Budget-friendly wedding gifts
If you’re attending multiple weddings this summer, you may have a money problem. With so many postponed events over the past year, you may have multiple events to attend, some involving plane tickets and hotel rooms. And, of course, wedding gifts for newlyweds.
It all adds up, and while you probably want to gift your loved ones something really wonderful, you don’t want it to jeopardize your ability to pay your mortgage or electric bill.
But fear not. We’ve got some ideas for you — all priced at less than $100.
Map
A map doesn’t sound like much of a gift, especially if we’re talking something you fold and stow in the glove compartment.
But this is not an ordinary map. Kendall Valerio, owner of Sadie & June, based out of Ottawa, Ontario, has a clever and cute idea for a gift, perfect for newlyweds, especially if you feel confident that this match is one for the ages.
“We hand-embroider vintage map prints with hearts. For where you live, where you met your love, where you can’t wait to travel to again. Just like the red heart, your story gets stitched into your unique piece,” Valerio says.
Prices vary, but it’s very easy to find maps on the website for well under $100.
Canvas print
If you have a really striking picture of the couple, have it enlarged and printed on canvas. CanvasPrints.com offers a lot of options for well under $100. Just upload the photo to the site to have it printed on cotton blended canvas. Soon you’ll have a nice, personal wedding gift, without leaving your house.
Scratch-off map
This will make a fantastic and unique gift if your newlyweds love to travel. The website Waypoint Wanders offers scratch-off maps, mostly priced in the neighborhood of $30. Among other things, you can give the couple a map of the United States, a map of the country’s national parks or a map of the world.
It’s a really simple but ingenious concept. As the couple travels to the places on the map, they get to scratch the location off, eventually revealing a really beautiful map.
Gift card
You might be thinking this doesn’t sound too personal, but it depends on the gift card. A generic gift card, like a Visa or an Amazon gift card, might be quickly forgotten by a newly married couple. But couples might remember some gift cards fondly, even years later.
“Couples today are very practical,” says Denise Buzy-Pucheu, owner of The Persnickety Bride in Newtown, Connecticut.
Also, if you’ve put off buying a wedding present, you may not have the time to look for anything else.
If you’re thinking about getting a gift card, Buzy-Pucheu suggests perhaps one of the following gift cards:
— Airbnb.com.
— TJ Maxx.
An experience
The Date Night Bucket List, sold at Uncommon Goods for $20, is a unique little gift. It’s like a lot of dates in a can.
Here’s how it works: The couple opens the can, and inside are little sticks made of birch wood. On the sticks are date suggestions, like pack blankets and pillows and go stargazing someplace secluded or attend a lecture at a local museum or university.
After the couple goes on the outing, they are supposed to record the calendar date they did the activity on the back of the stick. So your gift is basically a toolbox for creating a lot of wonderful memories. When the couple celebrates an anniversary, say, 30 or 50 years from now, you can take some of the credit.
Cookbook
Who doesn’t love the gift of food?
That said, a restaurant gift card or a meal plan subscription service can be expensive.
As an alternative, consider giving newlyweds a book about food, like “Date Night In: More than 120 Recipes to Nourish Your Relationship” by Ashley Rodriguez.
The book is $15.99 on Amazon and full of recipes that should spice up any couple’s evening.
Appliance
Buzy-Pucheu suggests giving a newlywed couple “any small, sturdy appliance from Cusinart. They are rugged, they last and they are built for families.” She adds: “Any Cusinart blender, juicer or chopper under $100 would be awesome.”
Entertainment
Give the newlyweds the gift of entertainment.
“The first year after marriage should be all about the newlyweds settling into their new life together, and a subscription service will do just that,” says Martin Thornburg, a bridal designer who designs dresses for Mon Cheri Bridals, based in Ewing, New Jersey. He says that a one-year subscription to a video streaming service like Netflix, Hulu or Disney+ will give the couple “unlimited date night movie options.”
And depending on the service, this gift should come to around or under $100.
The wedding invitation, framed
Help the couple commemorate their big day. “A sentimental and inexpensive gift is taking the wedding invitation you were sent in the mail and framing it. Framing the invitation is a meaningful gift. The couple can hang it on the wall and have a way to look back on their big day all the time,” Thornburg says.
The only possible downside, of course, is that this has become a fairly popular idea in recent years. If other wedding guests think to do the same thing, and suddenly the couple receives several sentimental framed wedding invitations, you might feel a little sheepish.
Casting kit
Give the couple a hand — or two hands.
We aren’t talking about clapping for the newlyweds. Consider gifting a hand hold casting kit.
Available on Amazon.com for $68.99, this kit allows a couple to create a mold of their hands clasping. So by the end of this project, the couple has had some fun making a statue of their hands clasping. It’s a gift that symbolizes their love and togetherness.
A little sappy, maybe, but very memorable.
Cheese board set
This is the sort of gift couples often ask for on a registry, so it’s a pretty safe gift. But sometimes safe works really well.
This cheese board and knife set is listed on Amazon for $32.88. And maybe the next time the couple has company, you’ll be among the guests.
Movie marquee photo print
Uncommon Goods has a really fun item that would work well as a wedding gift: a personalized movie marquee photo print. It’s a photo of a cinema marquee, and it looks as if it’s playing a movie called “When (Name of Person) Met (Name of Person).” (A riff off of the classic 1989 movie, “When Harry Met Sally.”)
Or you can go with a different movie title like, “A Love Story.”
You can also add bits of information about the “movie,” like, “Starring (the names of your couple)” and “playing since (the date they met or married).”
Unframed, the photo print is $85, and in a black frame it’s $125, so you’ll have to think a little about this one if you were hoping to keep it under $100.
12 affordable wedding gifts:
— Map.
— Canvas print.
— Scratch-off map.
— Gift card.
— An experience.
— Cookbook.
— Appliance.
— Entertainment.
— The wedding invitation, framed.
— Casting kit.
— Cheese board set.
— Movie marquee print.
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Affordable Wedding Gift Ideas originally appeared on usnews.com
