You Are Invited! – Top Tips For Picking The Best Wedding Gift

Opening that beautifully addressed envelope or clicking on a festive “Save The Date” email, opens the door to a rush of emotions for any wedding guest. Swirling around your head are the inevitable questions about “Who else is coming?” and “What should I wear?” Then, you stop to realize that a gift must be purchased for the soon to be married couple. Here are my top tips for picking the best wedding gift for your loved ones.

Technology has made the decision so much easier for both the engaged couple and the wedding guest. Online registry sites, such as Zola Registry, provide a platform for the couple to place their entire, carefully selected registry on one site, allowing guests to click once or maybe twice (if they’re feeling extra generous). Gift deliveryis direct to the bride or grooms residence. The option for the guest to click on a price range, prompting the site to generate a list of items from the registry that fall within a set range provides an easy way to stay within a comfortable budget, yet select the best wedding gift possible!

Not all couples need or want practical household items. This is where a site such as Honeyfund serves to communicate and facilitate the giving of cash gifts, with a specific purpose in mind. The wedding couple may wish to give their guests the opportunity to contribute to their honeymoon, to a down payment on their house, or to donate to their favorite charity. Both guests and couples know that their money will be well spent on making the future bright for the bride and groom.

What if you are a close friend or relative of the happy couple? How do you personalize your gift rather than going with cash or the registry? Use the gift registry to get clues for color scheme or style trends, preferred by the couple. Then, select a specific gift or a certain amount of cash and supplement it with a small extra gift, to complement their style and provide a memento for them to use on special occasions. Personalized stationary or napkins are good choices.

Perhaps you can seize an opportunity to go in on a group gift with other guests? This lightens the economic burden for you and your friends and allows you to give a more lavish gift. Another way to ease the financial burden is to complete a set of dishes or glasses. That way the newlywed couple will be able to entertain more friends in their preferred style.

No one can determine how much money you should spend, but general guidelines allow for more money to be spent on weddings of your closest relatives and friends. RetailMeNot revealed that $140 USD is the average amount spent on a wedding gift. Certainly, your personal finances should dictate whether more or less is appropriate for you.

Sending the gift sooner, rather than later makes good sense. And, try to avoid bringing the gift to the wedding. The happy couple won’t thank you for weighing down their already stuffed honeymoon suitcase!

Written by Lauren Lemke, Wedding Coordinator at Amy Abbott Events.

You can email Lauren at lauren@amyabbottevents.com