There are some weddings that specifically request guests not to bring any gifts right on the invitation itself, and they may even ask you to donate to charity instead, but for every other standard wedding, you most definitely need one, even when the couple insists against it. However, choosing a wedding gift is tricky if you want to spend your money on something that the newlyweds can actually find useful. To solve this eternal predicament, here are five tips that will help you choose the perfect gift.
Find the Wedding Registry
Let’s get the obvious out of the way first because if this one applies to the wedding that you are invited to, half the job is already done. Find a wedding registry online and simply search with any of the partner’s names to see if they have specified which gifts they would prefer on a wedding list. Gift registries are perfect for guests to find something useful within their specific budgets, without the couple ending up with duplicate gifts.
The Gift Should Preferably Have Meaning to both Partners
As you are going to a wedding, it’s meant to be a special day for both partners, so gifting anything that’s meant to be for just the bride or the groom is a bad idea, even if you were invited by just one of the two. On the other hand, you can just buy two separate gifts for the bride and the groom but that could get expensive.
Cash Always Works
If there isn’t a wedding registry that you can find and you do not know the couple well enough to find a gift within the budget that will appeal to both of them, there is no better alternative than cash. Even small weddings can be quite expensive, so couples will always appreciate cash and therefore it is by far the safest gift option.
Budgeting While Attending Multiple Occasions
If you are invited to the engagement party, the bridal shower and the wedding, you can either divide your total budget to bring three gifts for all the three occasions, or you can choose to bring just one gift for the wedding and spend the whole budget on that. In case you decide on dividing the budget into three parts, keep at least 60% of the total budget reserved for the wedding gift.
How Close are You to the People Getting Married?
It is important for the gift to be budgeted according to the guest’s proximity to the partner who invited him/her. The closer you are to the partner, the better the gift needs to be and if you know both of them, it is going to cost you a good bit for sure!
Gifts are a formality and doing the best that you can without straining your budget too much is perfectly alright. The only thing to keep in mind is that if the couple has set up a wedding registry, find something in your budget that would actually prove to be useful to them.