How much money should I give my best friend for their wedding gift? (2024)

If your best friend in the world is getting married, you might even feel like you’re walking down the aisle, too, what with all the preparations, time and energy poured into making sure it’s, truly, their best day ever.

As a best friend, you’ve likely played an instrumental role in your friend’s wedding journey. From scouting out potential venues and meeting with vendors to attending every wedding dress appointment and fitting and lending a listening ear during the entire planning process, you’ve contributed in immeasurable ways already. However, you still might wonder if your wedding card is complete without a cash or check tucked inside.

First and foremost, our best advice is to make a pact with your partner in crime so as not to go overboard with monetary amounts. Perhaps you’ve already gotten married, or you’re planning your own wedding at the moment, whatever the case may be, if you’re already going above and beyond to guarantee your ‘bestie’ has a wedding he or she will never forget, then you don’t need to feel pressured to shell out for their big event — you’re already showing lots of love and support.

Read More: What is the normal amount to give a wedding couple?

Take these tips to heart if you’re grappling with what to give as a gift:

Calculate a Reasonable Gift Amount. Take a close look at your financial situation and determine how much you can comfortably afford to contribute towards your friend’s wedding gift. Then assess your relationship. Your special bond deserves a meaningful gift, so factor in the closeness you share:

• Have you been friends since preschool?
• Did you meet in college?
• Have you gotten friendly at work, while dealing with deadlines and getting acclimated to your industry via various trials and errors?

While every situation is unique, don’t shy away from researching the average gift amounts in your area, it’ll give you a baseline, and then you can think about the expenses you’ve incurred already, from engagement party or bachelor/bachelorette planning and all the emotional support ‘duties’ you’ve had along the way.

Get Creative with Personalized Gestures. Since you and your bestie may have decided to focus on experiences rather than singular monetary gifts, consider personalizing your financial offering to make it more heartfelt and memorable. Create a memory box filled with mementos from your friendship and the wedding planning process the two of you have shared (along with their fiancé/fiancée. Or perhaps even plan a surprise date night for the soon-to-be newlyweds as they inch closer and closer to their big day and the stress intensifies. Whether that means preparing a home-cooked meal for them or booking a reservation at their favorite restaurant, your gift of a ‘night off’ from anything nuptials-related is worth its weight in gold.

Pitch a Bestie-Moon or Bucket List Adventure. Soulmate-level friendship means celebrating life’s biggest milestones together, right? So, consider having an open and honest conversation about a gift that will keep on giving long after the wedding day: a bestie-moon or a bucket list adventure that you’ve both dreamt about sharing as a duo. Agree on a budget that feels comfortable for both of you and then gift each other the same amount for your respective days. This way, you can put your funds toward a future experience, vacation or once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that both of you have ‘bought into,’ equally.

The sky’s the limit or no gift at all

As we’ve noted in countless posts before, there really are no hard and fast rules for what to give as a monetary wedding gift. You should do what feels right for your financial circ*mstances and degree of closeness, but if you want to treat your best friend to a thoughtful sum, $200 to $600 is a very significant present.

Alternatively, you might reason that since you and your best friend are essentially spending similar amounts on each other’s wedding celebrations (if/when that happens!), then you can forego a formal gift altogether. A sweet and well-articulated inscription in their wedding card dictates that your presence, love and authentic support, and excitement are the true treasures you bring to each other’s lives. Friendship is beyond material things, anyway...

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Danielle Halibey can be reached at [email protected]. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips.