Wedding Gift

are you oversee or is she? amazon gift card is not really usable in Vietnam.

I usually put money in envelope as everyone else on wedding (big box on weeding day)

We are currently in the USA while our friend is getting married in Hanoi. Thanks for the information on the Amazon gift card. Is there a reliable local Vietnamese company that I can place an order for a wedding gift and have it delivered?

bob504 wrote:

We are currently in the USA while our friend is getting married in Hanoi. Thanks for the information on the Amazon gift card. Is there a reliable local Vietnamese company that I can place an order for a wedding gift and have it delivered?

AFAIK, there's not a company in Vietnam that has a business agreement with Amazon to accept the gift card.

Thanks for your help. Do you have any ideas for me? I still don't know how to send her a gift. What do you recommend?

bob504 wrote:

Thanks for your help. Do you have any ideas for me? I still don't know how to send her a gift. What do you recommend?

I know a very trustworthy and reliable hotel owner in Hanoi.

He and his staff always took care of my concierge needs.

He speaks very good English and he writes excellent English.

If you send me a private message I will give you his contact information.

I'm sure he would be willing to be your personal shopper for a reasonable fee

bob504 wrote:

Thanks for your help. Do you have any ideas for me? I still don't know how to send her a gift. What do you recommend?

Thanks for your private message.

Unfortunately it's not going to work with my friend in Hanoi.

But I know a number of people have used this service to ship goods from the United States to Vietnam:

myus.com/welcome/vietnam/

Good luck!

Thanks for trying!

bob504 wrote:

A good friend is getting married and I wanted to send a wedding gift. How can I send her money? IS there a more appropriate gift? Would an Amazon gift card be an acceptable gift? Thanks for your help!

I have been to at least 10 weddings in my 14 years living here & every time its a money gift in a provided envelope as part of the invitation to the wedding. Even the Vietnamese guests do the same ( but close & rich family will gift gold) & it seems to be part of the deal here. All the proceeds from the envelopes seem to go for paying for the wedding & anything left from my understanding goes either to the family or the couple. I have never seen actual gifts such as you would see at a Western wedding on display. So saying that why not just wire some cash to her bank account here? I bet it will be better appreciated than a washing machine or a hoover.
A money gift just seems to depend on the giver but my next wedding is here in HCMC on 25.04.2021 & my GF advises a money gift of 500k each for us is appropriate.

goodolboy wrote:

bob504 wrote:

A good friend is getting married and I wanted to send a wedding gift. How can I send her money? IS there a more appropriate gift? Would an Amazon gift card be an acceptable gift? Thanks for your help!

I have been to at least 10 weddings in my 14 years living here & every time its a money gift in a provided envelope as part of the invitation to the wedding. Even the Vietnamese guests do the same ( but close & rich family will gift gold) & it seems to be part of the deal here. All the proceeds from the envelopes seem to go for paying for the wedding & anything left from my understanding goes either to the family or the couple. I have never seen actual gifts such as you would see at a Western wedding on display. So saying that why not just wire some cash to her bank account here? I bet it will be better appreciated than a washing machine or a hoover.
A money gift just seems to depend on the giver but my next wedding is here in HCMC on 25.04.2021 & my GF advises a money gift of 500k each for us is appropriate.

Wow, 500k each now.

I know people who now decline going to weddings as it has become a very expensive thing to do. My ex-gf used to get invited to about 8 weddings a month, she stopped due to the cost and time she would spend there.

Thanks for your response. A wire transfer to her bank may be the best solution. 500,000 Dong equals about $22 in USD per person. That amount seems low according to American standards. Am I missing something?

bob504 wrote:

Thanks for your response. A wire transfer to her bank may be the best solution. 500,000 Dong equals about $22 in USD per person. That amount seems low according to American standards. Am I missing something?

Yes you are missing something bob......this is Vietnam & not US or UK. Some would think that 500k vnd is a very high gift price at a wedding here (see shock reply from Colin) especially for someone who is not going to the wedding. Believe me 500kvnd is a good gift from a non relative here even for a foreigner. But really its up to you but 500kvnd or anything above that would be a very good gift. But hey its up to you how much cash you have in the bank & how close the friendship is. Going by US or UK standards you might give a gift worth say 500usd + going to a friends wedding so just give her that & you will go down in the village history as a one in a million friend.

The low cost of living in Vietnam is always an enjoyable surprise. No one in the States would ever consider a $22 wedding gift but in Vietnam, it's considered very generous. That's just another advantage to life in Vietnam. Thanks again for your advice!

bob504 wrote:

The low cost of living in Vietnam is always an enjoyable surprise. No one in the States would ever consider a $22 wedding gift but in Vietnam, it's considered very generous. That's just another advantage to life in Vietnam. Thanks again for your advice!

