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Wedding gifts?
I'll preface this by saying I hope everyone is doing well, I know I haven't been posting a lot lately! Besides being away in Hawaii for a destination wedding, I've been trying to spend more time being productive, and that means less time surfing the internet. It was a little strange at first, but honestly it's been kind of refreshing to be less "plugged in" than I was before =]
Anyways, I have a little conundrum and I'm not quite sure what to do, and since you ladies are all pretty much experts by now on wedding stuff I figured I'd ask you! It involves a wedding gift for one of my BMs, who got married in Hawaii at the destination wedding I mentioned earlier.
Now that the wedding is over, the bride is having a "reception" at the end of the month that we are going to.
We have a tight knit group of 5 girls (including myself and this bride). One of our friends commented that she isn't really getting her anything, just a small gift off etsy - something like a map of Hawaii and their wedding date? Either way, the implication was it was purposely pretty inexpensive and more of a thoughtful/homemade type gifts. One of our other friends commented that she's just giving her a card - no gift, no money.
I'm at a loss of what to do, mainly because this particular bride gave me a VERY generous wedding check when I got married. Like, $400 generous. My other 2 friends' reasoning does make sense in that we all (willingly) did travel 4,5000 miles to Hawaii for her wedding & paid the costs that come along with such a vacation, so their presence was their "gift" for the most part. As an aside, I also did most of the planning and a fair amount of the financing of the bride's shower/bachelorette parties.
So - is it okay in the destination wedding scenario to not give a gift at all, or something that isn't quite as pricey as a "traditional" wedding gift? I mean I know technically I don't HAVE to give a wedding gift ever, but you know what I mean...
Re: Wedding gifts?
Welcome back! Was Hawaii absolutely amazing? I'm excited to hear about it
Anyways, about your question. I feel that in this situation is it OK to not give a 'traditional' wedding gift since you did so much for the actual ceremony and pre-wedding parties. I would still get something but not anything too expensive. Could you maybe get some pictures from the Hawaii trip printed and nicely framed for the couple? That way it is still a thoughtful gift without costing you too much after everything you've already paid for.
I think its fine to go with thoughtful inexpensive. I would get her something...just a card for a really good friend, although I think it would be ok...just doesn't feel right to me. I might try and give her something homemade, or something meaningful but relatively inexpensive.
I told my bridal party not to get us gifts because we were making them travel (although we DID pay for their accommodation and food), but most still got us something in the $20-$40 range.
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I agree with the other ladies. I'd get some type of gift, but not an expensive one.
I like the idea of framing a nice photo from Hawaii for them. Or, if you have time and enough pictures, you could create a photo book.
After all you spent to go to Hawaii, I really don't think you're obligated to spend a whole lot of money on their at home reception. I'd stick with something under $50.
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That was exactly my feeling! I felt kind of weird after she said that's all she was doing.
Thanks for the advice ladies, I was planning on doing something small like a picture frame or along those lines, but still something a lot less than what we'd usually do. Might have to peruse etsy for something cute =]
Hawaii was completely amazing! We were on Oahu for 10 days with my 4 best friends & their significant others so we had a lot of fun. We did a lot of sightseeing on the island but still had a fair amount of time just relaxing at the beach. The wedding was beautiful & everything went off without a hitch. It's one of those trips where it was planned so far in advance it felt like it would never get here, and then it came and went in the blink of an eye! This week is my first full week back at work, so that's kind of depressing, haha. Anyways, I posted a bunch of photos on the 'ol FB if you wanted to look at them!