A Canadian wedding can get expensive before the gift even enters the picture. There might be a flight or a tank of gas, a hotel room and an outfit that cannot realistically be worn to every wedding that summer. Against all of that, the gift is often one of the smaller expenses. It can also be the one that sits on the to-do list for weeks because nobody is quite sure what to buy.
That mismatch is worth looking at from both sides. Guests have a budget to work with, while couples have their own ideas about what they actually need. Somewhere between the two is the gift that gets bought, often much later than everything else has been arranged.
The real cost of being a wedding guest
A survey by Ipsos for BMO, published 8 July 2026, found Canadian wedding guests expect to shell out $1,500 in total, $300-$400 of which is on the gift. That last factor is what creates the most delay for people, but the gift represents less than a quarter of the actual cost of attending.
40% of Canadians say going to friends’ or family weddings is a significant financial burden. This rises to 49% among Millennial-aged Canadians, the age group most likely to be invited to multiple weddings in a single season.
Put $19,000 on the wedding itself, and it gives some idea of what the couple is spending, but the guests have their own list of expenses by the time they arrive. The trip has been booked, somewhere to sleep has been sorted out, and the wedding outfit is hanging in the wardrobe. The gift is the awkward one because there is still that little question of how much to put on it.
Why the smallest number is the hardest
Finding a gift is not just about how much you are ready to spend. No single card works at every Canadian retailer, and prepaid network cards are different. A retailer card is tied to the brand printed on it. It leaves a guest with dozens of brands to choose from.
That can be an awkward choice. While a guest may have an idea of how much they want to spend, they may not even know whether the couple prefers something for the kitchen, something to wear, something for the home, or an entirely random gift.
That’s the gap gift cards from gift-card.com’s Canadian storefront is supposed to offer. Instead of consolidating the cards under one brand like others do, it brings together cards from various household retail names and lets each card remain redeemable at that brand.
The guest sets the amount, while the couple decides where that money is ultimately spent. Whether it’s $50 or $200, the amount doesn’t change just because the initial person has the final say on which retailer they choose.
What a registry actually needs
Take a Winners gift card, for example. For instance, starting a first home usually involves new kitchenware, linens, and smaller furniture pieces, but those aren’t typical things you expect as a couple before you’ve lived together for some time. What seemed like a must-have when they got married can also end up being the item they never use.
The same Canadian storefront sells a Winners card online, along with others including Sephora, Amazon, Kobo, Cineplex, Roblox and Lululemon.
This can work if a couple has priced hundreds of items to wrangle east into their lives. Not all couples, especially when two already-furnished homes are being melded into one instead of starting from a blank slate. A gift card postpones some of these decisions until you know what you need to fill.
After the day
The gift stays useful long after the wedding. In some cases, that is when it becomes useful. Thank-you cards are likely written, and the photos are probably back, but months into married life, the couple is still trying to figure out what the home needs.
Under Ontario’s Consumer Protection Act, most retail gift cards cannot expire. Ontario is not the only province with rules around gift cards. In most of Canada, a card given in October can still be sitting there with its value intact when March comes around.
A guest living in another province, or a family member who can’t make the wedding, can send a card by email from gift-card.com’s Canadian storefront. That way, the couple doesn’t have to decide how to spend it each week. They can reserve the right to defer until they have a better sense of their preferences.
