If it's one thing I know about, it's etiquette. Prepare for my opinion

First, go over and check this out:

Rudeness at some of it's best


In a nutshell,  the above article is the back and forth between a new bride and one of the guests at her wedding.  She tells him that the gift basket he gave that contained various kids of candy, cookies and marshmallow fluff, isn't something they can eat and asks if he has the receipt.  He apologizes and then it dissolves into the bride explaining to the guest that people don't give gifts, people give money.  They give money to cover the cost of the wedding and to give the couple an opportunity to make money. 

My jaw dropped.  Are you frigging kidding me?  The point of wedding and shower gifts is to help the newly married couple set up housekeeping.  That's why one registers for towels and plates and glassware, so you can get your new digs as a married couple into a state where you don't have to drink out of empty jam jars.  (Although there is a certain romance to that.) 

It's like baby showers.  It's to help the parents to be get all the stuff the new bundle of expensive joy is going to need in those first several months, not so the parents can set up a trust fund. 

As someone who received a number of monetary gifts upon becoming a Missus, yes, it's nice.  However, it isn't anything but rude to tell people to give you money because that's how it's done now.  And it's downright nasty, ugly and makes me question your quality as a person to point out to someone you invited to your wedding that they got to eat food, drink booze and have a great venue to party in, therefore, they should have given the couple an envelope with enough cash in it to cover the cost of having them at the wedding, plus a little more. 

If you can't afford the wedding, then don't have it!  You are tossing yourself a party.  (In my case, my parents tossed me a great party)  If you decide to throw yourself a birthday party, as my friend Barb did for many years, most of them costumed and all of them with a margarita machine, then you don't charge a cover.  Well, maybe you do, but then I can't help you.  If friends bring you prezzies, that's wonderful, say thank you.  If they don't, hug them and thank them for being there to celebrate with you. 

Yeah, there is some stuff you return.  And yeah, there is some stuff you don't use.  And there is always at least one gift where you'll find the card inside of it from the person who gave it to someone else for THEIR wedding before they passed it off to you.  I think it would be fun to find someone who is going to regift a gift, then have the person who received it regift it again, just keep putting the wedding cards inside and see how far you can keep regifting. 

Greediness and outright lack of manners like this makes me nuts.  Here, allow me to assist you in eating this goddamn marshmallow fluff. 

Amanda's beauty tip of the day:  If you're going to be swimming a lot this summer, start double conditioning and using a deep conditioning treatment at least once a week as the chlorine will turn your hair into a mass of dry fibers resembling hair.