How Much Should You Spend on Groomsmen Gifts?

So you're wrestling with the idea of how much you should spend on your groomsmen gifts. We've been through it ourselves and realize a wedding costs a small fortune. By the time you've gotten around to buying groomsmen gifts, nausea typically accompanies the accumulating price tag. With any luck, your fiance has traditional parents that are picking up the tab.

When most grooms ask us how much they should spend on groomsmen gifts, they’re looking for a hard and fast rule of thumb. While there are some standard guidelines, unfortunately, there isn’t a quick and easy answer or magic formula.  We can offer you data below, but no two groom scenarios are necessarily identical.  Typically, what you spend on your groomsmen is all up to your budget constraints and/or the amount you’ve asked your groomsmen to spend to participate in your big day (we’ll get into the specifics of these in a moment).

Groomsmen Gift Statistics (based on over 40,000 customers)

• Average spend on total groomsmen gifts = $250
• Average spend on single groomsmen = $37
• Average number of Groomsmen = 6.7
• Average spend peak months July/Aug = $260
• Average spend off months Dec/Jan = $196

In our not-so-humble opinions, it’s not about the price of the gift as much as coming up with great ideas for your groomsmen gift and how much thought you put into personalizing your groomsmen gifts.  The best groomsmen gift you can give your men is a day of good hanging out and honoring them with a unique "thank you".    

Don’t get us wrong — that doesn't mean it’s okay to skip on the idea of groomsmen gifts altogether or that it’s excusable to pass out cheap, crappy gifts to your best buddies (especially if they’ve spent a small fortune on tux or suit rentals, your bachelor party, etc.) They’ll notice, and they’ll definitely feel slighted.

How Much Should You Spend on Groomsmen Gifts?

On average, most grooms spend anywhere from $35 to $45 per groomsman. There are a few different calculations outlined in this post that helps you determine how much to spend on your groomsmen gifts.  However, we looked at the data for over 40,000 orders, and on average across the United States a groom spent $38 on his groomsmen gifts. 

With that being said, the $38 average spend does not apply to all wedding parties.  Here are some guidelines to follow when figuring out how much to spend on your groomsmen gifts.

 Spend 10-25% of What Your Groomsmen Spent

Again, this isn't a strict rule, but it is a nice and easy guideline to use when determining what’s an appropriate amount to spend on the groomsmen. Here’s how it works: If your asked your friend to spend a total of $300 on your wedding, you purchase him a gift that’s costs anywhere from 10-25% of what he spent. In this case, a groomsmen gift priced somewhere between $30-$75. The more your groomsmen spends, the more you spend, so it’s a more fair way to give gifts that are proportional to the time and money that they put into your day.  But, let’s reiterate this once again — use your best judgment and select gifts that a meaningful and personalized to each groomsman.

Use Your Wedding Budget as a Guideline

 If you’re hosting a wedding that’s on the lower end of the spending scale and you haven’t asked your friends to fork over an arm and a leg to stand by your side, then it’s perfectly acceptable to purchase affordable groomsmen gifts that hover around the $25 price point. On the other hand, if you’re going all out and throwing a ritzy wedding bash, it’s more appropriate to hand our more expensive gifts to the groomsmen. The best advice here: use your judgment, purchase each groomsman a gift that’s similar in price (showing favoritism isn’t okay), and choose gifts that you know each guy will appreciate and enjoy. 

We expect that number to be slightly higher per gift because sometimes a groom will only buy part of the groomsmen gift with us.

Best Groomsmen Gifts Under $40

For $39.99 per groomsmen, the shot glass box set and this personalized cooler are two of our best sellers: 

To the 9's Tri Pack $39.99

Weddings are not cheap. Nothing of great value ever is. A large chunk of the price tag depends on location. The Knot’s 2018 Real Weddings Study confirmed that couples spend $33,931 on average. If you’ve got more to spend, Manhattan is the place to burn that money—averaging $76,900 per wedding, which is more than the median household income of every state in the US.

With this in mind, we thought we could take this a notch further and see how much the average cost would be if we were to cluster it by region, collate the numbers in wedding in terms of attendance and spend, and match it with the average spent on having groomsmen. We did the math and analyzed over 30,000 groomsmen gift orders that came through last year on Groovy Groomsmen Gifts’ website. We’ll show you what we came up with and share the surprising results in detail.But before we do, the question is, do you really need groomsmen?

When a man chooses the person he wants to spend the rest of his life with, a no-matter-what commitment comes with it. From the proposal to the engagement, before you know it, you’re at the ceremony, close to or in tears, looking at the most precious being in your life walking toward you.

Everything will unravel very quickly, and you will need all the support and love and encouraging words you can get. And who better to get them from than the people you grew up with. The people who know you at your best, at your worst, and still love you anyway.

Transitioning to this next phase of your life won’t be too scary if you’re with people you can count on. Your tribe, your closest friends and relatives, those who will always have your back That feeling of security and comfort is something you can’t put a price on.

How We Did the Math

We’ve created a wedding profile for each state using the statistics from The Wedding Report 2018, just to give you an idea of what the wedding budget is like per state and how many couples tie the knot in that place every year. We collated the number of weddings celebrated during that year with the average wedding spend for each. We also included the average gifts spent on attendants, as your groomsmen will be doing most of the legwork for you.

Then, we clustered the average wedding costs per region and summed up the average based on the same report and compared our sales data, including popular gifts, average order value, number of groomsmen, and average gift spend per groomsman.

After gathering the needed data, we summed them up based on the following assumptions:

• Respondents are from age 25 to 45 years old.
• Confirmed buyers of groomsmen’s gifts.
• Confirmed grooms and brides to be and wedding planners.
• Salary ranges from $50,000 to $150,000 per year.

Key Takeaways

To quickly wrap up everything, we’ve come up with the following conclusions that may help you in your wedding. Whether you decide on having it out of town or in your city, costs will pile up regardless, and it’s up to you and your partner to prioritize what’s essential for you both.

Knowing which regions are the busiest, how much each state costs, how much people shell out for gifts, and what you will get your groomsmen will, hopefully, guide you in making the right decisions for your special day. We thought covering the need-to-know wedding basics for you will help you hit the ground running and lessen the stress for your upcoming nuptials. Given the context above, here’s what we think:

• Weddings are definitely more than a billion-dollar industry.
• California is by far the busiest state to have a wedding in.
• Southeast region rules in wedding ceremonies.
• Out of 744 possible gifts to give groomsmen, only 2 stood out across regions.
• Contrary to popular opinion, New York is not the biggest wedding spender—Hawaii is king.
• New Jersey, Louisiana, and Minnesota absolutely love their groomsmen—top three big spenders on gifts.
• Not much love from Hawaii, Idaho, and Utah for groomsmen.
• Groomsmen get the threesome treatment as gifts: a money clip, a tie clip, and cuff links.

Here Is Your Next Step

Learn more about the best groomsmen gifts for your bros and why you should get them on your upcoming wedding. All products are on sale as of this writing. Click on the product links provided for you to access the favorite groomsmen gifts at a discounted price. Keep reading and watch out for our next article about weddings and gift giving.