Standard gift certificate to Bed, Bath and Beyond or any of their registries. We've all seen "Old School." Ask Will Ferrell. Every couple shops there.

And yes, couples register for ridiculously expensive stuff. Stuff I can't afford to buy them. So the gift certificate is a nice drop in the bucket that will get them closer to those $500 steak knives.

I am a big fan of gift certificates... mostly because if its a baby shower, I really don't want the mom to look back and remember that I bought her her breast pump...

If you're going to an engagement party, bring a nice bottle of wine.

Send the gift ahead of time so they don't have to cart it home after the wedding and then just bring a note of congratulations or a card to the wedding that you can drop on the gift table.

I don't think so; some people got us one random piece of china or things like that, and it didn't matter. Most of our guests were travelling from out of town, so honestly we were just happy if people got us anything.

Some of the registries are out of control though; we kept ours reasonable, but some people make hard core wish lists.

Rudey,
One of the cardinal rules of registries is to register for expensive and inexpensive items as people shop on a variety of budgets. Chances are your buddy probably didn't pick much out on the registry, and his fiancee probably had a relative or friend helping her pick stuff.

One of my girlfriends had family members ask her to register for more expensive things because they wanted to buy her nicer stuff, so thus the inexpensive and expensive gifts. You said they registered at C&B, that is probably for people not on the Neiman Marcus budget. If you send them something off of their registry, when you check out they will usually ask if you want a gift card and what you want it to say- so they should know it's from you one way or the other. And don't worry about not bringing things to weddings and people thinking you are the bastard who didn't give a gift. It's very common now to not come bearing large gift boxes. Speaking for myself, (and a lot of my friends) they much preferred getting their items beforehand so they didn't have anything to worry about carting around afterwards.

Seeing as how all of my friends are super rich, and I don't deal with middle class and under minions, I think it is ok for me to have super uber expensive shit on there.

BIATCHES