We are in the middle of wedding season, with friends and family inviting us to celebrate one of the biggest days of their lives. Finding the perfect gift can be stressful, but this guide will help you understand expectations and provide thoughtful gift ideas to fit your budget.
How much should you spend on a wedding gift?
Ultimately, you should only spend what you can afford. Do not set yourself back financially to buy someone an expensive wedding gift. Your attendance on their big day is the most important thing, so if travel or other costs lead you to spend less on a gift, that’s perfectly fine.
However, here is a general guide of how much you should expect to spend depending on your relationship with the couple:
- Coworkers, distant relatives, and general acquaintances – $50 to $70
- Friends – $75 to $100
- Close family, best friends, and the wedding party – $100 to $150+
Now, for destination weddings, there is an understanding that your presence could be their gift because travel costs can be so high. Guests often bring smaller gifts to these types of weddings.
What type of gift should you buy?
Generally, couples are registered online with a list of things they want for their wedding gifts. However, sometimes they do not have a registry, or you may want to go a different direction.
One popular gift is giving the couple money for their new house or their honeymoon fund.
If you decide to steer away from their registry, you want to make sure you give them something they will really love, whether a special keepsake or something for their home.
Here are some different directions you could go with a wedding gift:
Personalized gifts
Personalized gifts are always a hit, and you can customize just about anything.
Etsy is the number one place to order a personalized gift. You can get artists to create paintings, clay products, wood carvings, and more.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
Personalized artwork
If you are artsy and like to draw or paint, an art piece would be a beautiful gift.
You can paint or draw a portrait of the couple, their first home, the wedding venue, or just create a piece of art you think they would like to hang in their home.
If you aren’t artsy, do not worry, Etsy has many vendors that will create the art for you. All you have to do is send them a reference photo.
Anniversary time capsule
Before the wedding, collect as many letters as you can from the couple’s family and friends to put into a time capsule box. The purpose is for them to open the box on their first anniversary.
From there, they can continue to write letters to each other every year on their anniversary to open at a later date. They can also add photos or other mementos.
Cozy home gifts
Most newlyweds are either already living in their own home together or will move into a new place when they get married. You can help them out by gifting them cozy items to make their new place feel like home and help them destress after months of wedding planning.
Towel warmer
Towel warmers are luxury gifts that can be found for $50 to $100. You can give the couple a spa experience from their home.
There are 2 kinds of warmers to choose from. A heated rack that hangs on the wall or a bucket-style warmer that sits on the floor.
Home sweet home welcome basket
Many couples move into a new home when they get married, so a welcome home basket is a great gift option.
You can fill the basket with a cozy blanket, a candle, a custom doormat with their last name, their favorite snacks, and anything to make their home feel like home.
Kitchen and hosting essentials
Engraved cutting board
An engraved cutting board with the couple’s last name is another great customized gift they can add to their kitchen.
You can buy these on many different online shops, or you can buy wood-burning supplies and make it yourself.
Recipe book
Finding the perfect recipes can be challenging when first starting a new family. So, why not make it easy on the newlyweds?
Collect recipes from the bride and groom’s families of their childhood favorites so that they can still enjoy the food they love. You can compile them into a recipe book and leave open pages for them to add to, or you can buy recipe cards for the family members to fill out.
Experience-based gifts
Date in a basket
Gifting a date in a basket experience is great because you can tailor it to whatever budget you want.
There are many date options you can do, here are a few ideas:
- For the couple that likes to cook: You can fill the basket with different baking or cooking supplies, along with new recipes for them to try. You could also add a conversation card game so they can ask each other fun and deep questions while they wait for the food to cook.
- For the gamers: This basket could include new video game controllers, headsets, and gift cards so they can buy games to play together. You could also go the other direction and gift them a basket full of board games or card games if that is more their style.
- For the movie fanatics: Gift them a basket with popcorn, candy, blankets, and anything else to give them a cozy movie experience. You could add gift cards to movie theatres and subscription services like Netflix or Hulu.
- For the artists: Fill this basket full of paint, canvases, and paint brushes so the couple can have a fun painting date. Add some prompts or games, such as challenging them to paint each other or swapping their paintings every 10 minutes.
Gift card experiences
Gift cards are always great gifts, but experience gift cards are even better.
Buy the couple a Tinggly gift card. It gives them the option to choose from over 26,000 experiences. From skydiving to diving with sharks, they can choose which experience fits them.
Affordable but thoughtful options
Photo theme gift basket
A couple’s wedding is one of the biggest steps in their relationship. They will want to remember it forever with photos to look back on.
You can gift them a basket with a photo album, picture frames, and a camera to capture the more intimate moments of their wedding season and honeymoon that a photographer isn’t there to capture for them.
You can give them a digital camera or a one-time-use film camera.
Paused clock
During their wedding day, if you pay close attention to the time of their first kiss. You can gift them a clock or a stopwatch paused exactly when it happens, freezing the moment in time forever.
This is a special gift the couple can cherish for years to come, and it does not have to cost you more than $10 to $20.
If you want to see more gift guides from Trill, you can find them here.
