But who could recieve wedding party gifts? Our list will help you see who it is traditional to buy for and who else you may want to include. After all, your wedding needs to fit you as a couple and that means your personal preferences as well as your budget!
Traditional wedding party gift recipients
Traditionally the bride and groom buy gifts for the:• Mother of the Bride
• Father of the Bride
• Maid of Honour
• Best Man
• Bridesmaids
The reasoning behind these individuals or groups being prioritised for thank you gifts is due to the amount of personal effort, or financial generosity, that these parties would put into a traditional wedding.
We would suggest that if you have a slightly smaller budget for your wedding that you stick to these five in order to keep down costs. However, if you have a larger budget, or would rather spend a little on everyone to say thank you, then the below wedding party members can also be included in the gift-giving.
Additional wedding party gift recipients
In slightly more modern times the amount of wedding party members the bride and groom buys for has increased. In addition to the traditional, couples have also started to buy for the:• Mother of the Groom
• Father of the Groom
• Ushers
• Groomsmen
• Pageboys
• Flower Girls
• Matron of Honour
One of the reasons that buying gifts for these wedding party members has become more popular is due to the slowly changing tradition of who you have in your wedding party. For instance, a few decades ago it was traditional in the UK for the groom to only have a best man but no official groomsmen.
However, in more recent years it has not been uncommon for the groom to have an equal amount of groomsmen to bridesmaids and for his side of the wedding party to be actively involved in planning the wedding.
Why do you need to buy wedding party gifts?
We’ll be honest you don’t need to buy wedding party gifts. They fall under a slightly different category to the dress, wedding bands and food, however, it’s a lovely opportunity for you to show the people who have helped you that you appreciate their efforts.The fiscal value of your wedding party gifts should not matter, and will depend entirely on your wedding budget, yet one thing that is universal when it comes to wedding party gifts is that ones with a personal touch will always be cherished.
Still a little confused or dubious? We’ve broken it down by recipient:
Mother of the Bride
The mother of the bride traditionally has a large role to play when it comes to helping plan your wedding. The responsibilities that this lady takes on go from helping the bride pick her dress, to helping create the guest list, all the way to collecting up the presents at the end of the wedding while the newlyweds jet off on their honeymoon.The traditional mother of the bride role includes a variety of responsibilities above and beyond these and if you’re still looking for what is appropriate to ask this lady to do then we recommend checking out the Wedding Planner’s blog post about the responsibilities of the wedding party.
You may not have asked the mother of the bride to complete all of these tasks, or you may have asked her to do more than that – we know there are some of you out there that will have delegated quite a lot!
Either way, most couples getting married will buy a wedding party gift for the mother of the bride to say thank you for all the work she has put in.
As we said the price of this gift depends entirely on your own budget but we would recommend these two as mother of the bride gift inspiration:
Father of the Bride
The father of the bride traditionally pays for the wedding but this custom is quite old and some may say outdated – we’re remaining on the fence in this debate!However, the father of the bride also has a range of other duties that include helping with the guest list, escorting the bride down the aisle and that all intimidating second dance.
Your father of the bride may do more than this, or he may stick to a rather stereotypical male role and keep his nose out of things until he is called upon, yet he is still one of the main members of the wedding party and undoubtedly someone you will want to thank for his time and effort.
For father of the bride gifts we would recommend:
Maid of Honour
The maid of honour is the bride’s right-hand woman. Other than the groom, this member of the wedding party will probably be relied on most by the bride, both for practical advice and help, as well as rounding up the bridesmaids and being an emotional rock.The maid of honour has duties such as helping the bride to pick the wedding and bridesmaids’ dresses, organising the ‘hen do’, helping the bride get ready on the day and checking every bridesmaid’s attire before they walk down the aisle.
Also, the maid of honour, along with the mother of the bride and the groom, often helps arrange the seating plan for the wedding. If you’ve not quite reached this stage of your planning yet then we would recommend taking a look at Bespoke Bride’s blog that has 17 tips to help seat your guests.
As you can tell, the maid of honour has an awful lot of responsibility when it comes to your wedding and will be one of the main members in your wedding party.
For a wedding party gift fit for the maid of honour would suggest these:
Best Man
The best man is the groom’s right-hand man and may have more responsibilities than you originally think.It traditionally falls to the best man to organise the ’stag do’, however, on top of this the best man is also involved in choosing the groom’s and groomsmen’s attire, helping organise seating and parking arrangements at the venue, making sure the ushers have the order of service sheets and button holes as well as a variety of other duties.
You may ask the best man to do all of these tasks, or you may just leave him to plan the stag do and make sure the groom is at the wedding, but either way he’s one of the main members of the wedding party. To say thank you to the best man for his efforts we would recommend these gifts:
Bridesmaids
These lovely ladies, however many you have, may not have quite as many responsibilities as the maid of honour but will still have an important part to play in your wedding.Bridesmaids often act as the bride’s errand girls and, in addition to turning up to all dress shopping and fittings on time, they could be relied on for things like picking up the bridesmaids’ dresses, the shoes, the flowers and even helping to make wedding favours and decorate the venue.
These ladies will be left, right and centre for you so it will be important to thank them for all their efforts. The wedding party gifts we would recommend for your bridesmaids are:
Additional wedding party members
The mother of the groom may be just as helpful as the mother of the bride in helping you plan your wedding.If she is then we’d suggest getting her a thank you gift that is of similar value to the mother of the bride’s gift, especially as you’re all family now. To browse for ideas have a look at our Mother of the bride and groom gifts.
The father of the groom may also take on more duties than you originally expected, such as helping to plan the rehearsal dinner.
If you want to buy him a gift to say thank you for his efforts then we would suggest you take a look at our Father of the bride and groom gift section as there are a lot of ideal gifts that can be personalised as mementos of the day.
Your ushers and groomsmen could also be a lot more helpful than stereotypical wedding stories would suggest. They could end up doing an equal amount of running around fetching ‘this’ and confirming ‘that’ as your bridesmaids.
To say thank you for their help we would recommend taking a look at our Usher and Best Man gift sections as there are some really fun gifts they would love. One of our favourites are the wedding party cufflinks in the picture below.
Who could forget the children? If you do decide to have flower girls and pageboys then they won’t have a great deal to do in the planning of the wedding, but it may be a big deal for them to be walking down the aisle with all eyes on them.
If you want some great gifts that will serve as a keepsake of the day then we would recommend you have a look at our Pageboy and Flower Girl gift sections for inspiration.
And last, but by no means least, your Matron of Honour who will probably do almost the same amount of work as your bridesmaids, especially as she traditionally keeps an eye on any child attendants!
For great Matron of Honour gifts we'd recommend you check out our bridesmaids gifts as almost all of them can be personalised for your matron of honour to let her know how much you appreciate her help on your big day.