The Pros and Cons of Requesting Money as a Gift
Nowadays asking for cold hard cash instead of gifts is hardly uncommon; however there are quite a number of factors to consider before popping that request onto the invitation:
The Pros
You can buy what you need
Whereas in bygone days bride and groom married straight out of their parents’ houses, most modern day couples are already fairly settled into their own individual homes and lives. This means that you probably have just about all of the necessities required to make a house a home and most wedding gifts will be turn out to be somewhat redundant. By requesting money as wedding gift, you can essentially buy the things you still need instead of having to arrange for inconvenient gift exchanges.
You can spend more on your wedding
Weddings are expensive! Requesting money as gift could mean the difference between a plate of cupcakes and the five-tier chocolate ganache wedding cake you've got your heart set on. While you can’t necessarily bank on a set amount, monetary gifts can help lighten the burden and keep you from running up too much wedding debt. What’s more, even if you spend all your savings on the wedding, you’ll be guaranteed to have a little spending money in your pocket by the time you hit the honeymoon.
The Cons
You might not have anything to show
In many cases, couples are so overwhelmed by post-wedding payments and debt that they end up putting the gifted money towards paying these off. While there’s no fault in doing this, the result is that you won’t have a physical wedding gift to show off and keep as a memento of your big day.
How to get around it:
Using your gifted money to pay for wedding related expenses isn't a “no-no” – especially if lightening the financial burden is the main reason you requested monetary gifts in the first place. However, try to put a small amount aside to buy at least one wedding day keepsake, experience or gift for the home that you’ll treasure for the rest of your lives together.
It can be considered “impersonal”
Many guests, mostly older and more traditionally inclined, consider money to be somewhat cold and “not from the heart”. As a result, they might be more than a little miffed when the carefully worded “money please” invitation shows up in their post box.
How to get around it:
- Snap a picture of the item you purchased with the gifted money and include it with each of the thank you notes, so guests can see what their money went towards.
- Give your guests a selection of gifts towards which they can choose to “assign” their monetary gift in order to make the gift giving that much more personal.
- Request gift vouchers for a particular store or open a gift registry at a number of your favourite shops, instead of asking for cash per se.
