An update on wedding gift spending

Back in 2010, we posted about the average value of gifts received by couples using our wedding list service.  Since then, we’ve had over 5000 new couples sign up, and more than 120,000 gifts reserved on the site, so we thought it might be time to take another look.

Our original article was in response to some research that showed wedding guests were spending less on wedding gifts in 2010 than they had been spending in 2008.  To try to make a fair comparison, we checked our database specifically for gifts valued in British Pounds, that we knew to have been paid online — we excluded cash gifts altogether, because we couldn’t be certain which gifts had been paid for, and which were just tests that hadn’t been deleted from a couple’s Gift History.

We found that the average gift value in 2008 was £43.13, which rose in 2009 to £45.27. By the end of June, the average for 2010 was £47.17 — all of these were way over the national average, and ran counter to the downward trend indicated elsewhere.

By the end of 2010, the average gift value was actually £48.35. In 2011, this grew again to £49.36 — and so far, 2012 shows an average gift value of £52.78. Guests using lists on buy-our-honeymoon.com are even more generous now than they were before!

We’re very pleased to note that couples using our gift list service for weddings in 2011 received, on average, £1586 in gifts.  And one of our couples who married in March this year received honeymoon gifts totalling a phenomenal £15,090 in value!

We believe this proves you can make your honeymoon gift list as romantic and engaging for your guests as it is for you.  Here’s some thoughts on the advantages setting up a honeymoon registry can have over simply asking for cash. And if you have any queries about setting up your list, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us — we’re more than happy to help.