What is the proper amount of money to spend on a wedding gift?
For a wedding today you should plan on spending a minimum for $50 -$75 or more depending on your relationship with the bride and groom. For sure you should not spend less than $35 unless you want to be considered a cheap skate.
And don’t be one of those people who don’t give a gift. If you go to the wedding buy a gift, or don’t go.
Now, I have a rule that I use for second marriages and weddings. I don’t like going to second weddings, because the second wedding may be the second of many weddings. And I already bought one of you a gift for the first wedding and I am not buying you another gift for the second, third or fourth wedding. Now people may argue that if it’s the bride’s first wedding, but the groom’s second wedding shouldn’t you buy a gift? Too, bad, if you are the bride, you already knew what you were getting with the groom already being married once. He’s not getting another gift from me. So I usually avoid these weddings because I don’t agree. Now if the spouse is deceased, then that’s another matter.
And if you go to the bridal registry, buy a place setting of dishes, or silverware. If there is a spatula for $10, buy a few more items closer to the $35-$50-$75 or more range.
Now recently, I had a wedding invite and the bride and groom boldly asked for money for a trip to Mexico and wanted people to pay with Paypal, I am not making this stuff up. I said are you kidding me? Why don’t I just give you my credit card and you spend whatever you want?
