Miss Manners on money-grubbing brides/grooms
Lenona
http://www.buffalonews.com/life/columns-advice/miss-manners/article224136.ece
Dear Miss Manners: My husband and I were invited to a (sort-of)
wedding. I say sort-of because the invitation went something like
this: You are not invited to the actual wedding. You are invited to
view a recording of the wedding, which will be held at a certain hour.
After viewing the recording of the wedding, you are invited to the
reception. And, since the couple has lived together as man and wife,
they have all the household stuff they need. However, you are asked to
bring money for the “money tree.”
Would you, Miss Manners, have even bothered to spend $4 on a
congratulatory card, plus what it cost to mail the card? Do you feel I
wasted my money, considering the couple’s stupid request?
Gentle Reader: Probably. You could have saved a few dollars by using a
piece of plain paper to decline the invitation and wish the couple
happiness. Miss Manners would not, however, have begrudged the stamp.
A couple who invites you to their—well, perhaps not to their wedding,
but to their wedding reception —however crudely, deserves a polite
reply.