How much cash is reasonable to give as wedding gift?

onlyroz

I give £50 to close relatives and £30-£40 to friends.

busiscoming2

Personally if I have had to pay a lot of money to attend the wedding, I don't give a gift. It would be slightly different if it was a VERY close family member.

For some people all the expense takes a chunk of their money.

Pollycat

I think asking for US dollars as a gift is not very nice.

It means (assuming that you haven't been to America recently) that you (the giver of the gift) has to pay additional costs to change the money from sterling (or euros for their friends in Ireland) into dollars.

There's often a minimum amount you can order or a mimimum commission charge which will either devalue the gift or cost the giver even more money than they would normally give.

It seems a very poorly thought-out idea and it would have been far better for them to ask for cash and then change all the gift money into US dollars themselves.

If I was the OP, I would give whatever she thinks is appropriate in sterling.

surfboard2

Not a fan of cash gifts. But, i agree with those that said $50 (if you can.)

But, i'm sure any amount will be appreciated!

piglet74

I am Irish, and live in Ireland,

I have never got a wedding invite with an amount of ££ on it that i was exepected to give,

i will say though, that in general, gifts tend to be very good and very generous.

washing machines, tumble dries, £100 from guests (couples) and maybe £200+ from family members.

i got married in USA, and one family member give me $200 (totally unexpected might i add, it was the first gift we got)

as we were living together for a life time before we married, most of our gifts were money, but we never asked for anything at all,

ps, in answer to your question, i would not have bat an eyelid at getting $30, i would have been delighted that you travelled so far, (in your condition also!) to join us, but i can say some people, possibly even some brides and grooms, (and i dont know if this is because of the expectation or bar thats been set for cash gifts) some, will think this is tight or whatever.

give what you can afford, if it was me (again, being Irish and knowing whats expected) i would give $100

bluestarlight

claire16c wrote: »

Wow after reading those posts glad I don't live in Ireland!

Im glad I dont have the same friends as GracieP. I've never experienced people asking for £100s for their wedding. Dont tar us all with the same brush.

shortstop

I think you should just give whatever you can afford, after all you've travelled over and got hotels etc.

I got married last year and insisted to everybody who got an invite that we did not want presents (only about 40 guests who were very close friends or family) we basically said we've been together 10 years and got everything we need so your presence is your present!

We had a small registry office wedding and had a nice meal at a local pub and a few drinks after, simple and not that expensive.

I was absolutely gobsmacked when we started opening cards and found money in them,then more so when we went to pay the bill the next morning and found that my mum had paid for everyones meals and our room as our wedding gift.

It's the thought that counts and attending that matters!

EricGeek

If you have not enough money, $30 is fine.

minerva_windsong

lisawood78 wrote: »

I think, whatever you can comfortably afford, and wish to give is the only answer to this one.

I agree with this - whatever you want and can afford to give. I've given gifts and cash to varying values/amounts for friends' and relatives' weddings depending on my financial situation. For example, we're going to a friend's wedding this weekend and are giving £40, which is slightly less than we would usually give but we're trying to save for going travelling in a couple of months. If we weren't saving then we would probably give a bit more, but it's entirely down to personal choice.

That said though if I was part of the couple getting married I would be happy with whatever people chose to give, even if that was just a card or a token gift, or even if they didn't get us anything but came to the wedding (as I know how expensive that can be for guests).

embob74

At SIL's recent wedding we gave them £25 which looking at PP's seems quite cheap! But we did spend about £500 on the costs of staying somewhere, travel, clothes and DD was a bridesmaid so we paid for shoes and dress.
We clubbed together with other family members so there was an envelope containing £100 from us all - perhaps you could do this?
As it turned out they had a post box for the cards and cash to go into so if you put cash into a separate envelope from the card they wouldn't need to know who it was from anyway.

I do find the thought of asking for money a bit tacky but it is becoming quite the norm as most couples live together and so have everything they need anyway. If OH ever marries me I'd prefer cash but would hate to ask for it!

Bear in mind that Americans have a different set of etiquette rules to the UK. It is normal for their bridesmaids and ushers to pay for their own attire so they might not be expecting guests to pay much as they will have already paid out to stay.