Asking for cash at a wedding is nothing new, we did it for our wedding over 10 years ago. The fact we'd been living together for many many years before getting married meant any present people were likely to buy us we already had, so we pooled all the money together from our friends and family and bought a old style decorative combustion stove fire place for our house, and also had it installed with that money. We let everyone know what they bought us and how much we appreciated thier present.
