Some gifts disappear within days. Others sit on a shelf, appreciated in theory but forgotten in practice. The best gifts do something entirely different. They become part of a couple's daily rhythm, woven into the quiet moments that define a shared life. When someone opens their kitchen cabinet on a Tuesday morning, years after a wedding or anniversary, and reaches for a bag of exceptional coffee, that is when a truly meaningful gift has done its job.
Personalized gifting has grown into one of the most requested categories for milestone occasions. Anniversaries alone now account for roughly 21 percent of all personalized gift orders, and weddings represent a significant and growing share of that demand. Couples and their guests are actively moving away from generic registry items toward gifts that carry a story, a provenance, and a sensory experience that lasts longer than any object on a shelf.
Coffee, and specifically Kona coffee, has emerged as one of the most compelling gifts in this category. It is not simply a commodity. Grown in a narrow belt on the volcanic slopes of Mauna Loa on Hawaii's Big Island, 100% Kona coffee is rare, regionally specific, and unmistakably exceptional in flavor. It carries a story every time it is brewed. And when that coffee comes directly from a working farm, the gift becomes something the recipient can speak about, share, and return to again and again.
We are Buddha's Cup, a family-run Kona coffee farm in Holualoa, Hawaii. We grow our coffee at elevation, in the rich volcanic soil and afternoon cloud cover that makes this particular corner of the Big Island one of the most celebrated coffee-growing regions on Earth. Beyond coffee, we grow mamaki tea on the farm, bake rum cakes, offer Hawaiian gifts, and welcome visitors through farm tours that range from casual to deeply immersive. Everything we offer carries the story of this land and this place.
This guide walks you through everything you need to build a Kona coffee gift that feels as significant as the occasion it honors. Whether you are shopping for a wedding, planning anniversary gifts, selecting favors for a large ceremony, or simply trying to find something genuinely extraordinary for a couple you love, you will find specific ideas, honest guidance, and a clear path forward here. If you want to start by exploring the broader landscape of exotic Hawaiian coffee gifts, that is a great first stop before you dive deeper into what personalization can look like at Buddha's Cup.
Why Personalized Gifts Have Become the New Standard for Weddings and Anniversaries
Not long ago, wedding registries were the entire story. Couples listed what they needed, guests chose from the list, and the transaction was complete. That model still exists, but it no longer dominates the way it once did. Something has shifted in how people think about milestone gifting, and the shift is real, measurable, and deeply human.
The Numbers Behind Personalized Gifting in 2026
The personalized gifts market was valued at approximately USD 34.15 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.5 percent through 2034, reaching an estimated USD 71.11 billion. That is not niche growth. That is a fundamental change in consumer behavior across demographics and income levels.
What is driving it? The answer is not simply a preference for monogrammed items or engraved keepsakes. The underlying demand is for gifts that feel considered, specific, and meaningful rather than convenient. People want to give something that communicates, "I thought about you specifically when I chose this." For weddings and anniversaries, that desire intensifies because the occasions themselves carry so much emotional weight.
Anniversaries drive 21 percent of all personalized gift orders, making them one of the single largest occasions in the entire category. Weddings, including both gifts to the couple and wedding favors for guests, represent another significant and fast-growing segment. These are not casual purchases. They are intentional investments in a relationship, and buyers are willing to spend more and think harder when the occasion demands it.
The data reflects a cultural reality that most of us already feel intuitively. When something matters deeply, a generic solution feels like a slight. We want the gift to be as specific and thoughtful as the relationship it represents. For the people buying on behalf of couples celebrating one of life's most significant milestones, that expectation is higher than ever.
What this means practically is that the market is hungry for gifts that have layers. Something that tells a story. Something tied to a place or a tradition. Something that creates an ongoing experience rather than a single moment of unwrapping. Coffee, particularly coffee from a specific farm in a specific region with a verifiable provenance, fits that description precisely.
What Couples Actually Want From a Meaningful Gift
Ask couples what they remember most about the gifts they received for their wedding or anniversary, and the answers almost never involve the most expensive item on the list. They remember the gift that surprised them, the one that required thought, the one that told them the giver truly knew them.
The shift away from registry-only gifting is being driven partly by the rise of couples who already share a home and already own most of what a traditional registry offers. But it is also being driven by a broader cultural appetite for experiences over objects, for stories over things, and for connection over transaction.
