Wedding Gifts: Fresh Choices for Today

(BNN) As the wedding season approches, couples prepare for their newlywed lives and households. Many look beyond traditional china, crystal and keepsakes for gifts they will use frequently in their new homes.

Following trends in fashion, a wide selection of informal, practical and useful gifts are well-suited to today's purposeful lifestyles.

Gifts now span many product categories. Camping and sporting equipment, outdoor grills, home and garden tools, kitchen accessories, and everyday dinnerware are especially appreciated now. Unusual and useful gifts for almost every lifestyle and category can be conveniently ordered online!

• Kitchen Essentials: Lillian Vernon’s stainless steel tools to handle chores from chopping and slicing to cooking and serving, then go into the dishwasher. 42-piece set $90 www.lillianvernon.com. Krups coffee and espresso maker $99 at Crate&Barrel www.crateandbarrel.com. From IKEA, top-of-the-line SKÄRPT kitchen knife block. Set of 3 knives and a ceramic sharpener $70 www.IKEA.com..

• Outdoor Sports: Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), pair of sleeping bags with opposite zipper configurations that zip together. Perfect for inseparable newlyweds! $129 each. Also, a tent for two! The award-winning Half Dome Plus three-season backpacking tent $159 all at www.rei.com.

• Home Accessories: Traditional Cambridge mantle clock with roman numerals $129 at Crate&Barrel www.crateandbarrel.com. The Earthwise Clock, a John Duke design, displays the movement of the earth in relation to the passage of time showing both solar time and clock (universal) time. $95 at www.earthwiseclock.com. Garden Clock, rust and weather resistant, verdigris finish, gives time, temperature and humidity, $50 at Lillian Vernon www.lillianvernon.com.

• Everyday Dining: Hand-painted earthenware with creamy, ivory finish, fully glazed for durability, and easy care, microwave and dishwasher safe. 32-piece service for eight $110 at Lillian Vernon, www.lillianvernon.com. Reed & Barton Crescendo pattern stainless flatware––66-piece service for twelve at $140 Ross-Simons
www.ross-simons.com.

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