Common Guide Lines To Wedding Gift Giving

JSZUJA8FUC2X Unless your filthy rich and can give lavish wedding gifts to anyone us normal people try to stay in the financial guide lines of the wedding gift norm. Parents of the bride and groom, grandparents, uncle Nick and aunt Mary, third cousin (twice removed)Ted and their friends all have different parameters of acceptable gifts for this joyous time to the bride and groom. This can become complicated and frustrating if we don’t have standards. So many products out there, what to pick? It wasn’t always this way!
Since man has been around marriages have come in many different forms, therefore wedding gifts varied. Wedding gifts and weddings have come a long way. Let’s start with the Stone Age, courting and marriage in this era pretty much was wrapped up in about an hour. The caveman chooses his beautiful hairy mate, lovingly grunts at her, she grunts back. BANG! Over the head with his club and then carefully drag her to his cave. The only gifts here were when she came to there was a hunk of meat searing over an open fire and she was pregnant.
The Middle Ages had the big wedding ceremonies, usually in the local pub. Mead had been invented (beer). The wedding gifts have become a little more elaborate now. The parents would give the bride and groom a horse and a goat if well-to-do. Other family and friends would give chickens, clay pots and fire wood if lucky.
In the 1800s to the present, social etiquette and organized religion has changed wedding ceremonies and gift giving. The guide lines on giving wedding gifts for the common person in this era briefly goes something like this....
Grooms parents- Honey moon exotic trip; washing machine or furniture.
Brides parents- Had to pay for the entire wedding. Hall and band rental, photographer, food, booze, everything, the whole shebang.
Brothers and sisters- Usually just put their name onto the parents gift; give something small and meaningful.
Uncle Nick and aunt Mary- Living room furniture. Maybe a nice lamp.
Both grand parents- Something homemade; special, decorative.
Third cousin Ted and friends- Before electricity: Cheese, wine and guns. Mostly wine. After electricity (1930's): Toasters, blenders and afterwards bread makers. Wine if lucky.
It seems like the 60's, the era of free love was when wedding etiquette started to lighten up became less stuffy with some of the traditions tapering off. The main change that came to light for the norm in wedding gift giving was that BOTH parents share the wedding ceremony costs.
Grooms parents- Still pay for the honeymoon and throw in a stove.
Brides parents- Washer and dryer or a bedroom set. A car if lucky.
Gift giving from the rest of the family and of friends hasn’t changed at all. Except NO guns....if lucky.
I’m sure wedding gift giving in the future will be different again.
Grooms parents- Honeymoon....to the moon.
Brides parents- Washer/dryer and a robot to do the clothes and other household chores.
I'm hoping this post will help you on the age old question “What would be proper for me to give at a wedding”? After all weddings can get embarrassing all on their own!

Dining in 2030

Thinking of dining in 2030 is simple and yet complex. We are limited on how far we can go on reinventing the kitchen.... or are we??

Having a human size butler/chef android would be a novel idea, but with the volume of population growth on this small planet, this commodity might not be so practical . After a few decades there will be millions of these new and used androids available and cheap. Filling up our human space.

Perhaps a better solution would be a kitchen counter design with robotics, refrigeration and computer programing. Basically you program in a meal in the morning, by the time your home from work , voila! A roasted chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes, warm home-made buns, Caesar salad and a blueberry cheesecake. This counter slices, dices, spices, stirs, mashes, tosses, kneads and bakes to perfection from internet found recipes. Automatically cleans itself. Just the refrigerator and dry bins have to be replenished every week or so, most likely by a grocery delivery service. And, you don't even see them doing this. Did I mention that this counter cleans itself and your dishes. Dining made easy!

Googling around I came across a must see video which had similar thoughts on my futuristic kitchen counter. Found at Core 77 Design Blog this film clip was made in 1967, giving thought to their 1999 version of fine dining at home. Didn't like the disposable dishes part. More garbage! The boy doing the count down to show the speed of it all was a nice touch. Also, like the health calculator. Good imagination for 1967.

Dining Future

Spoiled is what we are in the preparation of fine dining with our futuristic kitchen. Cooking ease that we have these days has been taken for granted. Imagine if we still had to gather wood and light the fire before cooking compared to simply pushing a button or two for home dining.

Let's first look at the history of dining preparation.

- Fire went from scorching meat to forging steel.

- Fireplaces in the home did the job of cooking meats and boiling water but very messy and very smoky. Everything tasted and smelled like charcoal.

- Benjamin Franklin in the mid 1700's worked with the forged steel and invented the cast-iron wood burning stove.

- A whole array of cooking ideas came from this stove like different sized pots and pans, bent in half metal coat hanger as a toaster and a kettle that whistles.

- By the end of 1880's electricity started coming into homes; by 1930 most towns and cities had power. The electric appliance invention exploded!

Future dining had changed....

- With electric oven/stove combinations, crude sparking toasters and the icebox (which just had a fan to circulate the cold). Fire insurance claims sky rocketed!

- The 30's to early 1990's the future of cooking and dining with kitchen appliances has become safer and better with extra gadgets added such as On/Off buttons, timers, lights and heat adjusting knobs.

What really sparked up the imagination of electric appliance design was computer technology in the 90's. For creating fine dining in the kitchen we now have....

Toasters - defrost tech., reheat tech., bagel toast tech. and high speed tech..

Toaster ovens - microwave, Infrawave tech. (50% faster and asks for tinfoil), convection tech..

Refrigerators - that make ice instead of ice making the refrigerator.

Kettles - with boil/dry tech. (shuts off automatically after boiling or when water is low).

Whats in the future for home fine dining?

- Microwave oven and LCD television combinations. A futuristic TV dinner.

- Toasters that toasts your bread between 2 panes of glass, literally right in plain view.

- Toasters that imprints (burns) a picture right onto your bread. 12 by 12 pixel resolution of a flower or your Aunt Bertha.

Future dining is going to change the look of the kitchen again with these two items.

- Refrigerators which are hooked up to the internet to give you an interactive message board, digital picture frame and a satellite radio. Also, has a cell phone charger, CD/DVD player and still makes ice.

- My favourite, floating salt and pepper shakers which are suspended in mid-air over a base plate using strong neodymium magnetic repulsion.

We forget that once upon a time fine dining was composed by building a fire, killing, skinning, gutting and throwing the hunk of meat beside a roaring fire, to just pushing a button to roast a turkey, to perhaps verbally ordering a microwave looking appliance in zapping you instantly any dish you can imagine. We really have it easy these days in the art of home dining compared to even 40 years ago, which is not a long time. We are spoiled and should have more appreciation for the humble kitchen appliance.

I wonder what the kitchen will look like in 2060?

What do you think?