To the brides: are gift cards rude?

I, personally, love gift cards. I like knowing that someone wanted to get me something that I wanted.

I would love that as a gift. If you think its somewhere she likes going and needs some stuff from there, I would do it.

I agree, if you think she will use the gift card, it's a wonderful gift.

I love gift cards, but not usually the ones that are store specific because then you're stuck. Visa gift cards are the best because you can use them everywhere!

I personally hate gift cards! I would rather get a check/cash as a wedding gift this way I can put it in savings

Because of what Wifey posted, I have to say that I HATE HATE HATE visa gift cards!!!

You can read this thread if anyone's interested:

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/kwr-visa-gift-cards-vent/d458a548762f117b.html

As a postscript, we had two visa gift cards totaling $180 and tried to use them toward our spa and restaurant charges on our honeymoon cruise, and Royal Caribbean refused them! The guy at guest "services" wouldn't even touch them. HATE VISA GIFT CARDS.

Girl money is never rude in my book... I happily accept lol However those gift cards you can use anywhere are pretty awesome too

To answer the OP, I wouldn't be too thrilled with a gift card to one store with that much money on it, but that really depends on the person. We had a sort of small BBB registry and everything on it got purchased. At our recent local wedding reception, we got a $50 BBB gift card and I am sort of at a loss on what to use it on since everything we wanted from there had been purchased. I used some of it for a frame for a wedding photo to give my dad as an X-mas gift. I feel a little guilty using it for an gift for someone else instead of towards an item for us both for our home, you know? It just feels like since it was a wedding gift, we should be using it towards something for us, not someone else.

One of the gift cards that we got last week that I LOVED getting was to our favorite (and expensive) restaurant. Can't wait to use it to celebrate Valentine's Day together or something like that. :-) Plus this time of year, you often get bonus cards with restaurant gift cards.

Oh, and we were excited to get gift cards to movie theaters!

I think bed bath and beyond is a VERY good gift card and safe. i know sometimes gift cards to a specific store are frowned upon because what if the person doesnt shop there, but seriously...EVERYONE can find awesome stuff at BB&B. bedding, bathroom, kitchen...online you can get decor stuff like art, clocks, and mine racks...hell some of them even have specialty foods now ( saw one near DC that did). and the best part about it is as the receiver (at least for me) it feels like getting things for free! if i am given a check, even as a gift, i feel like i should be saving it. if i have a gift card, i can't save it, so spending it doesn't make me feel guilty!

Love BB&B gift cards. We just received one of those and Target gc from my coworkers. Spent the Target one already.

My answer to questions like this is always the same - unless it is something that is truly, honestly offensive (like, say, a giant cardboard cut out of your ex boyfriend) gifts are never rude.

If you're worried about the couple being locked in to one store, just get a more generic GC (ie. - Amazon, Visa, etc). I usually just give cash because it's easier, but would definitely not be offended if I receive GCs.

Reading through these it seems like overall gift cards are appreciated and not viewed as rude, but make sure that you know the couple and if you purchase the gift card for a certain store, it is a store that they will use. As an example, I would probably give away gift cards to a move theatre (we have gone 2x in the last 5 years...), but @Glenda was excited to get them, so it really comes down to knowing the couple.

I live in Canada and LOVE gift cards to The Bay, which is a large department store that also has a travel department, so you can put the gift certificate towards toward clothing, jewellery, household items or travel. I'm sure there is something comparable o that in the States, I just don't know what it is.

I'm all for gift cards. I don't think you can go wrong with that!

It'd be hard to think of any gift card as "rude." Maybe "disappointing," but not "rude."

@hklo, sounds like I'd love a GC to The Bay as well!

I think gift cards are great as long as its to a particular store, not a genetic visa/mc/amex gift card. Only because those are so hard to use. Its not rude either way.

I think a BB&B gift card is a great gift!

I think a BB&B gift card is a great gift!

I think major gift card like visa or mastercard would be better as she can chose where to spend it. A check would work even better. I personally think that she would probably be stoked and appreciative of just a day at the spa followed by dinner. You can always give her a check in that amount as wedding gift.

I love gift cards. go for it!