Stumped on wedding and baby gift (long)

[tarheels]

I'm quite sure I'm not going to find recommendations for this situation on any gift guide lol.

My best friend in the entire universe is a guy I've known since I was 14. This summer, he met and fell in love with a woman who was 4 months pregnant with another guy's baby. The woman had only gone out this other guy on a couple dates, and when she found out she was pregnant, he split.

My friend fell madly, passionately, deeply in love. I was more than a little concerned when I first heard about the relationship in October, but after interrogating him for 90 minutes when he first told me , I'm sure this is the real thing. I've never seen him so happy in the nearly 20 years I've known him. Very long story short, they quietly got married by a JOP on Nov 24 and the baby was born Dec 5. He just told me last night that they got married and they haven't told the "general public" yet. I'm the third person they told after their parents.

My friend plans to adopt the baby and they've already gotten the biological father to agree to terminate his parental rights.

He said there'll be a real wedding ceremony later, but I feel like I should get them a wedding gift now. (And we all know plenty of people who say there'll be a ceremony later and life gets in the way and one never materializes.) So what on earth do I give? They're both professionals who are quite comfortable financially and they've lived on their own in nice homes for years. (My friend actually has great D&R taste - you'd all approve.) I know nothing about the wife. My friend is an avid outdoorsman, private pilot, and likes good wine, none of which lead to great gifts in this situation.

What about for the baby? I would give a savings bond, but the Treasury has stopped selling paper bonds and they only sell electronic ones and the gift recipient has to have an electronic Treasury account set up and that all just sounds stupid as hell. I'm not giving someone an electronic savings bond.

This is a "think big" situation - a $30 GC ain't what I'm thinking of . I'd love to give them like a weekend at a B&B for a mini honeymoon, but with the baby they won't be traveling any time soon. They live in Las Vegas, so it can't be something that requires my presence. Thanks for making it through this novella!

[emoflamingo]

Yeah, I hate the Treasury for that. My grandma gives them for birthdays and christmases (because she knows we don't need extra crap in our house) so we've got probably $700 in bonds for Monkey that way.

A gift for them is hard, I'm not sure there. If you know his style (and could get a hint of hers), then you could always buy something monogrammed for them. For the baby, would you want to buy something sentimental? I mean, I could tell you awesome baby gear, but they may already have it all.

[nomad100]

If you know that they have someone local they will be able to leave the baby with for an evening, how about a gift certificate at one of the amazing restaurants in Vegas? Zagat's Top 10 looks amazing for possibilities. blog.zagat.com/2012/06/las-vegas-10-best-restaurants.html

For the little one, at this point, I would get a sterling silver engraved something (like a baby cup or rattle - Reed Barton has some cute things). I would assume that they will be opening a 529 account to save for college so maybe you can add money to that on baby's 1st birthday?

[peach]

maybe a GC to a local photographer for a family photo shoot???

[emjacobs]

I would assume that since they are both well off that they might not need anything for the baby, but to celebrate that what about a GC for a spa day for momma and a GC for a nice dinner so she could go get pampered as the "baby" gift and then have a nice date night?

[Deleted]

I like what peach suggested. Hs family did that for us (we didn't lack for handmedowns in the stuff dept. at the point) and it was great!

For a wedding gift, what about some nice crystal or servingware? They seem like the type that would be in to that and might be ones to enjoy it if they have all the practical stuff.

Otherwise, get them the B*B card. It's a struggle right now but in a bit they'll have it figured out and it'll give them something to look forward too. Or pick a family friend hotel/resort so they can take kiddo along.

[bunnymendelbaum]

Dec 21, 2012 12:24:05 GMT -5 nomad100 said:

For the little one, at this point, I would get a sterling silver engraved something (like a baby cup or rattle - Reed Barton has some cute things). I would assume that they will be opening a 529 account to save for college so maybe you can add money to that on baby's 1st birthday?

This is what I was going to suggest for the baby.

The parents are more difficult, but the photographer suggestion is a really good one!

[sjh722]

I think a session with a nice photographer is a good idea, if they haven't done that already. (Really good photographers can be $$$ but you get beautiful images.)

Are they into keepsake-type baby gifts, if a savings bond isn't an option? Something from Tiffany or the like?

[tarheels]

Ok, I think I'm going to go with the photographer. Even if they had newborn portraits done already, I know they haven't had family photos done and that seems like a tidy way to celebrate the insta-family situation.

A quick google found this photographer. I really like her style. www.meghanpoort.com/blog/

[darkling_glory]

tarheels! I got married in Vegas and my wedding photographer was Mike L Photography:

www.mikelphotos.com/

Mike and Courtney are super, super sweet and they took AMAZING pictures! If you're curious, PM me and I'll link you my wedding pictures. I would recommend them to ANYONE!

PS: Even though their website says wedding/engagement/etc.. I'm pretty sure they do all sorts of photo sessions. I just had to recommend them and I think their worth an e-mail!

[emoflamingo]

I love that idea. Good thinkin', peach!

[sierramist03]

Love the photography idea!

[tarheels]

OMFG, yall. I called that photographer. It's $200 for a session, worth it. To get photos? $1,050 for the CD or $600 for her smallest print package. For an 8x10 by itself, it's $75. Are you effing kidding?! We had pro photos done a couple years ago and it was $250 WITH the CD. Edit - I think my wedding photos were $1200. This seems just astronomical to me.

[tarheels]

Dec 21, 2012 15:35:21 GMT -5 darkling_glory said:

tarheels! I got married in Vegas and my wedding photographer was Mike L Photography:

www.mikelphotos.com/

Mike and Courtney are super, super sweet and they took AMAZING pictures! If you're curious, PM me and I'll link you my wedding pictures. I would recommend them to ANYONE!

PS: Even though their website says wedding/engagement/etc.. I'm pretty sure they do all sorts of photo sessions. I just had to recommend them and I think their worth an e-mail!

Did mike charge $1k for his CD?

[sierramist03]

I just paid $60 for all my pictures on a flash drive. That is crazy to me keep looking

[emoflamingo]

It's insane but it's Vegas. HCOL + wedding capital of the country.

I paid $70 for the session and $400 for a CD of 10 images recently. Do we have local boards here? Go on there and get some recs for good middle-of-the-price-range photographers.

[peach]

Maybe search for a mom -tographer. The "pros" are such a rip off. Lots of people that do it for a side business or as a hobby do amazing work and are waaaaay more affordable. Just make sure you look at samples of their work to be sure they know what they are doing

[bunnymendelbaum]

Seems high to me!
We had family photos done last year by an acquaintance who is also a pro photographer and she charged $200 sitting & then $200 more for cd of photos if I remember correctly. We are MCOL, but your prices seem high for even Vegas.