Team wedding gift

November 3, 2015 8:22 PM

I need to buy a wedding gift for a member of my staff. Please help me shop.

Here are the details:
* I am the boss, I am buying a gift on behalf of myself and six other members of my staff for the recipient
* Budget is $150 CAD
* Location Vancouver BC
* Gift to be given on Friday and I plan to shop on Thursday

The obvious choices for wedding gift are cash and foodstuffs. As this is a team gift, I do not want to give cash. The recipient and his soon-to-be-wife are Chinese so it is hard for me to pick foodstuffs that would match their tastes.

Any ideas for what I can buy?

posted by crazycanuck to Shopping (13 answers total)

Are Seattle-related (i.e. cross-border) options in the mix?
posted by rhizome at 8:26 PM on November 3, 2015

Is there a reason you can't pick some thing off the registry?

Failing that, Bottle of booze or box of fancy chocolates or two movie ticket vouchers + restaurant gift certificate -- basically "a night out for the new couple."
posted by samthemander at 8:30 PM on November 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

Is there no registry?

I'm not familiar with Chinese wedding traditions or the norm for this stuff in Canada, but in the US (which is not that culturally different from Canada) household objects are popular wedding gifts. Dishes, flatware, kitchen appliances, pots and pans, linens, etc. In the states a lot of couples create registries or wishlists with local stores in order to fill people in on what they need and what their tastes are, but even without a setup like this I'm sure you could go pick out a nice rice cooker or the like from a well-regarded store and include a gift receipt.

Food certainly seems like a weird choice (though again maybe this is a thing in Chinese culture?), considering that most interesting food is perishable and they'll likely be receiving gifts from hundreds of people.

What about Amazon credit, if they are reasonably tech savvy? Kind of like cash, but Amazon sells so much home stuff that they can use it for something traditional if they want. IKEA would also be nice if you really want them to buy housewares and not video games or whatever.

In the same world as food, what about a gift certificate for a nice dinner out?
posted by Sara C. at 8:31 PM on November 3, 2015

Response by poster: No registry. It's a courthouse wedding as their family is abroad. Can't go cross border as he is getting married Friday.
posted by crazycanuck at 8:38 PM on November 3, 2015

When I've had to buy a gift for someone who works for me, I generally pick something fairly expensive-yet-reasonable off the registry (between my husband and I we've bought a lot of Kitchenaid Mixers). But my experience with traditional Chinese weddings is that cash is the appropriate gift, so depending on the precise circumstances perhaps that is actually the right way to go? It might depend on the degree to which the couple is culturally traditional.
posted by padraigin at 8:43 PM on November 3, 2015

Last place I worked had a standard wedding gift: his and hers aprons and a hardbound cookbook for newlyweds (this is a genre, just pick whichever looks nice) that everyone in the office signed/wrote notes of congrats in. (I thought it was stupid but I also think weddings are stupid so I'm probably not the best judge of this.) It seemed to go over well.
posted by phunniemee at 8:45 PM on November 3, 2015

Cash is king at Chinese weddings, so I'd recommend you reconsider your stance on that issue. Otherwise, a bottle of French Champagne and real caviar, or a gift certificate to a really fancy restaurant, or a set of seriously beautiful bed sheets (name-brand / high thread count) in any colour but white (colour of mourning).
posted by travellingincognito at 8:52 PM on November 3, 2015

Yeah, cash is really traditional, and if you have a good Chinatown area you should be able to pick up the traditional red envelope for delivering it.

I...would not buy sheets for someone I did not know very well unless they were from a registry.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:18 PM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Whatever you get, buy it from a big retailer that has a great returns policy. Many traditional department stores, like Macys in the US, are especially generous about wedding gift returns. And make sure you include a gift receipt.
posted by theora55 at 11:35 PM on November 3, 2015

Best answer: While cash is traditional, I would hesitate to give a cash gift of $150 from six people including the boss. It's in danger of seeming... light.

I would probably go to somewhere innocuous like the The Bay, get plain or snazzy champagne flutes, and drop the rest on a bottle of mid-market Moet or Pol Roger. Perhaps bring the bottle with you and beg the nice ladies to wrap it for you.

Otherwise, go with the cash.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:53 PM on November 3, 2015 [6 favorites]

Best answer: Can you up the budget slightly and give them a couple of $88 gift cards in a red envelope? Red and the number 8 are lucky.

Here's a previous question on Chinese wedding stuff, with some things to avoid (white things, sets of 4 items, and clocks for example)
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:52 AM on November 4, 2015 [5 favorites]

with some things to avoid (white things, sets of 4 items,

Oops. Obviously you'd want to revise the previous suggestion: go to The Bay and get a set of two flutes instead of four :)
posted by DarlingBri at 5:59 AM on November 4, 2015

Response by poster: DarlingBri nailed the concern on a cash gift, I was afraid it would seem light. However, some nice champagne, two flutes, and $88 in a red envelope seems a good compromise. Thanks all.
posted by crazycanuck at 6:33 AM on November 4, 2015 [4 favorites]