I may have already mentioned this, but I have two family weddings to look forward to in the next few months.

My brother Andy and his fiancée Lianne are being married in August, and Gord's niece Carissa and her fiancé Matt are being married in September.

If I have indeed already mentioned this then I have also mentioned how happy we are for both couples. And I need not mention how happy both couples are now that I've stopped sending them martial advice emails:

"If you fall asleep with your faces too close together it is inevitable that one of you will be the recipient of the other's hot nostril breath. In this situation it is best to gently shove your beloved's face away from your own. This is infinitely better than having your spouse wake up in the morning with a hazy memory of you piling pillows on their face and telling them to stop breathing."

I am no longer sending these emails of wisdom. I do however, still have something to impart: My empathy.

Between now and their wedding day each of these couples will receive many dozens of lovely gifts from friends and family. The gifts will arrive via bridal showers, engagement parties, deliveries to the house, and gifts brought directly to the wedding reception.

The gifts will be stylishly wrapped with beautiful bows. They will be of varying size and shape with cards of heartfelt congratulations attached to each one.

Eventually at least one room in their home will end up being being devoted exclusively to gift accumulation until such a time that they can properly organize their lovingly begot bounty.

And in the years to come when they think back to all of the wonderful gifts they received - they will realize that they have used six of them.

In almost 17 years of marriage we have only used our china and silverware three times - and never all at once.

This past winter I contemplated filling the china teapot with my ice water and pouring it into a china teacup to sip on while I watched Grey's Anatomy, but decided against it.

I didn't have enough Reese's peanut butter cups to properly fill the china dessert platter.

Mind you, five years ago I did put candles in the tall crystal candlesticks given to us by close friends of my parents. I thought the light from the flame might add a little something to the family dinner table.

I don't know if you could technically call it a "fire," but we did need a new tablecloth.

Gord used to wonder why we had never hung the stained-glass art piece friends of his parents had given us.

"He who hangs it, dusts it."

It's still in the buffet.

We sold a lot of the kitchen oriented gifts at a yard sale about 12 years after our wedding when my husband finally came to terms with the fact that I viewed food processors, table mixers and portable grills as little more than kitchen cupboard stuffing.

The round thing we received from one of my extended family members (Gord swears it's an ashtray - I'm not so sure) is still wrapped in tissue paper in a drawer in the dining room.

We did use the burgundy and navy towels we received. Until they were stolen from the laundry room of our first apartment building.

Please know that I don't mean to sound ungrateful. We loved everyone (give or take) who came to our wedding and we appreciated the thought and effort involved in all of the gifts we received. It's just that at the time we were too young to know what we really needed.

And even if both of my soon-to-be wed family members have figured it out already, they're no better off than we were.

Most banks still don't have gift registries.