Most adults know how much to spend on birthday gifts or Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gifts. We have a feel for what is appropriate for baby gifts. But when it comes to wedding gifts, how much to spend may not be so easy to determine. We don’t want to spend so little that we look cheap, but we don’t want to spend more than we can afford just to compete with other guests.
Etiquette
With wedding gifts, how much to spend seems to be a question of etiquette. Few of us feel totally comfortable with the rules of etiquette. In other areas of life, society has moved away from such rules. Etiquette books no longer have a place on our bookshelves.
Happily, etiquette books, or at least those who read them, have a place on the Internet. By researching those sites, you can get a better idea of how much to spend on wedding gifts. You will want to remember these points.
1. Negative: Do NOT try to spend according to what your meal will cost. It is a common myth that etiquette’s “rule of thumb” is to estimate how much your meal might cost and spend that much on a gift. The current (2007) price range for a meal is thought to...