One time on Usenet, Dave Smith > said:

<snip>

> The last time I was at the dentist I was talking to the dental assistant,
> who had also been to that wedding. We both liked the idea that it was
> rather humble, but still very nice. Then we talked about this modern idea
> that one should buy a wedding gift worth at least as much as the dinner.

What??

> She said that was fine when wedding dinners where $20-25 per person, but
> now they are in the hundreds per person. Her attitude at her wedding was
> that the people there were her guests and they were entertaining them. they
> did not expect them to pay for their meals.

Damn right! I was thrilled that guests came to our wedding and cared
enough about us to give gifts (mostly money, as we were about to move
across the country). I can't imagine thinking that those gifts should
offset the cost of entertaining said guests. Let alone using them to
pay off some ridiculously priced wedding with thousand-dollar cakes
and flying doves and whatnot...

--
Jani in WA