Wedding gifts these days

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johno1234

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#324018 17-Feb-2026 09:24

Have a nephew's wedding coming up. Back in my day wedding gifts were often for setting up house - flatware, dinner sets, small appliances etc. But the groom and his fiancee have bought a house and been living in it for a couple of years so are pretty much setup. This seems quite common these days and there seems to be a trend to money as a wedding gift.

What are you giving or receiving as wedding gifts these days?

wellygary

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#3462109 17-Feb-2026 09:35

Usually the couple will make it clear what they would prefer, but it sounds like the typical house gifts are covered, the next one is usually travel funds donations,

But if in doubt ask...

Cash/money is not really really frowned upon any more..

johno1234

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#3462110 17-Feb-2026 09:36

wellygary:

Usually the couple will make it clear what they would prefer, but it sounds like the typical house gifts are covered, the next one is usually travel funds donations,

But if in doubt ask...

Cash/money is not really really frowned upon any more..

Oh, and there's no gift register noted on the invitation...

Eva888

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#3462130 17-Feb-2026 10:04

Bunnings or Mitre 10 gift card so you know that the money will be spent on the house and garden.

invisibleman18

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#3462156 17-Feb-2026 11:04

In my parents day they didn't live together before marriage and didn't get a house together until after so didn't have any house stuff so they got a lot of that kind of thing - in fact I still have a couple of pieces of their first furniture (they got married in 1980) which was used when setting up my first flat away from home. It's normal these days for the couple to be living together and have a house set up first. Even if renting, they usually still need to have their own furniture and appliances.

When we got married 5 years ago we already had a house setup and just stated no presents were expected on the invite - most people still chose to put some cash in a card which was lovely. Couple of people did ask and we just said we didn't need anything for the house and presents weren't necessary. Someone did give us a couple of sets of nice glasses which are still in a cupboard and have never been taken out of the boxes as we already had plenty and had no room for them.

Couple of other weddings we've been to we've just given some cash too - again, they already had houses established.

If in doubt I'd ask if there's anything they particularly need for the house, otherwise money would be appreciated.

MikeAqua

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#3462176 17-Feb-2026 11:42

Pressy card or cash

Mike

SpartanVXL

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#3462208 17-Feb-2026 13:01

If theres no register and they are millennial or younger then get them $x (whatever value you want) cash with the wedding card.

Unless you know them very well and/or they make clear they’re after something specifically they will buy from somewhere, don’t get them anything like prezzy cards or gift cards from places. They can expire in 1yr and it’s another thing they will need to keep track of, it’s not worth the pain of managing multiple gift cards and maybe losing $100+ per card if they forget or can’t spend all at one place.

Cash is used anywhere, anytime, deposited at the bank for bills/mortgage/interest etc. a lot more flexible.

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richms

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#3462221 17-Feb-2026 13:24

Cash unless you think they might end up with too much to be able to use, in which case a bank transfer to them and just a card.

Richard rich.ms

Tinkerisk

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#3462291 17-Feb-2026 17:47

One must plan ahead when giving gifts. The contact address of a good divorce lawyer would probably be a good choice in 42% of cases, although it likely wouldn't be well received initially. 😁

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Wheelbarrow01

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#3462387 17-Feb-2026 22:04

When we got married 5 years ago, our invitations stated that gifts/cash were not required nor expected because we appreciated people needed to travel from all over NZ for our destination wedding. As it was late in 2020, a complete scuttling of the event remained a real possibility due to Covid, so spending time with all our guests over a long weekend was better than any gift after what had been a pretty shit year for everyone.

We did have a "wishing well" at the reception for those guests that insisted on giving us a card and/or cash donation towards our honeymoon. We've been to probably half a dozen weddings both before and after ours where wishing wells have been the norm.

Stu1

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#3463168 19-Feb-2026 19:24

I’m old fashioned we recently brought a gift from here for our nephew https://woodzone.co.nz/products/the-great-nz-cheese-board-with-paua