How much cash?

Bird1210

My fiance and I are planning on having a full registry.  We're both college students and have never lived together and don't really own any of the necessary household items, but I know that even if we do register some people will just give cash.  We will be on a very tight budget after we're married and I wondered about how much cash we might receive as wedding presents?  We are getting married in Illinois and we are guessing we'll have around 200 people attend the wedding.  Any guesses?  I haven't heard a good rule of thumb to go off of so I wasn't sure if there was any way to predict.Thanks!

panda&squishy

I doubt there's any way to predict this. I wouldn't depend on the cash to pay for anything wedding related, like vendors.

Bird1210

I was thinking more along the lines of honeymoon cash, but thanks!

KatieEHeim

I think it depends on your area as well. I am from Long Island and typically brides on LI register and the items purchased off of the registry are typically given as engagement and shower presents. (We didn't have an engagement party, but we still received about 35 - 40 engagement presents.) Then, for the wedding, most people give cash, but that's just what is common where we are from.

banana468

Unfortunately there's just no way to predict this.  It really depends on the norm for your area, if the guests follow it, what their social situation is, how many people you invite, etc.The best thing to do is to budget for zero and then you're happily surprised if you're able to supplement your vacation with wedding presents.

Tatum88

Have you considered registering for your honeymoon so that guests will know you would like to receive cash? The website we registered with, myregistry.com, lets you make cash gift funds that show up right on your registry. That way, when guests look to see what you are registered for they will see "honeymoon fund" or whatever you label it as an option. You could even just make a general cash fund if you just need cash in general. This might be a good way to ensure that someone will likely give you cash. Especially if you already have a full registry. Where are you registered? If you are worried about having too many registries, I know the website we are using lets you automatically import registries from target and crate and barrel, if that helps you. Good luck!

jinxed8605

My brother and SIL just got married in August. They had roughly 100 guests show up and received close to $2000 cash, but most guests were very close friends and family.  Each set of guests will be different and you really cannot judge based on someone else unless mostly the same people will be coming to your wedding that went to theirs. HTH

Aimee8314

Ugh! to PP there is no way to register for cash with appearing completely tragic.  I'm not help with the OP though - I wouldn't know how to predict that.  Our family does more gifts off registeries than cash.

[Deleted User]

There is no way to know. Do your set usually give money or gifts? I have no idea the amount your friends will give.

megk8oz

Yeah, there's really no way to predict this.I'm from NJ, where the general rule as far as giving cash goes is to "cover your plate" (As in, if it's a reception costing $75 a head, then a couple giving cash would give in the ballpark of $150). I've seen other NJ people mention this on other boards, and it's apparently "completely unheard of" just about everywhere else on the planet.A big factor is the attitude of your guests when it comes to gifts. Some people are like religiously opposed to giving out cash (They believe a gift MUST come from a box). Other people are like me, and believe that cash is pretty much the BEST gift because you always need it, and you don't have to worry about it being "not your taste" in 6 months.

baby green bird

Don't do a HM registry. They are very tacky.

chosen175

Your best bet of getting a ballpark figure is to ask someone in your family/circle of friends that you're close to... but a lot of people don't like to give up that information. I really couldn't tell you. I do believe in using the cost of a plate as a ballpark figure when giving cash gifts, but I know most of my friends don't agree. Giving cash is always a personal opinion based on their financial situation and how close they are to the bride & groom. If you're inviting a lot of college aged people, I wouldn't expect much cash. If it's mostly relatives who live in $3m houses and drive Ferraris, you can probably expect a little more. I also find that older people like to give actual GIFTS, not cash. But like pp's said, there's really no way to predict it and you shouldn't "spend" that money ahead of time.

[Deleted User]

My FI's cousin just got married this past summer. His family is all about only giving money...and I mean large sums of money. She ended up getting over $7000. We gave $200. If the guests don't seem richy richy, then I doubt you'd get that much, but I wouldn't know. Oh and she had only 80 guests. Divide that up. :O!

kris10bar1

My sister got married this past summer and got about $25,000 from 300 guests. But where I live everyone give you cash as your wedding gift and buys gifts from the registry for your engagement party and shower. I thought this was completely normal until now.

jinxed8605

$25,000!?!? Did she have a platinum wedding with entirely millionaires on the guest list?

kris10bar1

No, everyone was just very generous. I was shocked when she told me so got that much.

samgirl

we registered with http://www.depositagift.com and our guests loved it. we registered for our first home. you could do your honeymoon too, or just about anything you want. and you get a full website if you want too. oh, and there is a place to list your other registries, so if you want to register for non-cash gifts, your guests will have options. we loved having everything in one place. plus, a deposit a gift registry made our lives lots easier...avoided the nightmare of returns and missing items that all my friends told me about. whatever you choose will be right for you. good luck!

janedoe1113a

Wow...if I got $25,000 at our wedding I would be yipping and yelling for joy.  That is a huge down payment on a house.

squirrly

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_registering-gifts_much-cash?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:34Discussion:10474471Post:d4a91178-4d90-4f70-a956-60d8562dc3e1">Re: How much cash?</a>:
[QUOTE]we registered with <a href="http://www.depositagift.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.depositagift.com</a> and our guests loved it. we registered for our first home. you could do your honeymoon too, or just about anything you want. and you get a full website if you want too. oh, and there is a place to list your other registries, so if you want to register for non-cash gifts, your guests will have options. we loved having everything in one place. plus, a deposit a gift registry made our lives lots easier...avoided the nightmare of returns and missing items that all my friends told me about. whatever you choose will be right for you. good luck!
Posted by samgirl[/QUOTE]

Keep in mind they're keeping 7.5% of your guests' gifts to you.  As a guest, I would NEVER deposit money with a company like this for you.  I want you to have the gift I picked for you.  Not some CEO.

MyNameIsNot

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_registering-gifts_much-cash?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:34Discussion:10474471Post:d4a91178-4d90-4f70-a956-60d8562dc3e1">Re: How much cash?</a>:
[QUOTE]we registered with <a href="http://www.depositagift.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.depositagift.com</a> and our guests loved it. we registered for our first home. you could do your honeymoon too, or just about anything you want. and you get a full website if you want too. oh, and there is a place to list your other registries, so if you want to register for non-cash gifts, your guests will have options. we loved having everything in one place. plus, a deposit a gift registry made our lives lots easier...avoided the nightmare of returns and missing items that all my friends told me about. whatever you choose will be right for you. good luck!
Posted by samgirl[/QUOTE]

How tacky!