Thu, 26 May 2005
It pays to get married young. From my experience, wedding gifts tend to not
keep pace with inflation. My friends, Gina and
Kat, recently got married. Since they've been living together for a while,
they don't really need kitchenware and linens; so, instead, they asked for cash
to help pay for their honeymoon. I don't really like the idea of giving cash
as a gift. We wanted to give them a gift certificate that they could use while
on their honeymoon, which would show at least some thought went into the gift.
But we started a bit late in the search for an appropriate venue from which to
purchase a gift certificate, and didn't find anything that we were sure that
they would appreciate, so we ended up just giving them cash.
I think the standard wedding gift price is $100. To me, this amount is neither
too rich nor too poor. But this is the same amount that I've been giving since
1998 when my friends started getting married. (If you've received a wedding
gift valued at less than $100 from me, sorry, I might have been low on funds at
the time. Sometimes people don't design their gift registry to optimize the
gift value per gift-giver. I wouldn't want to give a $70 frying pan with three
washclothes, for example. When picking out items for a gift registry, one
should come up with appropriate bundles of items that come close to $100 in
value. That said, I've never set up a gift registry. I think it's more tacky
than asking for cash. The last time I went through a catalog listing things I
wanted someone to buy me was when I listed just about every toy on the market
for Christmas, 1984.)
My point was that, in terms of gifts received, you would have been better off
getting married in 1998 than in 2005. Unless, of course, you asked for
computer hardware or consumer electronics for your wedding, in which case a
dollar goes a lot further today. This observation isn't solely based on my
generosity (or cheapness) in gift giving. About a year after Denisa and I got
married, we had a reception in Slovakia so we could share the joy of our
matrimony with her family and friends; and so the Krizan (Denisa's maiden name)
family could get a return on the investments they made in the marriages of
various cousins. The investments turned out to not be very profitible in real
terms though. It seems SKK 5000 is the standard Slovak wedding gift from
family members. (This was about $100 when Denisa and I met, but due to the
falling dollar was closer to $200 when we got it.) But this is the same amount
as Denisa's parents gave the cousins 10 years earlier. Slovakia had double
digit inflation for a while which means 5000 Sk isn't nearly what it used to
be. While wedding gifts aren't being devalued quite as quickly in the US
(unless you're planning an international honeymoon), you're better off getting
married sooner rather than later.
What should those considering marriage and those considering attending a
marriage keep in mind for the future? If inflation stays low, there's not
likely to be a revaluation of the wedding gift anytime soon. A few people
might bump up their gifts to be $100 plus tax, but the next big gift amount is
probably not until $200. If inflation picks up, gifting might move up to this
level ahead of inflation. Those looking to get married would probably be
better off during a recessionary period though. It is unlikely that there is
much downside in the gift level so a fall in consumer prices would increase
their gift values in real terms. Alternatively, a stronger dollar may increase
the amount of linens from China that a dollar purchases (and prevent an
undergarment war).
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