You need to compare apples with apples. American average wage 40k a year, Vietnam is 3k. So, the 22usd here would equate to 280usd there, a lot of difference as you can see.

goodolboy wrote:

bob504 wrote:

Thanks for your response. A wire transfer to her bank may be the best solution. 500,000 Dong equals about $22 in USD per person. That amount seems low according to American standards. Am I missing something?

Yes you are missing something bob......this is Vietnam & not US or UK. Some would think that 500k vnd is a very high gift price at a wedding here (see shock reply from Colin) especially for someone who is not going to the wedding. Believe me 500kvnd is a good gift from a non relative here even for a foreigner. But really its up to you but 500kvnd or anything above that would be a very good gift. But hey its up to you how much cash you have in the bank & how close the friendship is. Going by US or UK standards you might give a gift worth say 500usd + going to a friends wedding so just give her that & you will go down in the village history as a one in a million friend.

One million per couple is not viable for the average Vietnamese. If you understand how things work here you will know that wedding invitations are handed out to anyone and everyone, more bums on seats equals more profit. Locals cant afford to attend many weddings at that rate of gift.

bob504 wrote:

The low cost of living in Vietnam is always an enjoyable surprise. No one in the States would ever consider a $22 wedding gift but in Vietnam, it's considered very generous. That's just another advantage to life in Vietnam.

COL is low because salary is low.  In a country where minimum wage in 2021 is between 3M and 4.5M/m depending on the area, where a newly graduated engineer (mechanical, IT, or construction) makes between 8M -10M/m for 48 hrs workweek, 500k is an average wedding gift. 

That is, it's average when the reception is held in a city restaurant, but more (up to 1M) if the restaurant is a high-end establishment, and less (200k - 300k) when the meal is catered such as the practice in the countryside.

However, to the Vietnamese, weddings, birthdays, and anniversaries are the occasions to return past favours so the monetary gift is always proportional to the favours received.  I've seen numerous envelopes of $500 and $1000 given to a girl on her 18th birthday in Saigon, and no one was surprised when the gifts were opened.

Ciambella wrote:

bob504 wrote:

The low cost of living in Vietnam is always an enjoyable surprise. No one in the States would ever consider a $22 wedding gift but in Vietnam, it's considered very generous. That's just another advantage to life in Vietnam.

COL is low because salary is low.  In a country where minimum wage in 2021 is between 3M and 4.5M/m depending on the area, where a newly graduated engineer (mechanical, IT, or construction) makes between 8M -10M for 48 hrs/wk, 500k is an average wedding gift.  That is, it's average when the reception is held in a city restaurant, but more (up to 1M) if the restaurant is a high-end establishment, and less (200k - 300k) when the meal is catered such as the practice in the countryside.

However, to the Vietnamese, weddings, birthdays, and anniversaries are the occasions to return past favours so the monetary gift is always proportional to the favours received.  I've seen with my own eyes numerous envelopes of $500 and $1000 given to a girl on her 18th birthday, and no one was surprised when the gifts were opened.

Same here, I have seen gifts of gold in excess of 10,000usd given by close Aunties to the bride even out in the sticks where I used to live in Tay Ninh, so not only in the city there are high end weddings, believe me!

.... if you hv available there (which you prob do), try Viet-based money transfer service, Hai Ha.

it is simply brilliant!

v. good exchange rates. almost non-existent fees (for sm amounts) and direct door delivery within 24 hours (depending on town)

i could hardly survive w/o it.

bummer. on checking, it seems it is actually AU-based, and only sends from AU overseas.

ok. so here is another i hv also used in the past, RIA. identical type of service to Hai Ha, and this IS US based and you can send from US.

https://www.riamoneytransfer.com/us/en

PS on this occasion, a big advantage is that they deliver to their door. far more personal that wire transfer.

Thank you! Ria Money Transfer looks like a winner.

... and other comments are right, depending on how close you are or if you family, actually a single đ500,000 would be ok if say you not v close actually, but another factor is prob because you in US and therefore must be billionaire (by VN standards), they prob think đ500,000 is stingy, so you could double to đ1m (approx $US50 - check exact rates) or even đ2m ($US100) if you really want to make a splash

close family a lot more if they not too poor.

myvietnam wrote:

... and other comments are right, depending on how close you are or if you family, actually a single đ500,000 would be ok if say you not v close actually, but another factor is prob because you in US and therefore must be billionaire (by VN standards), they prob think đ500,000 is stingy, so you could double to đ1m (approx $US50 - check exact rates) or even đ2m ($US100) if you really want to make a splash

close family a lot more if they not too poor.

Nice to meet you MRS myvietnam...

... so how did this go?