And here we have our first commercial!
I’m going to need some “help” to get this off the ground, so make it rain, Dopers… I’ll get my PayPal set up to receive some generosity.
Yeah no one is going to have a card swiper because processing credit cards requires fees and that would mean less money for those greedy money-grabbing newlyweds. So they’re going to keep requiring you to use your checks (which cost you money) and your stamps (if you can’t come) to basically pay feels on the money they are begging you to part with.
Well not, you, OP, because you’d never go to such a wedding.
Of course I would now, because now I can call it “Market Research”–tax write-off! Cha-ching!
I think it’s a swell idea. So swell that I want them to mention it on the invitation so I can decline.
Or I guess I could go, and give $1, and let them wonder if I did something wrong and thought I gave $100 or $1000.
It seems like you have a huge chip on your shoulder about this.
It is most mysterious.
Seriously, can you just explain what your deal is?
Are you offended that certain traditions are being forgotten in the modern age?
Or do you seriously think that tendency means a slippery slope into the most absurd possible interpretation?
I’m not sure what you mean, Mathematics. I don’t like my potential enjoyment of choosing a gift for people I care about being replaced with wondering whether they actually care about anything besides fattening their wallets, but that has nothing to do with “tradition” per se, and actually nothing to do with this thread.
And if asking for cash isn’t absurd, why is accepting credit cards absurd? Seriously, checks and cash really are kind of a pain, and I for one would actually prefer to swipe my card than dust off the old promissory notebook, sharpen my quill pen, and try to find a pot of ink that hasn’t dried up yet. I probably wrote like 2 checks last year, the ATM will only give you so much cash per day, and carrying around all that paper is bad for the posture.
If you can’t lick 'em, join 'em, and find a way to make money off 'em, as the old saying goes.
There’s nothing particularly mysterious about my distaste for overt requests for cash.
People at the wedding are there for the party. In my experience, the gifts are sent ahead of time and not to the wedding venue (although some folks do bring cards/cash to the event). If the bride and groom want to make an electronic money gift option available to their guests, fine, but have it set up as a Paypal-type thing for people to use ahead of time. I don’t think cash gifts are tacky at all, but I think bridesmaids wandering the dance floor hitting people up for credit cards is horrible.