How much to spend on wedding presents?

blush2783_2

Hi all my brother in law is getting married for the first time to a lovely lady who has been married before so they are getting married abroad and haveing a party when they return to celebrate. My husband and I and our two kids will be going.

We havent been to a wedding for a very long time and want to know how much money we ought to spend on a gift? They want vouchers as they are already living together. They have lots of money but at the moment we live month by month from my husbands wages as I am currently unemployed.

I dont want to seem like we are cheapskates but dont want to be spending money that we will have to put on the credit card uneccessarily.

How much do you think would be an acceptable gift from the four of us?

McKneff

Have you asked your OH how much he thinks yu should give as a family. He is his brother after all.

If my sister was getting married, I wuld be thinking about £100.
(although myu OH would probably want to halve this lol)

Be careful about buying gift tokens on a cc, I believe it would be classed as a cash withdrawal so you could be charged a fee and interest from day one.

emweaver

Gift vouchers arent classed as cash when bought on a cc have done this myself in the past.

I personally think £100 is too much unless you can afford it.

apesxx

Personally, I think that you should give what ever you are able to afford. Dont go giving them £100 if realistically you can only afford £50. If they are decent people then they will be glad that you have helped them celebrate their special day and won't care how much the gift cost.

go_cat

As above , give them only what you can afford, there is no point spending the next year regreting being so generous, they will be aware you are unemployed and so money will be tight so probably don't expect a lot anyway.

just because they have asked for vouchers does not mean that is what you have to give them

skateykatey

I'm getting married in January and it's precisely for this reason that we have asked for personal donations to the charities of our chosing.

I would hate the thought that one of our friends or family were agonising over how much to give us as a present particulary if they were a bit strapped for cash.

This way, they can give as little or as much as they want and we won't be any the wiser.

That aside, in your situation, I would say that 50GBP is more than enough and I certainly wouldn't see it as being stingy.

lilymay1

skateykatey wrote: »

I'm getting married in January and it's precisely for this reason that we have asked for personal donations to the charities of our chosing.

I would hate the thought that one of our friends or family were agonising over how much to give us as a present particulary if they were a bit strapped for cash.

This way, they can give as little or as much as they want and we won't be any the wiser.

That aside, in your situation, I would say that 50GBP is more than enough and I certainly wouldn't see it as being stingy.

We asked for donations to SANDS in place of any wedding gifts. That charity meant more to us than any amount of money for ourselves.

OP. I would be so angry if any of my family had got them selves into more debt just to give us a wedding present. Is there anything you can do for them instead? Making a gift maybe? One elderly guest at our wedding made us a little 'herb garden in a pot' which can't have cost more than £5 but so much effort had gone into it. I know this sort of thing isn't for everyone but if the newlyweds have money anyway give them something they can't buy!

alwaysonthego_2

When I got married I knew my sister couldn't afford a gift so I told her not to bother, I would rather have her presence than her presents.

meritaten

I would say - dont buy them vouchers. Instead for a gift which you can afford which will be 'Personal' to the happy couple.
I like the herb garden Idea above - you could buy a nice pot and plant it up for them.
Or look for a nice photo frame which you could have personalised with their names and the date of the wedding in which they can display their favourite photo.

jackyann

definitely give something personal. We travelled a long way to a wedding, so said there would be no major gift, just the following:
A love poem, written out by me (calligraphy) & framed by DH
a batch of biscuits made by the children, packed in a pretty box with the recipe written out & decorated by them.

As I used to offer a calligraphy service (donations to charity) I have on a few occasions written out favourite family recipes or quotations as a small personal wedding gift.

[Deleted User]

How about a lovely bottle of sparkling wine (look out for special pre-christmas offers), a box of special chocolates and a beautiful candle for a lovely romantic evening in. Won't cost a fortune but I bet they'll love it