Having been single and independent for many years, my partner and I are are getting married this year. Not only are we combining both households, but, due to families on two continents, we are having two ceremonies!

As you can imagine, this will be expensive. We do not need any items for our home, but we would certainly appreciate monetary gifts which would help with the expense.

How can we "suggest" this to our guests without offending anyone? Obviously no one is obliged to give anything - their attendance is enough - but for those that want to give something, how can we phrase this on the invitation??

In the wedding invitation you could include an insert, which says something like:

" We are both looking forward enormously to having our friends and families join us on our wedding day and we would make this special request to you all. As you know, when we start our married life together we will be combining our households and so our need for the usual wedding gifts is much less than is normally the case. With this in mind and since we will be having two ceremonies and so double the cost, we hope that any of our guests who had planned to buy us a wedding gift can understand that any contribution towards the wedding ceremonies in lieu of a gift would be greatly appreciated."