Italian Wedding Gifts
Regali di Matrimonio
You
can always tell how important or well-respected, but not necessarily how
wealthy, the parents of a couple getting married are by the size and value
of the gifts brought to their son's or daughter’s wedding reception.
Italian brides and grooms today are given many gifts from relatives. Non-family members, however, also bestow a significant number of presents on them. These serve as requital toward the father of the bride or groom.
Wedding receptions, after the ceremony in the church, offer a time for people to pay their respects and to thank one or more of the parents of the couple just married for special favors previously received from them.
Italian Wedding Favors
This repayment for former favors, raccomandazioni o favori, as they are sometimes referred to - is due and payable at the bridal reception. Here you will find a large table close to where the mothers-in-law are sitting and in clear view of all who enter with a conspicuous note placed on it in just the right spot stating the purpose for that particular table setting. It is at this altar, under the watchful eye of everyone else, that humble debtors make their pilgrimage to leave repayment as several witnesses take inventory of the proceedings. A neat handwritten notebook will later become the custodian of precise descriptions as to who came to give and the kind and value of every single present.
Faux pas à l’italienne
But woe to those who forget to come and worship! The unfortunate few who treat the obligation they have for repayment with contempt, are left to face a harsh reality - that of la brutta figura, a term meaning something akin to: "your actions should embarrass you" or "you have made a fool of yourself". These unfortunate individuals will have to deal with the disastrous effect of having acquired a reputation for not having respected the accepted rules of that time-honored society.