Coffee fits into this appetite in a unique way. A bag of 100% Kona coffee from a Hawaiian farm does not guess at anyone's size, decor style, or personal taste in art. It offers a sensory experience that the overwhelming majority of people genuinely enjoy, delivered in a form that feels elevated and regional rather than generic. For birthdays and anniversaries, a thoughtfully assembled coffee-centered gift feels personal without requiring you to guess someone's preferences. For weddings, it creates a story that both partners can share and revisit every morning they brew it together.
The key word is "revisit." Coffee is not a one-time experience. A pound of whole bean Kona coffee becomes a week or two of mornings. A recurring order becomes a year of them. The gift does not end at unwrapping. It keeps delivering, quietly, in a moment of the day that most couples share together.
Why Coffee Has Become a Wedding and Anniversary Gift Category
Personalized coffee experiences have become an explicit 2026 wedding trend. We are seeing coffee stations at receptions, custom coffee blends as favors, and artisan roasters featured in bridal planning guides that would not have considered coffee a gift category five years ago. The ritual of coffee, its intimacy, its daily presence in a couple's home, has earned it a place in milestone gifting that is not going away.
What elevates a coffee gift from nice to exceptional is the same thing that elevates any personalized gift: specificity. Origin purity, award-winning quality, and refined packaging carry real value in this space. When a couple receives coffee that was grown on a named farm in a specific valley in Hawaii, hand-harvested and processed with care, that is a different category of gift entirely. It has a story that the recipient can tell, and it connects the occasion to a place that most people associate with beauty, romance, and paradise.
Not all coffee is equal for this purpose. The choice of Kona coffee, and specifically 100% Kona coffee from a farm like Buddha's Cup, is what turns a pleasant consumable into a genuinely meaningful, story-rich gift. That distinction matters, and the next section explains exactly why. For anyone just beginning to explore what makes Kona coffee special as a collectible and giftable product, our guide for the Kona coffee collector offers a helpful foundation. And if you are ready to think specifically about coffee form, our resource on whole bean Kona coffee explains why whole bean is the premium standard for gifting.
What Makes Kona Coffee the Right Choice for Milestone Gifting
Not every premium coffee earns the right to anchor a wedding or anniversary gift. The best gifts carry weight, rarity, and meaning that extends beyond the cup. Kona coffee carries all three, and for reasons that are both geographic and cultural.
The Rarity and Reputation of 100% Kona Coffee
Kona coffee grows in one place on Earth. The Kona Coffee Belt runs along the western slopes of Mauna Loa and Hualalai on the Big Island of Hawaii, spanning roughly 30 miles in length and just a few miles wide. The elevation, the volcanic soil, the morning sun and afternoon cloud cover that characterizes this microclimate, all of these factors combine to produce a coffee that cannot be replicated anywhere else. The supply is naturally and permanently limited by geography.
That limitation is part of what makes 100% Kona coffee exceptional as a gift. You are not giving something mass-produced. You are giving something grown in one specific valley, on one specific farm, under conditions that cannot be industrialized or expanded beyond what the land itself allows. That is rarity in its most honest form.
It is also important to understand that not all coffee labeled "Kona" is the same thing. Hawaiian law permits products labeled "Kona blend" to contain as little as 10 percent actual Kona coffee, with the remaining 90 percent being coffee from other, often far less distinguished, origins. This distinction matters enormously for gift-giving. When you give someone a 100% Kona coffee from Buddha's Cup, you are giving them the real thing, with no filler, no compromise, and no ambiguity. Our resource on blended Kona coffee explains this in detail and helps buyers make confident, informed choices.
At Buddha's Cup, our commitment is to 100% estate-grown Kona coffee. What we sell is what we grow, here in Holualoa, on our own land. That is a provenance story that any recipient can verify, share, and appreciate, and it is the kind of specificity that transforms a gift from something purchased into something given with genuine intention.
Flavor as a Shared Sensory Memory
Beyond its rarity, Kona coffee earns its place in milestone gifting through what it actually tastes like. The flavor profile of a well-grown, well-processed 100% Kona coffee is distinctive: smooth, relatively low in acidity compared to many other single-origin coffees, with a medium body and a complexity that reveals itself slowly across a cup. There is often a natural sweetness, hints of fruit or chocolate depending on the processing method and roast level, and a finish that lingers without bitterness.
