How to ask for money as a wedding gift — polite wording examples

Wondering how to ask for money as a wedding gift? Well, you’re not alone. As the UK’s favourite wedding registry and honeymoon fund service, at Prezola we speak to thousands of engaged couples, and this is one of those questions that our customer care team gets asked a lot.

These days, most engaged couples live together before they decide to tie the knot. So, it’s perfectly normal not to need a lot of new stuff. Maybe you’d prefer money towards a honeymoon fund, home improvements, a house deposit, or some other big, exciting project. We get it – those things aren't cheap! 

But there’s no need to feel awkward about asking for money as a wedding gift. If you approach it in the right way, your guests will be more than happy to help you out. We’ve even got the stats to prove it. We surveyed our couples and:

• Around 20% of Prezola gift lists are ‘cash only’ while
• 50% of our couples combine cash and gifts all on one list (a winning combo we think).

Since you lot are clearly a courteous bunch, we’ve put together a few top tips on how to politely ask for money as a wedding gift, and examples of how to word wedding contribution requests tactfully on your wedding invites.

⁠When thinking about how to ask for money for a wedding gift, the obvious place to start is with your wedding invitations and/or wedding website. We’ve been doing this for a while (we’ve assisted over 129,000 couples),  and we’ve come up with 3 golden rules for wedding invitation wording when you’d like money instead of gifts:

How to ask for money for a wedding gift: 3 golden rules

1. Be clear you want cash

This is no time to beat about the bush. It’s important to have a clear stance on gifts and wedding money BEFORE you send out your invites. Trust us when we say your guests will be looking out for this info. Being clear on your wedding invite about what you’d like makes the shopping less stressful for them. ‘It gives guests peace of mind knowing they are getting something you want, rather than playing a guessing game’, says Lauren Pound from the Prezola customer care team, ‘there's nothing worse than shopping without a list! And if your wedding registry information is missing or too vague, well, let’s just say that you’d better be prepared for a barrage of texts, emails and phone calls asking about it.‘

2. Be specific about what it's for

This is a big one. In our experience, most wedding guests are perfectly happy to give money as a wedding gift. But they generally prefer to know what their cash gift is going towards. Makes sense, right? They’re handing over their hard-earned cash, the least you can do is let them know their wedding contribution is going towards the next phase of your life. Rhian Hudson, one of Prezola’s Customer Care Advisors, recommends setting up a custom fund or multiple funds to provide a more personalised touch when asking for cash. 'This approach allows guests to feel more involved and connected to the couple's journey, as they can contribute towards meaningful honeymoon experiences or tangible goals, while still giving cash.’

This is where we come in – with a Prezola honeymoon fund, you can split up your fund into different bits, so each guest can contribute to different aspects of your trip. Cocktails by the pool might come from Auntie Liz, flight upgrades from your uni mates, a scuba diving experience from the best man… you get the idea. 

3. Make gifting cash easy

We can help with this bit too. When you set up your wedding gift list, cash fund or honeymoon fund with Prezola, we’ll provide you with your own unique link to share with your guests. With one click, they’ll be taken directly to your list, where they can see what you’d like and start pledging immediately.

Setting up an online fund also eliminates the risk of envelopes full of cash potentially going missing on your wedding. 'It's one less thing to worry about on the day,' says Lauren. '[By asking for a money as a wedding gift through your Prezola registry] you’ll have the peace of mind knowing the money is safe and ready to withdraw, rather than worrying about where it's been left.' Plus, with our Thank You Manager feature, you get the added bonus of being able to easily track who gifted what, so thanking your guests is a breeze.

To get you started, we’ve put together a few simple examples of wedding contribution messages. These sample ideas show you how to politely ask for money as a wedding gift, whether that’s for a honeymoon or a home renovation project. You can pick one and use it word for word, adapt it to suit your style, or use it as inspiration to come up with your own wedding invite wording. 

Gift fund wording for honeymoon funds

Naturally, the biggest gift will be having your friends and family there to celebrate your special day. But, wouldn't it be wonderful to escape to a sun-soaked tropical paradise or embark on an epic road trip? Consider asking your guests to contribute towards your dream honeymoon with our examples:

1. ‘Having you with us on our special day is the best gift we could ask for. Though should you wish to help us keep the celebrations going, a cash gift towards our honeymoon fund would be greatly appreciated.’

2. 'We kindly request no gifts for our wedding, but if you wish to help us celebrate, a small contribution to our honeymoon fund would be very welcome:'

3. 'The most important thing to us is having you with us to celebrate our day. But if you wish to give a gift, we’ve set up a honeymoon fund with Prezola – you can find it here:’

Gift fund wording for home projects

Buying or renovating a home together is an exciting adventure, much like a wedding! If you want to ask for money for a wedding gift for these reasons, get inspired by our sample messages which tactfully ask for contributions towards a deposit or a new kitchen: 

1. ‘We are saving up for a deposit on our first home together. Any cash gifts towards this are welcome, but not expected.’

2. ‘Your presence is present enough, but if you wish to give a gift, you can find our ‘new kitchen fund’ at Prezola. All contributions are gratefully received.’

If you’re looking for cute ways to ask for money as a wedding gift, it might be time to brush up on your rhyming skills. A personalised poem on your invites is a playful way to broach the subject of gifting tactfully. Something like:

1. We’ve lived together for a while,
and our home is kitted out in style.
But a honeymoon would be really smashing.
So, if you’d like to chip some cash in,
Prezola is the place to do it.
It’s all online – there’s nothing to it!

2. As our special day draws near,
we hope our sentiment is clear
Our dearest wish is that you’re there,
and in our happiness you’ll share
Your presence is what matters most,
not gadgets for our tea and toast.

But if a gift is on your mind,
A small contribution would be kind
We have a fund, please see below
Each welcome gift will help it grow.
So ‘Thank you’ is all that’s left to say
We’ll see you on our wedding day

3. We'd love your well wishes and congratulations too,
No gifts are necessary, all we really want is you!

⁠But if you’d like to give a gift to help us on our way,
a charity donation would really make our day.

If you like these, there’s a whole lot more where that came from. Check out our blog post on cute wedding gift poems for your invitations for more ideas. Just remember, these poems work best when they’re personalised, so make sure to put your own spin on it. Not a writer? Online rhyming dictionary is your friend here!

So, you followed our advice and figured out how to ask for money for a wedding gift, and your friends and family delivered (of course they did - they’re the best!) Now what? A simple thank you note is always the way to go. We recommend personalising the message for each guest, thanking them for coming and reminding them how you plan to use their cash gift.

Hate the sound of all that admin? Prezola’s Thank You Manager makes this part a piece of cake. We keep track of exactly how much each guest has gifted you,  which fund they pledged towards, as well as any gifts you received (if you decided to combine gifts with funds). So, when you sit down to write your thank yous, you’ll have all the info ready, and no fear of cards getting separated from gifts, or money falling out of envelopes. 'Our wedding gift delivery was the perfect way to continue the wedding celebrations.' says Prezola couple, Hannah and Tom, 'We popped open a bottle of champagne and enjoyed unwrapping each present. It was so easy to thank everyone afterwards using Prezola’s Thank You Manager!'

And that just about sums it up. If you’re one of the many couples trying to figure out how to ask for money for a wedding gift, we hope this helped! The most important thing to remember is that your guests want to help you celebrate with a gift you’ll really appreciate. If that means requesting cash, they’ll be happy to oblige – all you have to do is ask nicely.