The days of the traditional department store bridal registry may be numbered. In Australia by 2006 almost 75% of engaged couples were living together at the time of their wedding. The result is a household already complete with the items traditionally received as wedding gifts.
In their place, the wedding industry has seen a large shift towards the use of Wedding Wishing Wells as an accepted way to request cash from guests for the engagement party or wedding. By including a poem within the invite, couples are asking guests for a donation towards things as diverse as home improvements, holidays and new cars or to be used to cover the cost of the wedding itself. There is a boom in demand for crafted timber wishing wells, wire bird cages and wedding card keepers as couples take advantage of the shift.
Sarah from www.weddingwish.com.au says “the stigma of asking for cash for the wedding has certainly diminished. We have been inundated with requests for traditional white wishing wells, honeymoon and gift boxes to the point where a full time carpenter has been employed to keep up with demand”.
Jody and Steve were married in May 2010 and used a Wishing Well donation box for both their engagement and wedding, resulting in over $30,000 in cash. Jody says “we went to Myer to do a bridal registry and found many of the items we either had or didn’t need so we decided ask for donations towards our honeymoon”. Like many other Australian couples, they hired their wishing well and were thrilled with the result. “There is no way we could have gone to Greece for our honeymoon without the money from our wishing well”, said Steve. “This way we got to enjoy the wedding of our dreams and still be able to afford a great honeymoon too!
Contact www.weddingwish.com.au for Wishing Well Hire and Sales information or for sample poems and invite wording