How Much Should You Spend on a Wedding Gift?

If you're attending a wedding this summer, you've likely faced the common gift-giving conundrum: how much should you really give? While your personal relationship with the couple and your household budget should be your primary guides on how much to spend, Tendr, a site that makes it easy (and fun) for guests to give you cash gifts, compiled valuable information about monetary gift-giving trends. Overall, the national average is $120 — but when you dig a little deeper, you'll see that the numbers vary greatly based on the wedding location ($229 average in Connecticut, vs. $57 average in Utah), as well as the time of year.

Tendr's co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Beil explains, “We believe that the giving averages correlate to cultural traditions. In areas where you see high averages, like around New York City, you also see a lot of people who have a long tradition of giving cash. This includes South Asian, Chinese, Jewish, and Italian cultures. In other areas, cash, while appreciated as a gift, doesn’t have as strong a cultural tradition or is perhaps just catching on now."

As for why gifting varies with the wedding month? "The wedding season is long and expensive. The data is telling us that gift averages are higher earlier in the season, when everyone is feeling flush. By September, wedding guests might be feeling a little tapped-out. After that, it looks like they are turning their attention to the holidays," said Beil.

—Kristen Klein