Do Grooms Buy The Bride A Gift? [Are They Supposed To]

With gifts flooding in from friends and family, it’s hard to imagine sometimes a gift coming from your significant other on your wedding day. It can cause many brides and grooms anxiety as to whether the groom will buy his beautiful bride a gift. The questions that follow it are no easier to answer. But I’m here to help.

So, do grooms buy the bride a gift? Traditionally speaking, the groom and bride both get each other gifts that will be exchanged either on their wedding night or shortly before the wedding. Having said that, traditions are not always followed through nowadays, and traditional gifts may be turned into other things like experiences. 

The big questions that follow are if the groom does buy a gift, what kind of gift are we talking about? 

Let’s get into the details. 

Does The Groom Buy The Bride A Gift?

The groom traditionally has bought his bride a gift as a gentleman’s gesture. 

There is something to be said about getting something for your bride on your special day. 

It is often seen as a token of love that further symbolizes the life you and your bride are about to start. 

Often this plays a major role in what type of gift you will get for the bride. 

But as of recently, wedding norms and traditions have changed, offering a different outlook on the whole bride and groom gift-giving thing. 

The reason why some grooms may not feel it is necessary to exchange gifts is that they may have spent a lot already on the wedding, or they may have received a ton of gifts from their guests. 

Sometimes a gift may turn into something else! 

It may not be the traditional gift like jewelry but more of an experience. Something we can get into in a bit. 

Is The Groom Supposed To Buy The Bride A Gift?

From more of a traditional viewpoint, the groom should buy the bride a gift unless it is talked about beforehand. This is because likely, the bride will end up getting her groom a gift as well. And she will likely be expecting one too!

There are several reasons for getting the bride a gift and several reasons why a groom may feel otherwise. 

Let’s get into all the acceptable reasons why or why not to get your bride a gift. 

Gifts All Day

In the situation where you find yourself on the side of traditionalism, you may want to consider the why behind gift-giving. 

Giving a gift to your bride on the big day can have so many benefits like calming nerves, signaling a new chapter, showing you care, and so many more. 

When you decided to go with giving your bride-to-be a gift, consider staying within these categories that make sense for doing it. 

Something Meaningful 

Giving a gift to your bride on your wedding day is a very meaningful gesture. 

That’s why the gift itself should have some sort of meaning behind it. 

This is a loaded category in itself because what is meaningful to you and or just your bride is going to be incredibly different than anyone else. 

Meaningful does not mean expensive.

It just means presenting something impactful to your bride that will give her feelings of warmth, happiness, and security. 

Understanding The Agreement

A big part of saying yes to giving gifts means that you may want to understand the terms and limits that you guys are aiming for. 

Going back to the meaningful aspect, if your bride and you place a lot of meaning on laughter in your life, you may want to do something funny for her. 

But if she gets you a super expensive gift and you get her a joke valued under $10, she may not think it’s so funny anymore.

Again it is not about money, but it is about being on the same page about what types of gifts you are going to get for each other.  

If someone gets a car and someone gets a pair of movie tickets, one may feel confused.

Dramatically, most people are not gifting cars. 

Type Of Gift

Gifts don’t have to be permanent objects. 

Gifts can be taking the class on your honeymoon together that she always wanted to do. 

There are different types of gifts that should be considered when going through this talk with your bride. 

You don’t have to give it away, but just because maybe you don’t need a household item doesn’t mean you can’t get something else. 

No Way Jose

Some people don’t care for the gifts. 

The gift to them is having a wedding and celebrating it with the people they love. 

This is totally fine, and there are good reasons why a bride and groom may want to hold off on giving each other gifts. 

There is no wrong way to do your wedding day so if it’s a no-way Jose for you then just communicate that to your bride. 

Here are some valid reasons for not doing gifts. 

Save The Money

Weddings are expensive. We all know it.

It’s the best night of your life, but it goes by in a flash after probably months of grueling and hard work. 

Depending on how much the wedding costs and what you are financially comfortable with, it is perfectly normal for the groom and bride to pass on giving each other gifts that they may not need. 

Sometimes a bride and groom acknowledge that the gift to themselves is the wedding. 

The Agreement

Coming back to the agreement. 

The agreement may just very well be no gifts. 

This can be because the gifts from family or friends are already a lot or because they are having a special type of wedding.

In situations where a destination wedding is held, it is common for the couple to forgo traditional gifts because the entire trip is sort of a gift already to themselves and their friends and family. 

What Is A Good Wedding Gift from Groom To Bride? 

Ever heard the saying, “diamonds are a girl’s best friend?” It’s true. 

The good news is the gift doesn’t have to be as expensive as a diamond considering it is possible her ring has one of those already. 

The good news is shopping for the bride’s gift can be relatively easy in terms of ideas. 

Executing the actual gift, well, that’s another story. 

Actual Things

When it comes to actual gifts, here are a lot of different ideas you can do that your bride will love! 

• A painted portrait of one of her favorite pictures from you two! Better yet you can write an I.O.U card and explain in the note that you will take her favorite wedding pictures and have it turned into a painting. 

• Jewelry is always a great option. Something that she has been looking at for quite some time or something that can be personalized or monogrammed. 

• A household item that you can start using as a married couple. This may be His and Hers bottle openers, serving plates, monogrammed dishtowels, etc. 

• Something handmade can always go a long way. A personal letter with something that used to be yours that you now want to give to her is both meaningful and heartfelt. 

Out Of The Box

If you like the idea of gift-giving on your day of the wedding but hate the idea of traditional gifts and what normally happens, consider the out-of-the-box ideas that can be both a lot of fun for your bride but also for you too. 

• No one ever went wrong with a puppy. Now the timing in which you gift the puppy is a little difficult because if you give it in the middle of your wedding, who is going to watch little Freddie? Having said that for dog lovers or animal lovers in general, this is a step towards a family together that can really end up being a great family gift. 

• An addition to your honeymoon. Adding an element of surprise to your honeymoon can be really fun. This may be an additional trip or something a little smaller like massages on the beach or a full spa day. These are experiences that can continue the beginning of your journey together. 

Consider Your Options

The best part of getting married is knowing you are with your partner from this point forward, always trying to be on the same page. 

A great way to see if you will make it to the vows is how you communicate about wedding gifts. 

Kidding! 

But communication is not a joke which is why it’s important to know where your bride stands on them and what they are thinking.

From there, you can decide if wedding gifts make sense and what type will be the best fitting for the situation. 

It may not be the most traditional gift and may come in the form of an experience instead. 

That’s OK! 

Whatever works for the bride and groom is what makes it special. 

Either way, with a little thought behind the conversation and the gift, the bride is sure to be happy. 

Besides, they already have plenty of other gifts they need to buy for others regardless!

And they’ll likely be getting a gift from the grooms mother too!