Cash only wedding shower

I'm planning a bridal shower for my niece, but she lives 3000 kilometers away. The event will be in here, in her hometown, but she can't realistically tote 20 toaster ovens on the airplane home. I want guests to only bring cash or gift cards. How do I articulate this? It will be mostly family, so I think they'll understand, but I do not want to offend anyone with the ask. Feedback welcome.

It's tacky. I don't think there's any nice way of asking people for straight up cash. I was having this conversation with my mother earlier this week and she agrees that so long as it's not stipulated on the invitation, she's happy to (and prefers) to give monetary gifts, but as soon as someone puts it down in writing, it feels a little grabby.

To each their own tho! I've learned (thanks to Wedding Wire) that it's very acceptable in many circles to include a cute poem about monetary gifts preferred, but I'm just not on board with that. I'm also the kind of person who prefers to gift money no matter what, so maybe that's why I find it tacky.

AH! Sorry about the run on paragraphs.

I'm sorry. but that is so out of line of them.
I don't know about where you are from. but cash is the norm as a wedding gift here. showers, you just usually don't give cash. the point of a shower is to help you set up your house, upgrade items etc. that's part of the reason i'm not having a shower. I've been on my own for 15 years. we have lived together for 3 years. there is nothing we need house wise.

I am truly a firm believer that everyone does things how they want. but I know that if I got a shower invite that was "monetary gifts only" or something like (even with it worded all nice). my first thought would be I'm not going. maybe harsh. but I have issues when I think something is rude.

If you are going to have a shower. I would register for some items at a store you like...say Canadian tire or home depot or maybe a travel agent. that way people have the option to give you useful gift cards.

I think the way your cousin's fiancée did it was pretty out of line, as your mom said - that being said, we have a very tiny traditional registry and a honeymoon registry where we've requested various cash amounts for different things we want to do on our honeymoon - under 'Registries' on our website, we just included the Honeymoon one with the message "We have all the 'things' we need to fill our home; help us create memories to fill our hearts".

Bridal showers are traditionally more gifts than cash, as they are meant to help her set up her new home. I would suggest leaving it at that for the shower, but on your wedding website, or as an insert in your invitations, let it be known you prefer cash - others have made great suggestions on how.

I'm not including anything in the invitations regarding gifts, I'm just leaving it a the guest's call. If anyone asks me, I'm just saying we're not registered.

I mean, to each their own but I would definitely be a little turned off if I received this request for a bridal shower. For a wedding, I think there's cute poems like the one Tori posted but for a bridal shower, I honestly think it seems greedy.

To me a bridal shower is more about showering the bride with nice, smaller, affordable presents (ie. new towels, picture frames, small appliances etc). Plus a good chunk of a bridal shower is opening presents - it would be weird to have only cards with cash in them.

I just had mine and created a small registry of things we needed or already had but would like to upgrade. We are both in our 30s and have been together for 5 years so as much as cash would be appreciated, I think a bridal shower is more for presents.

Just my opinion though....

I think it's fine asking for cash. It will help with your wedding expenses and everything. I asked but in a polite way on our wedding invitations.

wedding Invitation back

Otherwise yeah it's the older generation complaining. Back in the day I think weddings and expectations weren't as bad. It may become the new norm. I didn't need a registry since we pretty much already have all the household items we need. There's also complaints about wedding registries that are too expensive.

As for money for the bridal shower I think the price you would have paid for a wedding registry item would suffice.

So it's ok to ask for cash but do it politely.

I think that it's totally fine. Usually it's the older generation complaining about how they don't like giving money but the younger generation (the ones getting married) know just how much weddings cost and completely understand. We will be asking the same thing because we will have lived together for over a year by the time our shower and wedding roll around. We will simply put the poem I got from Pinterest: