gifts for readers, ushers, and gift bearers?

LaurenMarie1234

Hi ladies -

Quick question on gifts for folks involved in our mass, but not standing up in the official wedding party. Do people normally get gifts for the ushers, readers, and gift bearers for communion?

Thanks!

Calypso1977

yes, you should give them something.
also, you should be giving something to your altar servers as well. 

professorscience

We got our ushers the same gift we got the groomsmen (engraved cufflinks).  Our readers were our dads, so they have big family gifts coming. 

lalaith50

We didn't get gifts for any of those people.... (Just the bridal party, altar servers, priests, and choir- people who actually had to do work / practice outside Mass...) Actually, one of our readers was my friend, who acted as a bit of a "coordinator" for the day, so she got the same gift as the bridesmaids.

Tami87

Our ushers are also being our gift bearers and we are are getting them the same kind of gift as the rest of the wedding party. I haven't thought about what we are getting readers yet, but we will probably get them a small gift too.

caiti2u

What did y'all give your altar servers? Our will be kids we don't know, just recruited for the occasion. We were thinking $15 gift cards to Target or Walmart. Thoughts? 

Tami87

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_gifts-for-readers-ushers-and-gift-bearers?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:615Discussion:b93e54e2-5128-40a6-9af9-9820682c4a0fPost:3d6d2711-f4d0-4dc7-82c6-81880f1101a2">Re: gifts for readers, ushers, and gift bearers?</a>:
[QUOTE]What did y'all give your altar servers? Our will be kids we don't know, just recruited for the occasion. We were thinking $15 gift cards to Target or Walmart. Thoughts? 
Posted by caiti2u[/QUOTE]

Our church is providing an altar server and I was planning on giving him or her cash. I had heard that $25-50 is the going rate, but it could be region dependent.

erin5286

Our church had a recommendation for the amount to give altar servers $5/each, which was significantly lower than the organist ($150) and cantor($100).  Since I'll probably have my sister and brother-in-law cantor for us, I think we'll use a little of that money we saved to give the altar servers a little more.

Calypso1977

we had two altar boys and we gave them each $40.  they gave up 3 hours of their saturday (smack in the  middle of hte day to boot) and i know their family doesnt have much money.

AmandaSC1988

I don't know what we got the alter servers. H handled that. I want to say $25 each.

For the readers we got them candles for the girls and golf balls for my brother. Something a lot cheaper than the BMs/GMs/ushers.

Ushers got somethign a big more expensive, cuff links, because they had to rent a tux.

BMs/GMs - we spend about $100 on each.

OliveOilsMom

We didn't give gifts to the readers, ushers/gift bearers.  We did have corsages and bouts made for each of them so they would be singled out as specials guests for the day.  We gave each altar server $20, which is what our church recommended.

ellen73

We didn't give gifts to the readers/gift bearers/ushers.   My nephews were the altar servers, and we gave them gifts equivalent to what we gave the groomsmen. 

Just FYI-  $20 is what I received for serving weddings/funerals in the late 80s!   And we belonged to a lower-middle class/blue-collar inner-city parish! 

walker223

I am giving the readers a small gift - about $20.  Same for the ring bearers and flower girl.