Love is priceless — but honeymoons aren’t.
A couple in Britain had a “tap-and-pay” wedding reception, forgoing gifts and instead asking their 140 guests for honeymoon money to go directly to the bank.
Chris Martin, 35, and Tasha White, 33, got married in their hometown of Buckinghamshire before heading off on a romantic trip to Mexico the very next day — and needed travel cash, fast. And after 14 years together, the couple — who share a daughter, 7, and son, 3 — had no need for the traditional housewarming presents typically found on a newlywed registry.
“Tasha and I already have a house and everything we need — no one needs another five toasters!” Martin, who works at Mercedes, told the Daily Mail of their decision to install a credit card scanner and display a direct-pay QR code at their wedding reception.
“What we really wanted was help making our dream honeymoon to Mexico happen.”
The sign next to the QR display read, “Don’t be tight, pay for our flight.”
“Our guests absolutely loved it,” Martin claimed.
The idea may seem gauche, but it was allegedly a hit among their apparently utilitarian guests.
“I think the card reader and QR code were a great idea,” said one unidentified giver, per the Daily Mail. “No one knows what to really do about wedding gifts nowadays, so it’s usually money. This was so much less faff than cash or a bank transfer.”
The groom furthermore noted that people don’t really carry cash around anymore, so they thought it would be something fun for guests while raising money for the honeymoon at the same time.
“As you can imagine, people got more generous as the drinks started to flow!” Marin shared.
“I’m not going to reveal how much the total came to, but they were very generous. Some of them even tapped more than once,” he said.
Lopay, the payment processing service that provided the credit card reader and QR code for the wedding, was “delighted” to help, said their founder, Richard Carter, in a statement.
“Having a card reader and the QR code made it so much easier for guests to give the couple a present on the day without any hassle.”
Carter echoed Martin’s observation that some guests “were even more generous after a few glasses of celebration bubbly.”
“Who knows? This could really catch on at wedding venues across the country.”
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