This is a flavor that people remember. It is approachable enough for someone who drinks coffee every morning without thinking much about it, and nuanced enough to genuinely engage a more thoughtful drinker. For wedding and anniversary gifts, that accessibility matters. You are often giving to two people who may have different palates and different relationships with coffee. Kona navigates that breadth gracefully.
More importantly, flavor is a form of memory. The smell of brewing coffee is one of the most evocative sensory experiences in domestic life. When a couple brews their first cup from a bag of Kona coffee received as a wedding gift, that sensory experience becomes linked to the occasion. Every subsequent cup carries a small echo of that moment. Over months and years, that association deepens. The gift keeps working long after the occasion that prompted it.
To help gift recipients get the most from their Kona coffee, we always recommend pairing the gift with a resource on brewing quality Kona coffee. The right grind, water temperature, and brew method can make a significant difference in whether someone falls in love with the coffee or simply enjoys it. Making sure the recipient brews it well is part of giving the gift fully.
The Story of Buddha's Cup, Gifting Something With a Farm Behind It
Holualoa is a small, art-filled village perched above the Kailua-Kona coastline at roughly 1,400 feet of elevation. The town is known for its galleries, its coffee, and its unhurried character. Buddha's Cup sits in this landscape, farming the volcanic slopes that have made this region famous for over a century of coffee cultivation.
When you purchase from Buddha's Cup, you are buying directly from the farm that grew the coffee. There is no importer, no repackager, no anonymous supply chain between the tree and the bag. The story of the coffee is the story of this land, this elevation, and the people who work it. That provenance is something a gift recipient can hold onto and share. It is a conversation starter. It is a connection to a place that most people find deeply appealing.
Beyond coffee, we grow mamaki tea on the farm, bake rum cakes using our own coffee in the recipe, and offer farm tours that bring visitors directly into the growing and processing experience. The ecosystem of what we do means that a gift from Buddha's Cup can be as simple as a single bag of coffee or as layered as a curated set that includes tea, cake, and a standing invitation to visit the farm. That range is what makes us a natural fit for milestone gifting at every scale and budget.
For anyone curious about which farms in the region are worth visiting and what distinguishes them, our guide to Kona coffee farm tours provides helpful context about the experience landscape on the Big Island.
How to Personalize a Kona Coffee Gift for a Wedding
Weddings are logistically and emotionally complex occasions. The gift you give needs to work for two people, fit the tone of the celebration, and feel genuinely thoughtful without requiring the recipient to do too much to enjoy it. Kona coffee gifts can serve all of these requirements, but the specific choices you make within that category matter quite a bit.
Choosing the Right Kona Coffee for Wedding Recipients
The first step is thinking about who you are gifting. Are you giving to the couple themselves, selecting something intimate and high-quality for two people you know well? Are you choosing wedding favors for a larger guest list? Or are you putting together a bridal party gift that needs to feel generous and cohesive across a small group?
For a couple you know well, start with what you know about their coffee habits. Do they brew at home? Do they prefer a lighter roast with more brightness, or a darker roast with more body and depth? If you are not sure, a medium roast is almost always the safest and most universally appreciated starting point for a 100% Kona coffee. It showcases the origin's natural character without polarizing the palate.
The choice between whole bean and pre-ground coffee is worth considering carefully for a gift. Whole bean coffee stays fresh significantly longer after roasting, which matters when you are shipping or presenting a gift that may sit for a few days before being opened and enjoyed. Whole bean also signals quality in a way that pre-ground coffee simply does not. If the couple owns a grinder, whole bean is almost always the right choice. If you are not sure, a note inside the gift suggesting a local cafe or a simple blade grinder is a thoughtful addition. For more on why this matters, our resource on whole bean Kona coffee goes into the details clearly.
Presentation matters enormously for wedding gifts. Buddha's Cup coffee arrives in packaging that reflects the care put into what is inside. The gift does not need elaborate additional wrapping to feel premium. A ribbon, a handwritten card, and perhaps a small keepsake item from Hawaii alongside the coffee can complete the presentation without overcomplicating it.
For wedding favors, consistency is key. When you are ordering for a larger group, every bag should represent the same quality and the same story. Farm-direct sourcing ensures that consistency in a way that purchasing from a middleman simply cannot. Every favor tells the same true story about the same land.
