really quickly. Our MOH took the card and wrote down who gave us what so we could do thank you cards later. I bet it only took 10-15 minutes to go through everything.

I don't like the idea of sending out a letter with your gifts on it. To me, it sounds like a brag letter and might make people who didn't get something (or maybe didn't spend a lot of money) feel bad. And you never know who the ones who care to know are. I would never have guessed my two boy cousins would be excited for a gift opening. I don't think it's so much that people want to see what other people got you as wanting to see the expression on your face when open their present.

tpender13 · August 2010

I hear what you're saying about the letter, hkiesling. I didn't really mean send the letter to everyone, maybe just the moms, since they're probably the only ones who will care.

FSIL and FstepSIL both got married last year, and both had gift openings after that took over two hours. I'm nosy so it was kind of fun to see what they got, but even I got bored w/it...

Muffers · August 2010

I'm not a fan of gift openings either, they are strange. And let's be honest, they are boring.

I'm assuming the people interested are your parents/FI's parents, so you could compromise and invite them over to your place when you're going to open the gifts. That way it's not an "event". We won't be able to open our gifts until after the HM (and we didn't want to do a gift opening) so that is what we're going to do. If the folks want to come over - great. if not - also great!

I'm not a fan of the letter idea, even if it was only for your parents. i'm sure your parents aren't concerned with your total haul, they are more interested in oohing and ahhing over things and watching you open fun gifts.

good luck!

MN_Jen · August 2010

I hate going to gift openings and I hate opening gifts in front of people.

We invited people to stop by the hotel suite the morning after the wedding and provided bagels and coffee/juice. That way if people wanted us to open the gifts in front of them we could, but otherwise we could just hang out and chat again before everyone headed home. It was a nice compromise.

ogrady88 · August 2010

We are skipping the gift opening, mostly because I'm hoping that most guests will be sending their gift to CA. We live in LA but are getting married in Western Wisconsin. We will be having a morning after brunch with family and OOT guests, but no gifts will be opened, except for the gift we are going to give to my aunt for hosting.

I Want Cake · August 2010

I'm going to try to get out of doing one, since we'll hopefully just be getting a stack of cards with checks/cash. Exciting for us, boring for everyone else. It's one thing if you're getting a lot of boxes to open, but FI and I have been living together nearly 5 years and there's nothing we want (besides cash).

I may have a small brunch at our house the next morning if anyone expresses interest, but they hopefully won't since FMIL will have people staying at her house and it's a pretty far drive for my parents to make 3 days in a row.

ssminy79 · August 2010

We didn't have a gift opening and nobody said anything. We did, however, have a brunch at our house and while it was really nice to see many people again it meant even more work for our parents (they set up and provided the food). My husband and I enjoyed it, BUT we were sooooo ready to just "be".

shan87 · August 2010

We are doing something like MN_Jen.

We are inviting People to stop by a room in the hotel AFTER brunch in the hotel restaurant. We are encouraging people to stop by after they eat and check out in the hopes that they will be on the way out- and not stay too long. I have a feeling only family will show up but thats ok. I am usually a morning person but I have a feeling that this will be a little much even for me.

kclepire · August 2010

We didn't do a gift opening and no one said anything about it. We got most of our actual gifts mailed to us prior to the wedding so we opened them then. At our wedding we got about 10 actual presents and the rest was cash/gift cards. We're very glad we opened them by ourselves the next night after because it was something we did together and gave us something to do when all the hype was done and people had left. Also, you'll get gifts that you're like REALLY...that's what you got us and it'd be hard to keep that in at an opening.

kristigiles · August 2010

We did pretty much exactly what a few others said. We had sort of an open house gift opening at our Hotel. Some people were really excited to see us open their gifts, a few stopped in for a quick bite to eat on their way out, but mostly it was just our families. We thought it was fine and a really nice way for people to be able to say goodbye since we had a lot of OOTers staying at the hotel.

ehathewa · August 2010

You can skip the gift opening and skip the letter. Hardly anyone will notice.

wittyschaffy · August 2010

We had a day after brunch for out of town guests and opened gifts after everyone went home. The only people there were my family and DH's parents. I didn't want to have to pass around gifts, have everyone read cards, etc. Plus, I was tired and not on my "A game" and didnt' want to smile and be polite if something was downright awful (of which there were a few).

bellaxanthe · August 2010

We are just having a brief brunch (LATE in the morning) at our house. Most of my family is from OOT and I rarely get to see them. We aren't leaving for the HM until the next morning. So it's not really going to be anyone but my close family and his immediate family. I'm not inviting any more than that over. And there will be an end time.

Both our parents are really looking forward to it. And though I don't like being on display, it's tradition for them. I just don't have enough fight in me to worry about this one.

tklund · August 2010

We're not doing a gift opening. I don't want to open gifts in front of other people, especially if there are duplicate gifts (awkward!). Pretty sure my mom is the only one who wants to know exactly what we got. FI & I are going to open a bottle of wine, sit and open gifts by ourselves, and just enjoy our first day being married!

Gift opening -- thoughts?

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