In 2012, as many as 70 percent of couples lived together before they got married, compared to 10 percent in 1960. Clearly, times have changed!
For couples who have already cohabited and established a home together, traditional wedding registry gifts such as kitchen appliances and other household goods are pretty much useless. After all, how many towels and toasters does one couple really need?
Last week, HuffPost Weddings reader and bride-to-be @MaggieNificence reached out to us on Twitter, saying she was thinking about asking for cash instead of wedding gifts, but wasn't sure how to go about it in a tactful way that wouldn't offend her guests.
So we enlisted the help of wedding etiquette expert and HuffPost blogger Xochitl Gonzalez. Although she says it's "technically a rude thing to do," she offered some good solutions for cash-strapped couples.
"The most elegant phrasing I've ever seen was 'Flat gifts preferred' or 'No boxed gifts please' or 'Please support our First Home fund,'" she wrote in an email. "But either one makes me shudder, to be honest. The only really elegant way to ask for cash is when it's going to a charity."
On Friday we posed the same question to our followers on Twitter and Facebook. Click through the slideshow to see what they had to say about this sometimes sticky etiquette issue, then add your thoughts in the comments.