Building a Complete Wedding Gift Experience Around Kona Coffee
A single bag of exceptional Kona coffee is a wonderful gift on its own. But for a wedding, where the occasion calls for something that feels complete and curated, layering additional elements can transform a good gift into an extraordinary one.
Consider building a "taste of Hawaii" gift set that pairs Kona coffee with mamaki tea and a Buddha's Cup rum cake. Each element of this set plays a distinct role. The coffee is the centerpiece, the daily ritual the couple will return to for weeks. The mamaki tea provides an alternative for the partner who may not drink coffee, or for the couple's quieter afternoon moments. The rum cake adds a celebratory, indulgent element that photographs beautifully, travels reliably, and creates an immediate occasion for enjoyment the moment it is unwrapped.
Mamaki is a native Hawaiian plant that we grow right here on the farm. It makes a distinctive, earthy herbal tea that is quite different from anything most people encounter in mainland grocery stores. For health-conscious couples, it carries a wellness dimension that feels thoughtful and contemporary. If you want to understand why mamaki tea makes such a compelling companion to coffee in a gift set, our resource on the health benefits of iced mamaki tea explains what makes this plant genuinely special.
The rum cake distinction is also worth knowing before you order. Buddha's Cup offers both a classic rum cake and a macadamia nut version, each with its own character. If you are gifting to someone with known nut preferences or allergies, this matters. For everything else you need to know about the two options, our guide on the rum cake difference will help you choose confidently.
When you present this set together, it becomes more than a collection of items. It becomes a curated experience of place, something that communicates Hawaii with every component. For a couple who was married in Hawaii, it is a beautiful extension of the memory. For a couple who has never been, it is a sensory introduction to a destination that may become part of their future together.
Wedding Favors at Scale, Ordering for Large Groups
Wedding favors present a different kind of challenge than individual gifts. The scale goes up, the budget per unit often comes down, and the need for consistency across every single favor becomes critical. What you do not want is a table where some guests received a beautifully fresh bag of coffee and others received something that had been sitting in a warehouse too long.
Farm-direct sourcing is the most reliable solution to this problem. When every bag of coffee in your favor order comes from the same farm, processed in the same way, roasted to the same profile, the consistency is structural rather than aspirational. Buddha's Cup coffee does not pass through multiple hands before reaching your recipients. It goes from our farm to you, which protects both quality and freshness in a way that chain-retailer sourcing simply cannot match.
For larger favor orders, we recommend reaching out to us directly well in advance of your wedding date. Lead times for bulk orders matter, particularly for a product like coffee where you want to give your recipients something freshly roasted rather than something that has been sitting in inventory. A good rule of thumb is to begin your ordering conversation at least six to eight weeks before you need the favors in hand.
Personalization elements for wedding favors can include custom gift cards with a message from the couple, occasion-specific notes that tell the story of the coffee and why the couple chose it, and packaging arrangements that fit your favor table aesthetic. For couples who want maximum flexibility, a Buddha's Cup gift card included alongside a small sample of coffee allows guests to choose their own full-size coffee or tea product later. This approach works particularly well for large weddings where individual preferences vary widely. Our gift card for coffee and tea is a thoughtful, flexible addition to any favor arrangement.
How to Personalize a Kona Coffee Gift for an Anniversary
Anniversary gifting has its own emotional texture. Where a wedding gift celebrates the beginning, an anniversary gift honors the accumulation of years shared together. It carries an intimacy that a wedding gift rarely needs to match, and it invites a specificity that only someone who truly knows the couple can offer.
Matching the Gift to the Anniversary Milestone
Traditional anniversary gift guides assign a material or theme to each year. Paper for the first. Wood for the fifth. Silver for the 25th. Gold for the 50th. The modern interpretation of these guides has expanded significantly to include experiential and artisan gift categories, and coffee fits naturally into several of them.
For a first anniversary, the traditional material is paper. A beautifully written card paired with a bag of Kona coffee honors both the tradition and the couple's taste. The card carries the sentiment. The coffee carries the daily ritual. Together they suggest a future of mornings shared together, which is a quietly powerful anniversary message.
