Weddings - a nice little earner??

thomasross20

FYI the invitation card did ask for cash. Not in a brash way but as part of a poem - it was cool in a way but still... lol!!

thomasross20

When I get married, it will be off to the registry office and then straight to holiday. I don't believe in big expensive weddings - would rather put it toward the cost of a house. 

stickyfiddle

Pretty sure this is nonsense...

FWIW we got a lot less than 200EUR average from ours in 2013. We did ask specifically not for money, but that people not give us gifts as all our stuff would already be in a shipping container by our wedding day. Our total gift-haul was significantly less than the outlay for the day, and our wedding was a good chunk cheaper than the national average.

WezV

I got about £30 on average when i got married.  My wifes gran did give a few hundred but it certainly wasn't an average that high.    We got about £3k from about 100 guests.  I generally give about £50.

Mine was a holiday fund, and we got to go a lot further than we expected!

their is a suggestion above that its a bit of a class thing, but most of my friends have gone for posh expensive weddings.  My wife and I didn't because we are both quite sensible with money and couldn't ever see ourselves spending £15 - 30k+ on a wedding when it could be better spent on something useful.  She also stopped me buying an expensive engagement ring as she said £500 was the limit to what she wanted to be carrying on her finger.  She had lost another ring I brought her before

We  did registry office and village hall , we blew most of our budget on a covers band and a good supply of free booze for the guests.  In-laws paid for a meal at a nice local restaurant for 30 of us.  For our evening food  we paid £3 a head for a jacket potato van to turn up... this was after a mate paid £16 a head for wedding caterers to do fish and chips at some country golf course (oven baked )

I just hate the "wedding tax" that gets applied.  We phoned a local company to see about hiring a double decker bus to transport us around.   They wanted £600 to take us 2 miles from the registry office to fancy restaurant.  We got an uncle to drive us round in his recently restored VW camper instead

Wife wanted a dress she looked good in rather than a white thing.   Suddenly, because she is wearing a dress that isn't white we were looking at £300 for a dressshe actually liked rather than £3k+ for a dress she didn't

FelineGuitars

People do get ripped off at weddings (and sadly funerals too - at a time when you are not inclined to haggle)

fretmeister

We did an old fashioned wedding list.

It had the usual stuff on it because the stuff we owned was cheap shite.

But we did also have a "Argos Vouchers" option for those who didn't want the hassle of choosing.

I don't see asking for cash as being any more or less awful than specifying a physical gift.

EDIT: in fact I'd be fekking annoyed if the happy couple put a Toaster on a list when they didn't need another one. It would be a waste.

chrispy108

I don't see why giving cash is considered rude, but if you go into a shop and give them cash and get them to attach some terms and conditions and an expiry date to it then it's polite.

Phil_aka_Pip

Divorce is also a nice little earner. Wife can kick husband out of the house he paid for, leaving him nothing but the clothes he stands up in, and then claim for maintenance. Happened to chap I worked with a few years ago.

Longtallronnie

Don't see any problem with asking for cash instead of gifts. Lots of couples live together before getting married so have probably got most the stuff they need. 

You could argue that a wedding list is cheekier as you're dictating (to an extent) what a guest spends on a gift. I've never been invited to a wedding that specified an amount when asking for money instead of gifts. FWIW, we politely asked for money but were more interested in making sure everyone had an enjoyable day. There were so many other things to worry about on the day, presents were pretty far down the list!

littlegreenman

Why ask for anything at all? It's a day about two people doing some promise-y stuff, that nearly half won't keep.

Do you have to gift the same again on marriage v2.0? What about v3.0?

Surely simply being there as friends and family and wishing the happy couple all the best should be enough?

I'm disillusioned with the whole "gifts for all occasions" BS.

viz

fretmeister said:

We did an old fashioned wedding list.

It had the usual stuff on it because the stuff we owned was cheap shite.

But we did also have a "Argos Vouchers" option for those who didn't want the hassle of choosing.

I don't see asking for cash as being any more or less awful than specifying a physical gift.

EDIT: in fact I'd be fekking annoyed if the happy couple put a Toaster on a list when they didn't need another one. It would be a waste.

I think Chilli asked for 6.

jonnyburgo

Our wedding cost about £6,000, registery office and a meal and party all all at the same hotel so nobody had to dick about going from venue to venue. My wifes engagement ring was second hand white gold and cost £160, her wedding ring is silver and cost £20 as did mine. I don't go for all that flash, its just showing off to me, people feel pressured to match or outdo their friends. I couldnt give a fuck, just wanted to get married. Still very happy (and lucky) 13 years in.