What Makes the Perfect Wedding Gift? – A Complete Guide

Looking for the perfect wedding gift? We’ve gathered everything you need to know to help you pick the best wedding gift for that special couple. 

Weddings are occasions for celebration, reflection, and love! So whether you’re giving a memorable gift experience or a thoughtful gift, this article will surely help you out.

To make your search easier, our guide is categorized into:

Experiences Make the Best Gifts

Harvard marketing professor, Michael Norton, and Elizabeth Dunn, professor of psychology at Vancouver, take the idea of gifting well very seriously. Their book, Happy Money: The New Science of Smarter Spending, posits five steps to spend money in ways that will make you happy:

• Buy experiences instead of material things: Experiences, such as trips, concerts, or special meals, tend to bring more lasting happiness than material possessions. This is because experiences often become a part of our identity, create cherished memories, and can be shared with others, enhancing social connections. In contrast, the joy from material things tends to diminish quickly as people adapt to them (a phenomenon known as the “hedonic treadmill”).
• Make it a treat: Limiting indulgences to occasional treats can increase their impact on happiness. When something is rare, it tends to be more special and appreciated. 
• Buy time: Spending money on services or products that save you time can enhance your well-being. For instance, hiring a cleaner, using a grocery delivery service, or paying for lawn care can free up your time for enjoyable or meaningful activities, thereby increasing overall life satisfaction.
• Pay now, consume later: Delaying gratification can heighten the enjoyment of a purchase. By paying for something in advance and consuming it later, you can build anticipation and enjoy the experience without the immediate financial burden. This approach also helps reduce impulse buying and promotes more thoughtful spending decisions.
• Invest in others: Spending money on others, whether through gifts, charity, or shared experiences, can boost your happiness. Acts of generosity foster social connections and create positive feelings. Research has shown that people often derive more joy from giving to others than from spending money on themselves.

Set them on the path towards happiness instead and give them an experience for their wedding gift.

Provide the Newlyweds with Everlasting Memories

Why do people connect with experience gifts so much more? Because experiences provide lasting memories. Research in Happy Money shows that people value good memories immensely, and will go to extreme lengths to protect them.

Nostalgia born from these good memories is today seen as a kind of existential resource. As Clay Routledge writes in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, thanks to nostalgia the past can make the present meaningful: if someone feels a sense of meaninglessness, fond memories act as a shield against diminished well-being, increasing vitality and reducing stress.

Of course, it doesn’t require reams of research to understand that good memories are worth having. It’s readily apparent to everyone.

And what better time to embark on creating the best memories than at the beginning of a new life for the newlyweds? The first wonderful memories from the couple’s marriage will be something they cherish for evermore. That has to be the greatest gift imaginable.

Traditional Wedding Gifts Are Outdated

Wedding gift lists began during a period where couples did not usually live together before marriage. The traditional idea of the gift list was that it would provide the newlyweds with what they would need for their new marital home.

Since then, times have changed. A University of Southampton study shows that, in just the last thirty years, the number of people in the UK cohabiting before marriage has risen from 31% to 80%. Couples nowadays live together and furnish their homes before marriage, hence the traditional wedding list becoming outdated.

Back when it was more common for couples to move in only after their wedding, they genuinely needed a toaster. Since this is no longer the case, in recent years wedding lists have changed and evolved. There is more demand for the interesting and the unique.

Step Forward the Minimoon

Some of the newer approaches to wedding lists have included house registry, to help fund a new home, charity registry, donating to worthwhile causes, and universal registry, allowing registrants to place items from a number of different sources on a single list.

Couples have also sought to use wedding gifts as a contribution towards their honeymoon. One of the results of this has been the rise of the ‘minimoon’ – a short break that provides grand experiences.

Instead of one long and overblown trip, the minimoon is a recce on different areas, taking the form of a short, romantic and immersive break. The minimoon coincides with the modern urge to seek to experience different parts of the world  Indeed, some newlyweds have indulged in a series of minimoons over the first year or two of their marriage.

So if you’d like to blow the minds of the special couple, with a gift more valuable, emotionally at least, than an entire kitchen, the minimoon awaits.

Conclusion

A wedding is a celebration of love and commitment! What else can complete the celebration aside from a  wedding gift?

For those seeking gift ideas, we recommend offering unforgettable gift experiences that will be cherished for a lifetime. Alternatively, try exploring Amazon for a wide range of gift options and price comparisons.