A bond seems a bit optimistic. Nearly half of all marriages ends in divorce.

Gift cards are nice for second marriages. You also have a while to send a gift. Not all gifts have to be there by the wedding day.

Breathe. You can attend the wedding without an immediate gift.

I think bond is an awesome idea -- dead safe investment, and I'd have been rather touched by the implication that you're assuming they'll be together to enjoy in 20 years.

(But note that we were way on the "no, really, we don't need anything! really! reallyreally!" extreme of the wedding gift scale, not the "pay for my honeymoon next week" end. Your giftees may vary.)

eta: amused at the massive x-post of wildly different takes on the same thing. Also, agreeing with "send something later".

ya, I know the year rule.

I agree, the interest rate is x-low, and not a great investment. I was thinking it was a 5 year thing. Seeings how I traveled to Australia for her 1st wedding, gave a ton of crap from Crate & Barrel, and the 1st marriage ended in a year. I guess, passive-aggressively speaking, I was like, "with this, you have to be together to cash it". But 20 years. Oy. That's a bit much. and 20 years double? C'mon, that's like 1/2 the going rate of return for average investment (don't they say double every 10?).

I guess I'll give a empty card for now? I am providing the sound system for the reception. Not a big deal, but eh. Ugg. Why did I wait till last second on this?!?

I guess I'll give a empty card for now?

Seriously? I've never brought anything to the actual wedding in my life. Is this a regional or heritage thing again?

I have no bond advice one way or the other, but that does remind me of a bond-related question: One of our relatives gave Matilda a savings bond a few months ago. What we got was a lovely card with a little official US certificate about the size of a check and decorated with red-white-and-blue stripey waves, stating that (fill in the name here) has purchased a a bond in the amount of XXX for you, and then a bunch of fine-print stuff I don't remember. Is that the actual bond, or is the bond some other, more serious-looking, document that's supposed to arrive separately? And, as long as I'm being monumentally pig-ignorant, how does one go about cashing in a bond?

eta: You're doing the sound system? That's huge. If it were me getting married, I wouldn't expect any kind of a gift on top of that.

I dunno. I think the thing that paniced me was the e-mail for the volunteers (table settings, sound system, etc) had a "that can be over by the gift table" and I was like "o shit, gotta bring a gift. Right!" Tho, of late, apparently there has been some scammers who walk into a reception to the gift table and pick up things and walk out, so the news is saying to NOT have the gift table near the door.

That is probably it. And any bank should be able to cash it. It is probably currently worth 1/2 the face value.

That is the bond (make a note of the serial number somewhere in case you ever need to replace the actual certificate), and you can cash it at any bank or post office.

I'm guessing that might have been the gift card looking thing. Not sure. As for cashing it, I believe you can just go to any bank. But double check it's maturity date. For more info: [link]