Photo: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images
Throwing a big wedding for all your family and friends is a wonderful thing to do, but it’s also super-expensive. If you want to avoid those costs, you can always have a smaller guest list or opt for a Thursday wedding. Or you can go out on a limb and ask your guests to chip in. That seems to be the option that actress AnnaLynne McCord and her fiancé, former pro rugby player Danny Cipriani, have gone for. On Monday, The Sun reported that the couple was asking their guests to crowdfund certain aspects of their wedding, including the marriage license and wedding cake.
The tabloid appears to have found the couple’s page on Honeyfund, a platform that bills itself primarily as a way for couples to create a honeymoon fund instead of a classic registry. “Made for couples who prioritize experiences over toasters,” the website reads. You can also, it turns out, use Honeyfund to ask for money for other things, including your wedding costs. The page that ostensibly belongs to McCord and Cipriani notes that the couple is getting married next month in Los Angeles, and it lists several options for ways guests can chip in. They’re currently looking for eight more people to contribute to the cost of reception music at $125 a pop, but if you’re feeling more generous, you could throw $600 toward the “Wedding Venue Construction Fee.” (A representative for McCord did not respond to a request for comment.)
“It’s extremely tacky and distasteful to ask guests to pay for your wedding — especially in this town,” one source told The Sun. “These are two celebrities who boast a lavish lifestyle.” Well, hold on now. I have some more questions before we go all the way to “tacky and distasteful.” Do they also have a separate registry with a stand mixer and fancy bedding, or is this all they’re asking from their guests? Are they demanding some kind of receipt before you’re allowed into the venue to prove that you put $300 toward their rehearsal dinner? Lastly, and most distastefully, I want to know how much money these two actually have, because that might change some things.
Lots of people have simply decided that this is a classless route to take and have made their opinions known on the public guest book on Honeyfund. “Cheapskates … asking others to pay for your wedding … how rotten and low is that,” wrote one user. That is actually the only one I feel comfortable including, because the rest are either too crass or too personal to be my business.
Sure, there are probably better ways to ask your guests for money. But the most important thing to take away from all this is that you should always password protect your wedding website. Keep yourself safe from the tabloids and IRL haters in your life.
