Wedding Gift Tables Are Disappearing & Everyone’s Happy About It

Wedding etiquette times are a-changin'. The New York Times reports millennial couples are being oh-so-millennial and passing up traditional wedding gift registries and requesting cold, hard cash – or "nuptial donations" to put it in a less money-grubbing light – instead. But, don't take it as a signal that younger people are getting greedy. They're just being more practical, more interested in going on adventurous honeymoons and building nest eggs than, say, acquiring dust-collecting fine china. “We wanted to establish a strong financial foundation for our future,” Drew Dolinger told The New York Times. In lieu of wedding presents, he and his fiancé collected donations for a down payment on their first house. This also shift reflects broader changes in how younger generations are settling down. With couples living together and waiting longer to get hitched, many already own plenty of home furnishing by the time they're walking down the aisle. In addition, traditional homemaking and hosting aren't nearly as common for millennials, eliminating the need for excessive finery to show off at bridge nights and block parties of yesteryear. Even etiquette mavens are fine with this tradition transition, so long as couples ask for monetary gifts graciously and offer options for old school gift givers who might feel more comfortable purchasing a pretty platter than donating to a honeymoon fund. “The nontraditional registries are fine as long as couples suggest and not demand money," Peggy Post, co-director of the Emily Post Institute, told The New York Times. In other words, setting up an online registry on sites like Honeyfund, Simple Registry or Hatch My House is perfectly acceptable these days, and frankly, we're all about not carrying a big box of silverware to a wedding.