NEW YORK — What to give the bride and groom? And how to give it?

Leigh Zarelli at the Web site Gifts.com, offers some tips:-

• If you've been invited to an engagement party and the couple hasn't registered yet, take the opportunity to be creative. Consider a membership to a wine club, or "experience" gifts like cooking classes, or personalized gifts such as anything monogrammed.

• If you think the couple has registered but you don't know where, call their parents, close friends — or the couple themselves — to find out. You might also find answers online, for instance at Gifts.com's Wedding Registry Finder service.

• Should you bring the gift with you on the wedding day? No. Better to send it, and give the couple (and you) one less thing to worry about.

• Wedding etiquette has it that guests have up to one year after the wedding to send a gift, but don't let it hang over your head that long. Try to get the gift to them by the time they get back from their honeymoon, or soon after.