Wedding Gifts to Favored Charities Increasingly More Common

According to wedding gift industry insiders, there is a growing trend in making charitable donations instead of buying wedding gifts. Affluent brides and grooms are increasingly redirecting friends and family to charities that include the Alzheimer’s Society, Cancer Research, Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam and others. One recently married couple said, “We had lots of stuff so we wanted to get rid of things before we got married. We wanted to ask our guests to instead donate to charity." According to wedding gift industry sources the average wedding has raised about $1,500 for various causes and charities. With the average age of marrying couples at 35 for men and 32 for women experts believe more people are likely to avoid traditional wedding lists and choose more benevolent wedding gift-giving plans.