Exclusive | Wedding guests are sick of giving gifts these newlyweds agree: We do not want anything

Some newlyweds look forward to ripping open a pile of cash-filled envelopes from their guests post-wedding, secretly hoping to recoup some of the thousands they shelled out for their big day.Not Melissa Reinecke and her now-husband Dan, who explicitly told their guests to come empty-handed to their 2023 nuptials.“Don’t even bother,” they told guests, “with gifts.” The happy couple represents a growing group of almost-married Americans going hard on gift-free weddings.In fact, according to the wedding-planning platform Joy, the number of registered couples who decline gifts has roughly doubled in the past year.In the words of one West Village bride, who begged to be anonymous — “We don’t want your c–p.”Sure, registries and honeymoon slush funds are still the norm.

But instead of being grabbier than the tunnel hands in Labyrinth, many couples are nixing the usual gift in envelope or registries that are often stacked with mortgage-busting Frette linens ($1,600) and KitchenAid mixers ($450). “We know how expensive it is for flights, hotels, Ubers and rentals,” Mrs.Reineke, a 36-year-old marketing executive based in Atlanta, told The Post.

“We just wanted their gift to be coming, making it there and celebrating with us.” It’s a far cry from the traditional wedding wisdom that assumes whatever cash is spent on the big event can be recovered in the form of guest gifts.But this has led to some pernicious urban legends like the “cover your plate” rule, which says you should aim to spend as much on a gift as the couple does on your meal.(The “rule” does not explain how this is supposed to go, unless the happy couple lists prices on their invites like a takeout menu.) Couples who turn down the chance for a new charcuterie board argue that forgoing wedding gifts actually does them a favor.

“We’re both grown adults,” said a bride named Jessica, whose older aunts were insistent on buying the couple kitchen items, “as though we ...