I have several thoughts on this, one that there is too much hoo ha surrounding weddings, particularly now. It seems a shame to me that weddings can't be low key affairs, a celebration with family and close friends without spending the earth. I find the idea of costly stag and hen dos, where the invitee, who possibly only knows one person on the proposed activity/ies, the bride or groom, is then expected to fork out a lot of money for that day/week-end/week completely over the top and I gather some people are now coming round to that way of thinking, but clearly not all. However, we are all different. I suppose asking for a contribution to the honeymoon isn't that far removed from being asked to go to John Lewis say and select something off a list, which seems to be the norm. these days. I can see why people do that if they have been living together for a while and have quite a few bits and pieces. Yes it is a bit blatant, but sometimes, if a sumptuous spread is being laid on (another waste of money imo) I wouldn't really like to go empty handed. That's exactly what my son did though, because he said he felt coerced into to going to a week-end stag do, which cleared him out financially, and therefore didn't have enough for a wedding present, his rationale was they can't have it both ways, particularly as he didn't want to go to the stag do anyway. He was very early 20s at the time, so didn't really understand the protocol involved, probably still doesn't
All in all I tend to veer towards a lot of the comments here, it's a cheek really, but I would probably go along with it.