US News talks about how people are dealing with spending on wedding gifts in a tough economy and shares this information on the average amounts spent:
According to WeddingChannel.com, friends spend an average of $116 per gift, and family members spend $211. (For bridal showers, friends spend an average of $61 and family members spend $98.) "The closer that you are to the couple, the more you'll spend," says Charli Penn, managing editor of WeddingChannel.com.
Note to readers: don't invite me to your wedding or you'll get well below the average value for your gift. :-)
Seriously, we do give more for family members than for acquaintances (of course, who doesn't?), but we're not in the $200+ range. Not even close -- unless the relative is a very close relative. In that case, we'd be very near the average.
US News also offers a couple ways to save on wedding gift costs such as:
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Give gift cards to the store where the couple is registered for the couple to put towards a bigger purchase.
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Purchase an item such as a wine bottle opener and pairing it with the couple's favorite bottle of wine. If you're giving a cake stand or mixing bowls, include a card with your favorite cake recipe.
Gift cards? Yikes! Personally, I prefer giving cash.
On the opposite end of the transaction, here are some ideas from me on how those getting married can save on wedding costs:
And if these don't suit you, here are some creative ways to save on a wedding.
Elope?
Seriously the absolute best way to save on a wedding is to limit attendance to family and very close friends and hold it in someone's home.
You do not have to "keep up with the Joneses" by throwing the party of the century or giving everyone you know a night (or a week!) of free entertainment. Save your energy & $ for your future life together, instead.
Posted by: MC | August 08, 2009 at 06:26 AM
I plan to offer my kids a choice, here's X $'s for your wedding or X $'s for your down payment on a place.. No matter how the market performs, I would suggest, they take the money and place it towards an asset not the wedding..
Posted by: malingerer | August 08, 2009 at 01:36 PM
Good golly. Even living in a high-cost state, I can't imagine spending $200+ on the wedding gift of anyone but a sibling.
Posted by: Sarah | August 08, 2009 at 04:37 PM
My brother is getting married in two months and I have budgeted $250 for the gift (whatever it ends up being since they don't have a registry yet).
It's not that I want to spend that much, but I feel like I'm supposed to spend a lot. Or give something big.
Posted by: Dee | August 08, 2009 at 07:09 PM
In New York, $250 per couple is probably the minimum amount to give at a wedding. My wife and I usually give $300 and, trust me, we are pretty cheap.
Posted by: Rob G. | August 08, 2009 at 08:35 PM
Very interesting information. These dollar figures are much higher then I would have thought.
Posted by: Justin | August 08, 2009 at 11:04 PM
This looks about right. We gave quite a bit more than $200 to my husband's sister for her wedding, and my cousin's parents gave us several thousand. For friends we usually give around $100. I guess we're Asian, though, and we always give cash gifts.
Posted by: The Baglady | August 09, 2009 at 04:02 AM
It varies a little bit depending how far we're expected to travel, but we generally give around $200-$300 for family members and around $100 for friends. Always cash, it's what people really want anyway despite flowery language about "spending quality time" picking gifts and "thinking about the couple's personalities".
This post reminds me that I like weddings and almost always have fun at them, but hate all the passive aggression and snottiness that often surround them. The people getting married (and their families) often seem to forget that they're not the centre of everyone else's universe and the guests often seem to assume all couples are scorekeeping over gifts ... and both sides find etiquette faults all over the place.
Posted by: guinness416 | August 09, 2009 at 12:38 PM
When the wife and I had the wedding in Hawaii, the avg gift to us was about $300 in cash, some less, some much more.
For one of my close friends I bought him and a wife a $450 tent from REI. Distant friend may be $100 or less.
Another close friend (former colleague) who got married in Thailand- I gave him the equivalent of $600 in cash.
Siblings are going to get several thousand, in cash, each. Fortunately I only have 2.
Normally I'm pretty frugal but will splurge at giving wedding gifts of cash to close friends or family.
-Mike
Posted by: Mike Hunt | August 10, 2009 at 07:22 AM
I've seen some wedding invitation cards that read something like "no gifts please." If you ask me that is awesome sauce. I'll do that on my wedding. No gift necessary. Just come and bless us and enjoy the food that costs about $10 per person. I think I'll probably have about 250 guests. That's just $2,500. Throw in antoher $2,500 for all the festivities. Let's get crazy and throw in another $2,500. A total of for $7,500 an event of your life is not that much.
But since I'm Muslim and allowed four wives, I have to multiply that by 4 to get $30,000. I wonder if I can use laws of diminishing return in each successive wedding to cut down the costs... (Nah, I'm just kidding about four wives thing. One wife's fine for me. :p)
Posted by: A_Muslim | August 10, 2009 at 12:29 PM
The average gift size for relatives is going to be inflated by large gifts from parents or other very close relatives.
If you have 20 people and Mom & Dad give $2000 and everyone else gives $100 then that averages out to $200 range. But that doesn't mean typical uncles/aunts, siblings and cousins are giving $200 typically.
Posted by: Jim | August 10, 2009 at 01:02 PM