Wedding app saves red faces

SOME OF the traditional awkwardness of Israeli weddings is being solved — by technology.

In Britain, gift-giving is easy, with presents purchased from a wedding list in just a few clicks — but in Israel, guests give money, leaving many scratching their heads over the appropriate amount.

As a result, Israelis are turning increasingly to online “gift-giving calculators”. They ask you a set of questions, such as how close you are to the couple, where the celebration is taking place, in which season they are tying the knot and what your job is.

One of the sites, Mitchatnim, trumpets the credentials of its algorithm, saying that it was developed with the help of boffins from the Haifa Technion.

A self-employed person going with their partner to the function-hall wedding of a distant relative this weekend is advised to give NIS 588 (£118), an amount that rises to NIS 606 (£121) for a hightech employee and drops to NIS 412 (£82) if they are between jobs.

The Mitchatnim team is looking forward to a day when guests will transfer cash to the couple by credit card. It predicts: “The wedding of the 21st century will be like ‘pay and go.’ First check how much money the amount to be paid, then perform a payment by credit card, dress up nicely, get in the car, and go and celebrate.” The app logo