WEDDING PROTOCOL IN LEBANON

Does your friend live in Lebanon or just have her wedding in Lebanon?

I had my wedding(anniversary)party in Lebanon last year. Also something very unconventional...
Had to leave a lot of the gifts with my inlaws as they were to big/heavy to take back home by plane. I got jewelry (necklaces and/or earrings are common), ABC giftvouchers, money, cristal candlesticks, silver serving platters, fur jacket, luxurious wine opener set, silver photo frames...

This summer I also had a wedding from my husbands cousin. We made a little gift basket with Dutch products and added an envelope with €100,-. (Don't know if this is appropriate, but we don't really care...).

For another wedding we got them some art (prints) and a handmade necklace.

If they are truly friends they don't care what you give them. You being there should be enough!!!

This is becoming the standard way to go in Lebanon.
Usually, depending on the wedding you're invited to, if you're going as a couple or alone, how much you're related or close to the married couple, and your means, you can gift them any amount.
As a rule of thumb, if the married couple is not very close, and if we are attending the ceremony as a couple, we usually contribute $150, but I see lot of people contribute much less (the minimum being 35$)

$150 per couple .......... which means that basically since the average person in the Levant
attends at least 30 weddings a year ........ relatives, friends, colleagues, neighbours and every other Tom, Dick or Harry - and taking the average wage into consideration .... this means that you are working just to gather enough money together to hand out hundreds of $$$ left, right
and centre. I have to admit the Lebanese are splurgers - whether they have money or not. Its all about show and keeping ahead of the Jones's obviously - one just wonders how the people
manage this on the salaries they get.