Wedding Diary : Wedding Gifting In Nigeria

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The other day my friend asked me if I wasn't going to write a wedding register. It was a weird question because I didn't know people do that in Nigeria. Maybe rich people do that but in all my life of being Nigerian and living in Nigeria, I've never seen a couple put out a list of gifts they'd like.

Sometimes a person who intends to gift a couple might ask them what they want, I've seen that but I haven't come across any couple that made an actual register.

My mum owns a shop where she sells kitchen and household items and these happen to be the preferred gift options for a lot of wedding guests. Some gifts bought are pre-planned and are very thoughtful.

The expensive gifts range from a microwave, gas stove, oven, pressure pot, rice cooker, pot set, cutlery set, kitchen blender and so on. There are cheaper cutlery sets some others go for which is very useful also, there's dining sets, glasswares, bread toasters e.t.c.

There are small items most people never think to buy like a wine opener, plantain cutter, chopping board and pressing iron. There are also the ones I think you shouldn't bother gifting like a ceramic plate, some people would buy just one plate that isn't even up to $1 and would wrap it in a gift wrap. Before even getting to the wedding venue it must have broken.

My mum had a customer that got married and he got so many of these single ceramic plates as gifts. He had to bring them to the shop so we help sell them off.

Group gifting is way better because they buy the more expensive things which are useful but then some gifts are just....unnecessary. It's 2021 and some people still gift big party coolers. How many party coolers do a newly wed really need? There's also a big mortar and pestle used for pounding yam. I take it you intend to get this bride stressed out because it is very draining using that thing. I mean you could have just bought the electric yam pounder.

I read somewhere that it's rude to have expensive items on your wedding register but I don't think so. I think it gives room for collaboration so one person doesn't have to foot the whole bill. All the things I would like are on the high side and if I was to put out a register, it'd look something like this:

55" Smart TV
Chest freezer
Washing machine (laundry)
Air Con
Cake Mixer
Fabric

I'm not going to put out a register because like I said earlier, it's not a Nigerian thing but if I was going to, this list seems reasonable enough.