Several years ago, I wrote a your smart money moves blog about what is the right amount to give for a wedding gift. According to CNBC, the average cash gift for a wedding across the United States is $160 with the state of Vermont the highest at $240 and the state of Arkansas the lowest at $73.
Trends are changing this year in how couples plan for their wedding. Rather than starting with palette, couples are planning out wedding vision boards that capture their vibe and celebration instead. With the cost of flowers rising through the roof, balloons are being used as a replacement that is colorful, fun, festive, and most importantly less expensive. Let’s not forget that in the world of social media today, couples are looking for some of those Instagrammable moments including seating card displays and interesting drinks as their guests enter the reception.
Here are five wedding gift trends that you need to know for next wedding you attend:
- Charity is a hot trend – Many couples who are getting married later in life for the first time or are having a second wedding have many of the basic staples that people ask for when they get married young. Websites such as The Good Beginning allow couples to set up a direct account where guests can give their cash gift to a charity of the couples choice versus getting cash at the wedding.
- No More Macy’s – 20 years ago, couples would choose one or two places to register to give their guest an opportunity to send the couple a gift including coffee machines, flatware, and bedding. A new website Zola allows guests to gift their money into a central registry and the couple can choose from more than 50,000 gifts from many different vendors across the board.
- Send Us On Our Honeymoon – Some couples simply can’t afford to go on that fabulous honeymoon that they have dreamed about ever since she said “yes”. Honeyfund is a website where a couple can create a simple one-page storyboard about their dream honeymoon and why it would mean so much on their special day. You can give your gift of cash to the honeymoon fund instead of buying a gift or giving cash at the wedding.
- Start Our Stock Portfolio – There is a lot of spending when it comes to pulling off an amazing wedding day. Rather than buy some gift off of a registry or handing over a card filled with a check, consider the idea of starting the couple with a stock portfolio. It’s really easy today by going to Give A Share where you can literally buy up to one share of stock for the newlywed couple and get them started on their future financial goals.
- Start A Newlywed Fund – One of the more famous websites around wedding planning is The Knot. Recently, they started something called The Newlywed Fund which is a like funding a universal debit card so the bride and groom can use their wedding funds to purchase anything from camping gear, to a couples massage, or even get a house cleaner to get their new home neat and tidy. These kinds of universal wedding funds make it much easier to plan your gift in advance of the big day and give the couple lots of flexibility on how to use their money for the future.
If you want to set up a time to discuss your retirement plan, please go to oXYGen Financial to set up an appointment.
