Wedding Gift Calculator

The biggest chore for a wedding guest is to decide how much money to put in the envelope. Not all weddings are equal. Therefore every couple getting married does not deserve the same gift. When giving a gift for a wedding there are many factors you should consider so that you don’t look cheap and more importantly so that you don’t give too much.

When you give cash is to remember to give it at the end of the reception. This gives you a chance to have fun and look at how much work the bride and groom put into the event. It also gives you a chance to consider how much work YOU put into the event. Remember, its not the gift, it’s the thought that counts. If you put a lot of thought into a wedding . . . you should give money.

Tom Kelly’s IHateWeddings.com Gift Calculator has been featured on television, Howard Stern, Elvis Duran and the Morning Show and has gone viral every wedding season since 2005!

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ALCOHOL AND WEDDING TOASTS

Ever hear the phrase “expect the least from those who talk the most”? That phrase can be applied to yours truly, Tom Kelly, the creator of IHateWeddings.com when I had to give a toast at a wedding.  

I am not proud but I have given the worst toast in wedding history.  It wasn’t just bad.  It was offensive.

Mike never made me feel bad about it.  Even his wife just said “I hope you learned something from the experience.”

From my mistakes, I have LIFE LESSONS on how to mimimize toast disasters. 

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Thank You Cards

Do me a favor, if my dad goes to your wedding and gives you a generous wedding gift, don’t tell him you spent the money on something fun.

My dad likes giving generous wedding gifts. He feels like he’s helping you get your life started. What he doesn’t like, is seeing people have fun. He works hard. He saves his money. He doesn’t spend his money on fun so you shouldn’t spend his money on fun.

My parents went to a distant cousin’s wedding this year. He just got a thank you card back which read “Thank you for the generous gift. We used the money to pay for our honeymoon in Mexico.”

I hate to sound like I’m turning into my father but if they spent my money on their honeymoon I would have been mad too. I’ve never been to Mexico. I can’t afford to go to Mexico because all of my friends are getting married and I have to go to their weddings.

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Cash Bar At The Wedding?

Rule Number 1: If you can’t afford to buy alcohol for your guests, you can’t afford to have 300 people at your wedding.

I don’t care how great the food is. I don’t care if a bridesmaid makes love to me under the dessert trolley. If I’m at your wedding and I’m sober, I’m going to be mad.

My friend Mike Petrillo was marrying his fiancé Noelle. Noelle wanted to have the entire Eastern seaboard at her wedding.

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Second Wedding Tips

They say love is better the second time around. But are weddings? Here are some tips for couples who are planning a wedding where someone has been married before.

Second Wedding Tips

Here are some ground rules for people who are marrying someone who has been married before.

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Thunderstealing (calendar Date Stealing)

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, stealing someone’s thunder is to prevent someone from having success or getting attention, praise, etc., by doing or saying whatever that person was planning to do or say.

If you book your wedding within 12 weeks before a wedding which will have a lot of the same guests, you are thunder stealing.

There are at least 5 couples I know who are going to think this article is about them. The truth is it’s about my friend Meredith but this is a common problem that affects lots of people.

Here are some guidelines for booking a wedding date: 

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Questions to ask before being in a bridal party

For young professionals in hard economic times I have created a list of questions you should ask yourself before accepting the honor of becoming someone’s bridesmaids or groomsmen. These hard financial times have given the young and poor among us permission to say “I can’t afford to be your man-slave for six months as you plan your wedding.”  

But in all seriousness, when you agree to be in a wedding party there are expectations. If the expectations bother you say no. If you don’t have enough time to live up to the bride and groom’s expectations say “No, thank you I can’t do it.” If you don’t have enough money to live up to the bride and groom’s expectations say “No thank you I can’t do it.”

You won’t be in the pictures the young couple may keep on the mantle. But you’ll save a friendship.

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Signs You’re A B list Wedding Guest

I think the hardest part of planning a wedding is picking who you want to come to the wedding. Instead of voting people off the island, families have to “vote friends out of the reception.” It’s a hard process, especially for couples having smaller weddings.

But sometimes couples have the reverse problem. After they’ve boiled down the guest list to their favorite relatives and friends the RSVPs start coming in. They start to realize that their most treasured friends and family members don’t want to come to their wedding.

Empty chairs means lost revenue for the bride and groom. Plus there is nothing more humiliating to a young couple getting married than empty tables at your reception. 

It’s at that point Brides and Grooms have to whip out “The B List” and sometimes things get so bad . . . they have to whip out “The D List.”

Here are some signs you were a B List wedding guest.

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I Love Weddings dot com?

10 Things That Would Make Me Love A Wedding

I’m always complaining about how much I Hate Weddings. I haven’t hated every wedding I went to. In fact there were a few I liked quite a bit. In an effort to be positive, I thought I would write a post about the 10 elements of a wedding that would make me love a wedding.

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