Toasters and crockery used to be de rigueur. Household appliances, home furnishings and honeymoons were commonplace. Nowadays though, we are told, all that has changed.
A new survey for Wedding magazine has revealed that an increasing number of couples are shunning wedding lists in favour of cold, hard cash. Nearly half (45 per cent) of couples would prefer their guests to give them money, with just 29 per cent still drawing up a traditional list and just over a quarter requesting honeymoon vouchers.
Not very romantic is it? However, it is very practical. It used to be the case that a couple would only start living together once they were married. They would be setting up home away from home for the first time and so would need all the creature comforts they enjoyed at mum and dad’s house. That seems such an outdated – and perhaps even dangerous – way of doing things in the 21st Century.
These days, the vast majority of couples will live together before deciding to get married so they have already set up home together, have joint purchases, a coffee maker, blender, widescreen LCV TV and all the other mod-cons newly weds simply must have.
What this does mean then is that, in this day and age more than ever before, a couple just married really need to understand the concept of joint finances. Getting married isn’t just a big party, but a legal arrangement that gives both parties certain claims over, and responsibilities for, the other’s world goods. Money received as wedding presents will form part of that, as will savings, pension funds and other property. I would hazard a guess that few couples take advice on this before the Big Day.
Perhaps “good family law advice before walking up the aisle” should become the must have wedding present for this century?
Andrew Woolley
Divorce Solicitor