WR: Is it customary to give parents gifts?

Yes, it's to show them appreciation for their help during your planning and/or for just being great parents and getting you ready for this day your whole life. We chose to wait until after our wedding and we had photo books of the wedding made for each set of parents. We made the books unique to each family.

Even if they are not paying for anything in the wedding? I always thought it was a gratitude thing for helping with the cost of the wedding.

I'm thinking of waiting till after the wedding and getting professionally framed pictures of us from the wedding just for them, most likely will have them personalized, especially for his parents and grandparents. My mom hasn't even put up the picture of my grandpa that our neighbor had done for her...I don't think she'd put mine up when she gets it either...

I think so. It's a way of thanking them for all their love and support through the years as well as during the planning. Not just financial support, emotional support, a shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen, etc.

We are doing a framed picture of our engagement photos so we can give it to them before the wedding. And then after we are giving them each a photobook

Cyndi-- that makes sense. I think we will end up getting something for them, but I didn't know if it was always customary if the parents were just attending the wedding. Thanks!

I will be giving them framed pictures of our engagement pics and wedding pics so they will be getting 2 gifts

We'll be giving them wedding pictures in some format or another.

How should you let your parents know you are getting them a photobook? We want to do this for our parents but let them know at the rehearsal dinner. Any ideas on wording this in a card?

We just let our parents know before the wedding. It came up easily in discussions about the photographer. My mom started talking pictures and albums months before the wedding! The books actually just arrived yesterday, the thank you cards were going to get mailed this weekend anyway so now we will send the cards with the books. Initially we were going to tell them that they should expect a special thank you gift to be delivered to their home shortly.

We too are doing photo albums (duplicates of our wedding album, just a slightly smaller size) so they won't get it for months after the wedding... his parents dont know yet but my parents were pestering us so much on why we were spending so much on our photographer that we eventually had to tell them so they understood why it was so expensive (three professional storybook albums sure does increase the package price). I guess we'll just write it in the card.. also looking for suggestions on wording for a card

Yeah its my understanding that its for a thanks for love and support Im going to do photo books but also making a fun gift bags Ive ordered pesonalized coffee mugs for the morning of that say mother of the bride and so on. Im adding cute personal things like FHIL i got her a mouse pad that says MOG and the date cause shes the only person i know that uses a mouse pad lol I havent figured out what else. Been digging though Vista prints which is where i got the mouse pad (for free) and the mugs were 4.99.

Yes, and usually, at least where I am from, the gifts are given to them at the rehearsal dinner.

Well we gave them framed pics of our engagement shoot already but that was just because. As their wedding gifts, we got the dads a wooden valet from exclusively weddings and the moms are getting mother of the bride/ mother of the groom frames from cookie pots. For the moms we will follow up with the professional photo of FH and his mom and me and mine.

Everyone is getting their gift at the rehearsal dinner.

We got our parents a digital photo frame, and a usb stick loaded with our engagement photos (with enough room for the wedding photos and more). They really enjoyed them. We thought it would be great because it could be used instead of something that might get thrown into the back of a drawer somewhere because it was something they couldn't use, but didn't want to throw out.

After reading the comments for this question, I am starting to question getting my parents a gift. They have not done anything for the wedding, they have not contributed financially, and will not have a way of helping with any type of planning or anything else involved, besides showing up for the rehearsal and the wedding itself. I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't spend the extra money.

On the other hand I feel like I owe my FMIL an extra special gift because she has been very involved, went with me to pick put my dress and venue. She is also paying for the reception, I am paying for everything else.

We did these frames! Here is the company who lets you personalize the frame with your name(s) and date of wedding!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MemoryScapes

Here's the ones we are getting(but different background colors)