How much money are you meant to gift at a wedding

So you’ve been invited to a wedding - hooray! Among a few decisions like ‘what am I going to wear?’, ‘who will feed the dog?’ and ‘how can I contain my excitement?’, you’ll also find yourself asking ‘how much money are you meant to gift at a wedding?’.

Great question.

Being a guest is a huge honour and as it usually goes, gifting is a way of saying thank you for including me in your celebrations and wishing you all the love for your future together.

The thing is, when it comes to gifting cash at a wedding, there are no hard and fast rules. Tradition aside, this is a personal and open ended concept. And the couple will understand this.

Generally speaking, covering your ‘seat’ at the wedding - think, the food and bev cost per head that the couple would have paid for you - is a good place to start. This contribution is always greatly appreciated as we all know that weddings often can be on the exxy side as far as parties go.

With the rise of alternatives to the ‘wishing well’ (typically a box at a wedding for cards filled with cash for a honeymoon fund), we suspect that the non-rules are changing again. Especially in a tech-savvy, pandemic world, couples are opting for digital registries over physical wells.

So, would we spend the same amount for each form of gift giving?

The simple answer is yes. But the even simpler answer is, give what you can afford. And don’t be afraid to take advantage of your talents.

Gravy is a meaningful gifting platform that allows guests to contribute in ways that do not involve money. Sound intriguing? That’s cos it is!

We all know money doesn’t grow on trees, and that quite often the time and skills of guests are more valuable than the amount of cash that the person could be gifting.

Think about it, how much would it cost to engage a team of painters to wash down and paint your house? How much would it cost to have an airport shuttle collect you door to door for your next vacay? Or what would you have to pay for someone to come to your home to feed and pat, said dog?

For those who have a philanthropic spirit or causes that are close to their heart, a donation to a charity could also go much further than the amount of cash in an envelope. Giving blood and plasma, saving a koala’s habitat, contributing to bush regeneration after fires or supporting health care workers, not only impacts the many lives they help but make the couple and guest feel equally as humbled.

So when that invite floats around your emails or glides into your post box, don’t be concerned when reading the ‘gift’ section. Get creative and get excited.