For a fifth anniversary, where the modern interpretation often includes wood, a wooden serving tray or pour-over stand alongside a selection of Kona coffees creates a cohesive set that feels curated and intentional. The couple gets both the aesthetic object and the consumable experience.
For 25th and 50th anniversaries, the milestone is significant enough to call for something more immersive. A farm tour experience at Buddha's Cup, presented as a gift card or a booked reservation, signals that the gift has been genuinely considered. It is not a generic present. It is an invitation to come to Hawaii, stand on a working coffee farm, and understand the story behind the coffee they have been drinking. For a couple celebrating decades together, that kind of experience resonates in a way that another household object simply cannot.
The core idea is that anniversaries command this level of thought because they honor not just a moment but a duration. The 21 percent of personalized gift orders driven by anniversaries reflects how seriously people take these occasions. The gift you choose says something about how much you value what that couple has built together.
Kona Coffee as a Recurring Anniversary Tradition
One of the most thoughtful anniversary gifts you can give is not a single item but a tradition. Establishing Kona coffee as the annual anniversary gift, perhaps a different roast level or processing method each year, creates something that the couple looks forward to and that deepens in meaning over time.
Consider the shape of this tradition. In the first year, a medium roast from Buddha's Cup accompanies a handwritten note. In the third year, perhaps a natural-processed coffee with its fruit-forward character marks how the relationship has deepened and grown more complex. In the fifth year, a darker roast signals something more confident and settled. This kind of intentional progression is the kind of personalization that money cannot manufacture. It requires thought, consistency, and genuine knowledge of the couple.
For couples who visited Hawaii on their honeymoon, Kona coffee carries geographic memory in every cup. The smell of freshly brewed Kona may bring back mornings on a lanai, the sound of the ocean, the particular quality of light that the Big Island delivers. No other gift category does that with the same reliability and intimacy. Our guide for the Kona coffee collector explores the depth and variety available in this category, which is helpful context if you are building a multi-year tradition around different expressions of the same origin.
You can also think about recurring delivery as a gift format. Rather than a one-time order, a subscription arrangement that delivers fresh Kona coffee on a regular schedule keeps the gift alive throughout the year. The couple thinks of you, and of the occasion, every time the next delivery arrives. For an anniversary, there is something genuinely lovely about a gift that returns and returns, mirroring the nature of the commitment being celebrated.
Pairing Coffee With the Anniversary Experience, Tea, Cake, and Culinary Ideas
Not every member of a couple drinks coffee, and a thoughtful anniversary gift accounts for both partners. Mamaki tea is an ideal addition for the partner who prefers an alternative to coffee. Grown on our farm in Holualoa, mamaki is a native Hawaiian herbal tea with a mild, earthy flavor and genuine wellness credentials. Including it in an anniversary gift set ensures that the non-coffee-drinker in the relationship has something specifically chosen for them.
A Buddha's Cup rum cake adds a celebratory dimension to an anniversary morning that nothing else quite replicates. It is indulgent, shelf-stable for easy shipping, and immediately usable. An anniversary morning that begins with fresh Kona coffee, mamaki tea for one partner, and a slice of rum cake shared between them is a genuinely lovely ritual, and the gift that makes it possible is one the couple will remember.
For adventurous couples, the culinary possibilities of Kona coffee extend well beyond the morning cup. Coffee can be incorporated into desserts with surprising and delicious results. If you are gifting to a couple who loves to cook or bake together, pointing them toward resources that explore Kona coffee desserts can inspire evenings in the kitchen that become their own kind of anniversary celebration. Similarly, the question of Kona coffee cocktails opens a genuinely exciting dimension for couples who enjoy mixing drinks together at home. An espresso martini made with 100% Kona coffee is a very different experience from one made with a commodity coffee. And for the couple intrigued by homemade spirits, the idea of a Kona coffee cake they bake together is exactly the kind of shared activity that makes an anniversary gift memorable long after the coffee is gone.
The key is treating the coffee as a starting point rather than an endpoint. The best anniversary gifts invite the couple to do something together, and Kona coffee provides an abundance of directions that invitation can take.
The Farm Tour Gift, Turning Kona Coffee Into a Living Experience
A product, no matter how excellent, is a fixed thing. It has a beginning and an end. An experience has neither. It lives in the memory of the people who shared it, and it grows richer with time rather than diminishing. For a wedding or anniversary gift, there is a compelling argument that the most meaningful thing you can give is not a product but an experience, and that is precisely what a Buddha's Cup farm tour provides.
