Do I have to get parents gifts?

TH28754

My finance and I (and our family and friends) live on the East Coast.  We are getting married in Vegas and paying for the wedding and reception ourselves.  We are also paying for his grandmothers airline ticket and her hotel room (and his mom is staying with his grandmother, so we are essentially paying for her hotel room).  His mom and my mom wanted to throw a welcome party (which is $1000 total).  They decided to split the cost, but I'm paying my mom's half because I've been married before and she helped with the first wedding so I didn't want her to half to put any money at all into the wedding.

My question is do we need to get parents gifts.  They are paying to fly to Vegas (although noone is paying for hotel rooms) and his mom is paying $500 for the wecome party.  However, they aren't spending money on the wedding and we are in our late 30s so we've been on our own for quite some time.  Thoughts?

AddieCake

Whether or not you get your parents gifts is a personal choice. For me, it would be less about giving them gifts b/c they spent money on the wedding and more about getting them gifts b/c they were my parents. 

WinstonsGirl

You don't have to, or you can get them something small.  We got Shutterfly photo albums of the wedding for both sets of parents.  I think it cost us about $30 a book, so not expensive, and something all of our parents wanted anyway.  I do think though that you should at least get them a card/tell them how much their support has meant to you though, especially if they're helping with planning/welcome party.  It'll let them know they're appreciated at least

theartistformerlyknownas

AddieCake said:

Whether or not you get your parents gifts is a personal choice. For me, it would be less about giving them gifts b/c they spent money on the wedding and more about getting them gifts b/c they were my parents. 

Ditto this.

RebeccaB88

I'd never heard of doing this until I saw it here. 

huskypuppy14

Story time:

My sister was married 2 years before I was. She wrote my parents a nice thank you note but didn't get them a gift. (My parents paid for their entire wedding, other than the RD or the bridal shower). 

When I got married, my parents gave us a substantial amount of money which paid for the entire reception and my Mom bought my dress and all my accessories. I gave them multiple thank you notes and got them an album and a framed picture. We gave my husband's parents the same thing, even though they didn't contribute as much. It's not about the money so much as appreciating them for being our parents. 

My mom actually mentioned to my sister "Huskypup got us these albums and framed pictures, I had to make my own from your wedding (my mother ended up making her own collage from my sister's wedding). 

So even getting them something small like an album or a framed picture is a nice gesture. I'm sure your mom would like that.

TH28754

Thanks everyone for your input.  I like the idea of the photo book.  Thanks!!!