Thanks for the info!
It seems that weddings in the Northeast US usually call for a more expensive gift. I think average for my wedding was around $150, and that was five years ago. We got some very generous gifts, and then we got gifts where it was obvious that the giver didn't put much time, effort, or money into it. But you get that with any event that calls for gifts.
I'm in favor of registries. We picked out china and silver patterns and registered for place settings and some serving pieces. I don't look at it as "asking for gifts" so much as "if you want to give us a gift, here are some things we'd like". We made sure to choose a wide range of items in terms of cost, since we had a number of poor starving grad students among our guests. Each of our guests gave something, and we totally understood when our poor starving grad student friends didn't give much - the important thing is that they were there on our special day.
What I
don't like is when a couple includes those little slips of paper in their wedding invitations that say where they're registered. TACKY. A guest should call the couple or their families and ask if they're so inclined.