# Survey Puts a Number on What Wedding Gifts Should Actually Cost in the UK

> YouGov polling reveals exactly how many pounds Britain thinks a wedding gift, and a wedding itself, should really cost, and reality is far pricier than public opinion allows.

**Type:** article · **Category:** Sexual Health · **Published:** 2026-09-05 · **Source:** TrendKia
**Canonical:** https://trendkia.com/en/sexual-health/sarve-men-khulasa-britain-men-shadi-ke-giphta-para-sahi-men-kitana-kharcha-hona-chahie-28340 · **Language:** English
**Tags:** wedding gift, YouGov survey, wedding budget, honeymoon fund, Britain, wedding spending

Wedding season comes with a hidden invoice that only becomes clear once the invitation lands. A guest who isn't part of the bridal party typically ends up spending around £272 attending a single wedding, once travel, outfits and gifts are added up. New polling from YouGov's Big Survey on Weddings goes a step further, putting an exact price on what Britain believes a gift alone should cost, and on what the couple themselves ought to be spending on their big day.

## How close you are to the couple decides the price
Anyone who counts themselves a close friend or relative of the bride and groom is expected to dig deeper than the average guest, the survey suggests. Most Britons reckon a wedding gift alone should cost somewhere between £76 and £100 for a core guest, separate from any spending on outfits or travel. Nearly a third of respondents, 30%, think even that range undersells it, and 9% believe a proper gift should cost more than £200. Household income clearly shapes how generous people feel they should be, guests from households earning over £70,000 a year are far more willing to spend £100 or more on a present, while only 22% of guests from households earning under £25,000 say the same. Being invited only to the evening reception, rather than the full day, comes with a considerably lighter price tag. For evening-only guests, the median 'acceptable' spend drops to somewhere between £26 and £50. Even that lower bracket isn't universally accepted, either, 32% of Britons think it's still on the generous side, and 24% would rather cap their spending at £25 regardless of how close they are to the couple.

## Why couples increasingly just ask for cash
Traditional homeware gifts are losing their appeal largely because fewer couples actually need them by the time they marry. More than nine in ten couples who married in 2021 or 2022 had already been living together before their wedding day, which means the toaster-and-cutlery-set era of gift-giving is fading fast, replaced by requests for cash. The honeymoon fund in particular has become the default ask, a trend that accelerated once the pandemic years passed. Lauren Enever of the gift-list platform Prezola has linked the surge to couples wanting to "make-up for lost time" after years of delayed plans. The numbers back her up, about 20% of gift lists built on Prezola are cash-only, while roughly half blend a traditional gift registry with requests for money. Of those cash gifts, 60% are earmarked specifically for a honeymoon fund rather than general savings or the wedding itself. Attitudes have shifted alongside the spending habits, just over two-thirds of Britons now say they feel comfortable asking guests for cash instead of a physical present, and fewer than a quarter still consider the practice a little tacky.

## What the bride and groom themselves are expected to spend
Guests aren't the only ones facing scrutiny over money, though the numbers here reveal just how out of step public expectation is with reality. The average UK wedding now costs £21,990, according to the wedding platform Hitched. Ask the public what's reasonable and the answer is very different, the median Briton feels that couples shouldn't need to spend more than £6,000 on the day itself, once the stag do, hen do and honeymoon are excluded. That's a gap of nearly £16,000 between what the public thinks a wedding should cost and what one typically does. In reality, only around a quarter of couples manage to keep their total spend to £10,000 or less, which proves it's possible, even if it clearly isn't the norm. Venue hire and catering eat up the largest share of any wedding budget, yet Britons believe each of those individual costs should only come to around £1,000. A more generous 20% of people think anywhere between £2,001 and £5,000 is a reasonable amount to spend on each. Real-world spending dwarfs even that higher estimate, couples are reportedly paying an average of £7,408 on catering and £6,040 on their venue, according to the wedding-planning platform Bridebook.

## The open bar debate
Money worries extend to the drinks table too. While guests would obviously welcome an open bar all evening, 74% say it's actually acceptable for a bride and groom to expect their guests to pay for their own alcohol rather than have it included in the day. Just over a quarter of Britons disagree with that view, and 12% go as far as calling it somewhat or completely unacceptable for hosts not to provide free drinks at their own wedding.

## The honeymoon is where wallets open widest
If there's one area where Britain is happy to loosen the purse strings, it's the honeymoon. The median 'reasonable' spend on a post-wedding trip comes in at £2,000, but a striking 34% of people think anywhere between £2,001 and £5,000 is fair game for a getaway. A further 7% believe couples should be allowed to spend as much as £10,000 on their honeymoon. That generosity lines up neatly with the honeymoon-fund boom described above, guests appear far more willing to help fund a couple's trip than to underwrite their venue hire or catering bill.

Taken together, the figures paint a picture of a nation more comfortable being generous towards a couple's holiday than towards their table settings or open bar, and one where the closeness of a friendship, not just etiquette, decides exactly how many pounds go into that card.

## What this means for you
If a wedding invitation is sitting on your fridge, this survey gives you real numbers to plan a gift around.

- **Close friends and family:** Budget £76 to £100 for the gift alone if you're a core guest, nearly a third of people think even that is too low.
- **Evening-only guests:** £26 to £50 is considered fair if you're only invited after the meal, and a quarter of Britons would cap it at £25.
- **Cash over crockery:** Two-thirds of Britons are now fine asking for money instead of gifts, so a honeymoon-fund request instead of a gift list is increasingly normal.
- **Planning your own wedding:** Public opinion caps a 'reasonable' budget at £6,000, but the real UK average is £21,990, so set your own budget rather than chase guest expectations.
- **The open bar question:** With 74% accepting guests should pay for their own drinks, skipping an open bar won't cause much backlash.

## Questions & Answers

### 1. How much should a close guest spend on a wedding gift?
Most Britons think £76 to £100, though 30% believe it should be more than that.

### 2. What's considered a fair spend for an evening-only guest?
The median acceptable spend for evening-only guests is £26 to £50.

### 3. Why are couples increasingly asking for cash instead of gifts?
More than nine in ten couples who married in 2021 or 2022 already lived together, and Lauren Enever of Prezola says couples want to make up for pandemic-era lost time.

### 4. How much does the average UK wedding actually cost?
According to Hitched, the average UK wedding now costs £21,990.

### 5. How much do Britons think a wedding should cost?
The median Briton feels couples shouldn't spend more than £6,000 on the day, excluding the stag do, hen do and honeymoon.

### 6. Is it acceptable for couples to make guests pay for their own drinks?
74% of people say it's acceptable for the bride and groom to expect guests to pay for their own alcohol.

### 7. How much do couples actually spend on catering and venue?
According to Bridebook, couples spend an average of £7,408 on catering and £6,040 on their venue.

### 8. How much should a honeymoon cost?
The median reasonable spend is £2,000, though 34% think £2,001 to £5,000 is fine and 7% would go up to £10,000.

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