Guests Reveal What they Fork Out on Wedding Gifts

A new study has revealed how much guests should spend on wedding gifts – and anything below £25 makes you a cheapskate.

Brits have long-wondered what to fork out on pressies for the bride and groom and results reveal what’s deemed acceptable when forking out for friends and relatives.

Siblings receive the highest value gifts – at least £80 – while work colleagues are lucky to get anything above £20 for their nuptials.

Anne Marie-Jenkins, Managing Director of weddingshop.com, which commissioned the study of 2,000 people, said: 

“Shopping for a wedding present can be tricky, and knowing how much to spend requires careful consideration. The majority of guests want to spend enough money to look generous, but don’t always have the funds readily available.”

“When a couple asks for money instead of a gift it’s often perceived that this will be an easier option for guests struggling to decide what to buy, however this can make it even harder for guests as they’re then forced to divulge exactly how much they are spending.

“This is why we’ve seen the trend for honeymoon contributions experiencing a great surge of late.”

Nine in 10 people polled admitted they judge how much to spend on a ‘just marrieds’ by their relationship and love for those people, not necessarily their partner’s relationship to them.

Siblings, parents, grandchildren and best friends get the best deal in terms of wedding gifts while friends of the family, the neighbours and second cousins don’t fare so well.

Researchers discovered that while best friends will receive nearly the most, good friends also receive in excess of £40.

This is more than aunts, uncles, and cousins – all of whom get presents to the value of £38 or £39.

Those buying for parents who may be marrying for a second time, or getting wed a little later than the norm will treat them to gifts worth £73, while a partner’s parent will receive just under at £66.

Understandably, eight in 10 people polled admitted they will spend far more money on a wedding present for someone they see all the time, while 82 per cent judge how much they actually like someone before deciding how much money to part with.

When it comes to deciding what to spend on a wedding gift, there are a number of factors guests feel they have to consider – from how much the bride and groom are spending, to whether they are invited to the whole day.

More than half of folk say they would spend more if they were invited to the day time do as well as the evening do.

A third will dig a little deeper in their pockets if the wedding seems to have cost a lot, while 33 per cent will splash the cash if the nuptials seem particularly ‘posh’.

If the bride and groom are generous enough to pay for their guest’s food, drinks and accommodation, 65 per cent are likely to be spoiled with amazing wedding presents in return.

Just over half of wedding guests claim they feel obliged to spend more money on family members, regardless of how close they are and how often they see them.

And when considering what is acceptable to spend on a wedding gift, the average person reckons anything less than £24.70 is a complete insult.

But there is also a limit to what a happy couple should expect to receive – as most people believe the maximum spend for a wedding gift should be £111.46.

Anne-Marie continues: 

“At The Wedding Shop we regularly have couples feed back to us that they wish they’d included either higher value or lower value items on their lists, rather than playing it safe in the middle-ground.

“Couples struggle to know what might be appropriate to ask for in terms of value, so we always suggest as broad a selection as possible and offer the ability for a couple to add any product from any store, even if it’s not something we stock.

We hope this survey has uncovered a few of the myths surrounding how much people believe it’s right to spend.”

The survey found a resounding 74 per cent of adults much prefer the happy couple to give a clear indication of what they would like to receive as a gift.

AVERAGE WEDDING SPENDS:

Your sibling – £79.33
Grandchild – £79.29
Your parent – £73.14
Partner’s parent – £66.18
Best friend – £65.14
Your partner’s sibling – £64.01
Good friend – £40.14
An aunt – £39.11
An uncle – £38.99
Your cousin – £37.69
Your partner’s cousin – £33.55
Your partner’s friend – £30.67
Friend of the family – £27.20
Second cousins – £26.74
The boss – £24.95
Work colleague – £23.80
Your neighbour – £22.17

There are certainly some interesting results here. We’d love to know what you think – what’s the most you’d be willing to spend on a wedding present. What’s the most that you have spent?

How do you decide?