Wonder wedding

After reading BCS's blog...it got me thinking about my own wedding. He spouts off about crap gifts from rich people. And I thought I should represent the other side. A grateful bride who got more gifts than expected. My wedding was kind of low budget. At my own church. My dress was on sale for like $200...I don't know...is it proper etiquitte for a lady to reveal the price of her wedding dress? Whatever. Had 4 bridesmaids, 3 groomsmen. My sister-in-law acted both as bridesmaid and caterer, which I must say she did an excellent job at that. She gave me the most amazing gift...her time, her support, culinary skills free of charge. Not to mention she actually convinced my brother, her husband, to pay for part of my food. I did all decorations by myself. Bought everything in bulk..(by the way does anyone need about 120 little silver bells or 25 plastic swans?) decorated an arch and reception site with the help of my wonderful bridesmaids. Got the cheapest tux available...bought my flowergirl's dress off of ebay. I pinched as much as I could. We only sent out about 60 invitations, but as expected many members of our church made an appearance as well. They had seen us grow up in that church..well.. actually ignoring each other. But they were responsible for the bulk of our gifts. Few stuck to the registery but the only truly bothersome gifts were the gift cards from JC Penney's and Target. Listen to me people. I registered...at Dillards..and Wal-mart. I never ever shop at JC Penney's and Target. I had to go there and spend like an hour looking for something I wanted just so the card could get used. I probably should have just passed them on to another just-married couple. We only had two copies of presents, silverware and a waffle iron. But we took the waffle iron back to target, and the silverware back to walmart and use the corresponding refund gift cards to buy grocieres. Everything else was either from the registry or actually something we needed that we didn't think of. They cluttered the floor and bed of one of our rooms so I used the Target gift card to by storage shelves to keep the gifts on. We call it the wedding wall. We currently live at my father's house. The house I grew up in (dad's has another house he lives in) and don't really need our gifts yet. Some haven't been taken out of the box. This house still has all the plates, glasses, pots, pans, and whatnot for us to use until we move. But only one of my bridesmaids bought a gift, and only one groomsmen. but since I have been in two weddings where I have not given a gift, I have no reason to complain, and quite frankly didn't really expect a gift. Seriously...my bridesmaids were outstanding and I could not have asked for a better group of support. Oddly enough they were all from different part of my life and didn't even really know each other. Oh but they were great. Ladies if you are reading this I can not express my gratitude enough for being so great to me the days before and of my wedding. there were not many of you, but you were amazing. You really made the whole thing less stressful and beautiful:) Oh yea...and my husband was alright too...