It depends on the church I guess, and the acoustics and where exactly they’ll play?
Our church in Ohio was a large neogothic pile with fabulous acoustics because it was built before microphones. Lol The front pews were replaced by chairs (in a contentious process called the reordering) specifically to open up a performance space. (Some people refused to sit in the chairs for the rest of their lives.)
I didn’t like sitting in the front row because there were cables running across the floor, but you could definitely see better that way. I liked to be a few rows back but I don’t think it mattered for sound.
Depends on the church acoustics! But in general I’d guess that a couple rows back is ideal. I’ve sat front row for church concerts before and the sound has still been quite good.
Agree, this is very family specific. The Boy was really shocked how many three figure gifts we received from my family - he had received very little even for his first wedding. But in my family a couple hundred is the norm.
I’m glad to know I’m cheap because I’m in this category and not just because I’m a Scrooge. I was like omg, was I supposed to be getting multi hundred dollar gifts for people this whole time?
There’s a weird societal shift that happens when you move from ‘friends getting married’ to ‘friends’ kids getting married.’ And no one tells you that you’re one of the grownups now - you just have to decide when you’re there. You gradually realize that you’re not in the wedding party anymore, and then your kid starts getting included in the wedding party, and then one day it hits you. You’re an Adult with Expectations.
We got mostly 3 figure gifts, with a good chunk of $1k checks from older family. Our friends all got us gifts in the $10-$50 range. We did get married youngish, but we’re also the youngest on both families in terms of cousins and such so I think that made the aunt/uncles…etc give bigger gifts because they were more established.
This is family on Spouse’s side - his parents and grandparents etc. grew up very poor. His parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, siblings, etc. ranged from very poor (government assistance) to blue collar middle class ($400 emergency would be painful), with a few making it to middle class. Spouse is the only PhD in his extended family, this brother and this nephling are white-collar middle class. But very few relatives are left on this side, and this nephling is almost the only one in this generation of first cousins that isn’t on drugs or in jail. I don’t know anything about the partner they are marrying or their family.
I am probably overthinking all of this, but thanks to everyone’s input I am comfortable spending $300-$400ish for a gift.
This is OT but one my sister’s friends absolutely lost her shit at this realization and apparently made a huge friendship-ending scene at my niece’s wedding! Niece was 20/21 and her friends were also that age or a couple of years older, sister was 43 and the friend was in between them in age, so only like 32? But you know how some people who are not married in their 30s have A Lot Of Feelings About That? I mean, the scene not was ostensibly about that but that is my armchair psychology about it.
More On Topic, there are so many gradations of this! Like, I have cousins who are like half a generation younger than me? So I gave them more for their weddings than they gave me. Etc.
I am having a party where there will be 15-18 people. Will a quarter sheet cake be enough cake? One doesn’t want to be stingy but a half sheet seems like a LOT of cake.
Quarter is fine and will have leftovers if those are adults who might not feel comfortable being cake gremlins. You could probably do a small round cake instead.
Does anyone shop at Kohls? What happens if I use kohls cash to buy something then return it? Would I get actual cash back? Or another kohls cash voucher? I’m thinking about ordering shoes online and am doubtful they will fit.
. Maybe that means it will be perfect?