Financial contribution to overseas wedding rather than gifts?

I don't think you can ask people to contribute to this, it's not the same as a honeymoon fund. People will not even be attending the wedding, so how would you word it? 'We're getting married abroad, if you'd like to give us a present, please give us money towards this, even though you're not invited'? Very rude in my eyes, I certainly wouldn't contribute

Are you having a party when you return to the UK? Maybe you could ask for money then, but generally I think people prefer to give vouchers or a gift.

I'm getting married in Greece this September, and I wouldn't imagine asking people fot money towards it.

I think you should only book a wedding based on your budget, whether thats you paying or your parents. If you were getting married in the UK you wouldn't ask people to contribute towards it, and I don't think its any different if you're getting married overseas

Hope this helps x

Thanks for your advice...

I don't think I phrased my post very well! I was questioning whether we can ask people for money (as many weddings we've been to in the past have asked) rather than the normal wedding gifts as we have been living together for so long. We could then put that money back towards the cost of the trip.

The only awkwardness is how we would go about this as we wouldnt be sending "invites" out of sorts. Still, I know that when we get back, people would want to buy us a gift of some sort!

Thanks again.

You could set up a wedding website? We've got one which we sent out on our invites for our party when we get back, use somewhere like www.weddingpath.co.uk

If you are having a party when you get back, you could include a short line on there that you are not having a gift list, but if anyone would like to give you a gift, you would appreciate cash / vouchers.

If you are having a party when you get back then I think you could ask for money. However, if you are having nothing in the UK then I think it would be rude to send a 'we;ve got married' card with a request for money.

If you're asking for money instead of gifts I think it's acceptable. Wer'e having our wedding in South Africa and we've already set up a home here etc. So we asked our "SA friends and family" guests to contribute money instead of a gift as it's awkward to take back with us. For the guests who are coming in from the UK we asked that if they wish to give us a gift then by all means but to give it after the wedding when we're back. Saves them carrying it over if they come. We booked ourselves a safari for while we're over there as a type of "mini moon" and we've asked guests who wish to contribute to contribute to that. We've already paid for it so we asked them to send the money either into our paypal account or into a bank account which we set up for it.

The response we got was really positive as we explained to everyone before hand what our intentions were. We didn't go in with any surprises as some people can take offence if it's not done correctly.

There's loads of wordings you can find on the internet to ask for cash instead. I'm sure you could find something apt there. Good luck!

Hiya

We are getting married in Cyprus where no family or friends will be attending but we are having a party when we get back. We have set up a gift list with a store for a few small things we need replacing for those who want to physically get us something and we have set up another list for day trips etc we would like to do while away.

x

Hi,

To make it less impersonal than cash you could create a gift list with individual elements that guests can contribute towards - such as contributions towards the honeymoon suite, special meals out, swimming with dolphins, etc. Of course, we provide such a service ?

If you are worried that not all your guests would want to contribute to the wedding directly, you could create a list with some more traditional items (e.g. kitchenware) alongside the contributions to your wedding or honeymoon.

I think a good way of asking for gifts is to send out an information pack or website all about your wedding and put a 'wedding gifts' section in there. Personally, I think the best way to ask is just to be genuine and say how the contributions from your guests would enable you to have your dream wedding.

Asking for cash is one of those things that always divides opinion! In some countries it's normal but in the UK and USA it still seems to be a bit of a taboo - it depends a lot on your particular guests - you just have to consider whether your more distant relatives would be happy giving cash.

Good luck!

Chris

Hi, I think it's all down to how you word it. We didn't have a gift list for our wedding, we had a bit in the invites saying "we would rather your presence than your presents, but if you would like to give us a gift we'd really appreciate a donation towards our honeymoon, we're off to xx" we went on to say things we'd love to do on honeymoon. We had already book and paid for it, so the money we got as gifts was our spending money. Everyone seemed to take it very well, and we got cash, cheques, and some vouchers for our travel agents (who had already told us they'd give us the full value back in cash as we'd already paid).

Good luck,

Michele