Many years ago, I worked as a secretary in a very high end department store. Each week, brides would come in and register for their gifts. Expensive gifts. Sterling, crystal, fine china, expensive kitchen gadgets, the finest linens, etc. The consultant would be so excited. I never got excited because it never failed - every item on that list would come back for the cash. Honestly, it never failed. The higher the total cost of the registry, the more likely it would come back. One bride brought back a TON of gifts before the wedding saying she needed the money for her honeymoon. Well, hated to disappoint her, but we only issue checks from HQ for anything over $5000. Her registry returns were over $15k.
Another bride brought back $30,000 of gifts to our store alone. I got a call from the secretary at a competitor warning us that she was on her way. She returned over $15k to them. She brought everything she received in for cash.
Then we had the bride who had been married over 25 years and wanted to bring back her wedding china because she was getting a divorce. We just looked at her and refused the return because it was 1) over 25 years old 2) the manufacturer would not take it back and 3) it was USED and 4) she had absolutely no receipts showing it had been purchased at our store. We knew it couldn't have been because we had only been in that area for 2 years.
You might as well give money because if you give a gift, it WILL be returned for the cash. When I got married, it never entered my mind to return a gift. If I got 3 toasters, fine. I put 2 in the closet for future use. If I got 10 sets of towels, I put most of them in the cedar chest for the future.