Why a Farm Tour Is the Most Personalized Gift of All
Experiential gifts are considered the most deeply personal category in modern gifting because they require the giver to think specifically about what the recipient would find meaningful, and they give the recipient something that is genuinely theirs: a memory, a skill, a story they can tell. A farm tour at Buddha's Cup does all of this.
When a couple walks our land in Holualoa, they are standing at roughly 1,400 feet above sea level, looking out over the Pacific on one side and the coffee trees rising up the volcanic slope on the other. They learn where their morning cup actually comes from. They see the fruit on the tree. They understand the work. That understanding transforms every cup of coffee they drink afterward. The gift keeps giving in a way that no product alone can replicate.
At Buddha's Cup, we offer several tour options, each designed for a different kind of visitor and a different kind of gift.
Our Free Farm Tour is an accessible, welcoming introduction to the farm, the coffee, and the story of Holualoa. It is ideal for visitors who are new to Kona coffee or who are exploring the area and want a genuine experience without a significant time commitment.
The Deluxe Tasting experience goes deeper, pairing a guided tour of the farm with a formal tasting of multiple coffees. This is the right choice for couples who already appreciate coffee and want to understand the differences between roast levels, processing methods, and what makes Buddha's Cup's specific expression of Kona distinctive.
Manny's Walking Tour is our most narrative-rich offering. Led by our own Manny, this tour prioritizes storytelling. You learn about the history of Kona coffee, the culture of Holualoa, the specific decisions that have shaped our farm, and the broader agricultural heritage of Hawaii. For couples who love history and place-based knowledge, this is an extraordinary way to spend a morning.
The VIP ATV Tour is our premium adventure experience. It takes guests through parts of the farm that are not accessible on foot, with a level of access and excitement that suits couples who bring an adventurous spirit to everything they do. For a honeymoon or milestone anniversary gift, the VIP ATV Tour signals that you thought carefully about who this couple is and what they would genuinely love to do.
Our resource on what happens during a Kona coffee farm tour provides a clear, detailed picture of what guests can expect at each stage of the experience. And if you are wondering about logistics, our guide on Holualoa coffee tours explains exactly where and how to arrive.
Gifting a Farm Tour for a Wedding or Anniversary
Giving a farm tour as a gift is simpler than it might sound. A Buddha's Cup gift card can be used toward any of our tour experiences, which means you can present the gift before the recipient's visit to Hawaii and let them book the specific tour that appeals most to them when they arrive. This flexibility is a significant advantage for weddings and anniversaries where you may not know exactly when the couple plans to travel.
For destination wedding couples who are already planning a ceremony or honeymoon on the Big Island, a booked farm tour experience is a wonderful complement to their itinerary. Imagine gifting the honeymoon couple not just a bag of coffee but an actual morning on the farm where it was grown. That is the kind of layered gift that couples talk about for years.
The VIP ATV Tour is particularly well suited as a premium honeymoon or anniversary experience for couples who bring an adventurous sensibility to their relationship. It is memorable, physical, and deeply tied to the specific landscape of Holualoa in a way that a resort activity simply cannot match.
Manny's Walking Tour, by contrast, is perfect for the couple who wants to slow down, listen, and absorb the place fully. The intimacy of a small-group, story-driven tour feels almost like a private experience, and for a couple celebrating an anniversary, that quality of attention is exactly right.
Our gift card for coffee and tea is the most flexible vehicle for delivering any of these experiences, allowing the recipient to apply it toward the tour, the farm store, or both. And for couples wondering whether to combine a farm visit with a longer stay in the area, our resource on lodging at Kona coffee farms provides helpful context about what the overnight experience landscape looks like in this region.
The Mamaki Tea Experience on the Farm
Many visitors arrive at Buddha's Cup focused on coffee and leave equally captivated by mamaki. This is not a surprise to us. Mamaki is a native Hawaiian plant that we grow alongside our coffee trees, and it represents something genuinely different from anything most visitors have encountered before.
Mamaki tea carries a mild, earthy flavor with herbal depth that holds up well both hot and iced. It is naturally caffeine-free, which makes it a beautiful companion to coffee in a gift set rather than a competitor. For couples where one partner does not