Wedding Gift Amount - How Much Money? From now on, $100 wedding gifts for all

I know gifts shouldn't "matter" in theory, but with all this etiquette and questions in the air I've decided to start giving a flat $100 per wedding gift :) That may be crazy (or weird), but with 4 weddings down it seems to be working so far!

We used to be hardcore fans of the whole registry phenomenon, but ever since getting married ourselves I realize just how nice getting cold hard cash is. Maybe it's cuz I'm a guy, or because we got like 100+ gifts even BEFORE the wedding even came, but there's something nice about getting enough money to cover the most expensive party you ever threw in your entire life!

So why $100?

Well for one, it has a nice ring to it. It also seemed to be the average amount when we started digging through all the checks ourselves. Obviously there's no right or wrong answer here, but I find the amount of variables in play utterly amusing. Here's just a few that come to my mind right now:

1. How many people is this gift covering?

If you go by yourself, do you cut the gift in half? Or does it not even matter as the gift is coming from your family or niche? I think etiquette says it depends on who exactly was invited, but I really don't know...in fact, i kinda just made that up ;) I feel that you should give the same no matter if you were invited by yourself, or allowed to bring another guest. And if you're going on behalf of your entire family, let's say, perhaps it would be wise to throw in a few more dollars. At least that' what I've been doing. It's not like anyone's going to tell me after whether it was too little or not anyways.

2. How well do you know these soon to be newlyweds?

Is it like a distant cousin or someone you've only known for a month? Or are we talking about your brother from another mother kinda person? And, SHOULD that even matter? If I'm going to a wedding because "I have to" (family related) I'd feel comfortable giving $80 for the Mrs. and I....maybe even $60 in all honesty. BUT if we're talking about our best friends getting married, I'm more than likely to pony up $100-$150 to help them celebrate the occasion. It seems pretty fair to me.

3. Can you even afford to give a hefty amount?

This is probably the most important issue here. If you can't afford giving out $100 for each wedding, then be sure not to do it. The happy couple loves just having you there, and while they will sit down and open up your present/money voucher at some point, they should be happy with whatever you give. And if they're not? Screw it. You came, and you cheered them on didn't you?

If you can't afford to give a lot of money, or if you prefer not doing so anyways, then the next best thing (in my opinion) is hitting up Bed, Bath, and Beyond with a 20% off coupon! Everyone knows it's the perfect place to give a gift and save a little while doing so. And hopefully they're registered there so you can get them something they actually want/need. But even not, give only what you can afford.

I think that about covers it...did i miss anything? When it comes down to it, there's no right or wrong answers here - everyone is different and has their own thoughts on this stuff. You gotta do whatever you and your wallet are comfortable with :).

About the Author

This post has been written for FIRE Finance by J. Money (JM). He writes for Budgets Are $exy.

JM's site is a laid back finance blog of a guy just trying to spice things up a bit. He also finds budgets, well...$exy! If you like what you see, pop on over and say hello.

Image Source(s): iStockPhoto

Related Posts