DVC as a wedding gift

[Obi]

good morning/afternoon all....

as some of you may know, i recently got engaged at wdw. both my fiance', and i, love wdw and are seriously interested in becoming dvc members.

i'm currently 42, and.... lol... well, i'm not allowed to say what my fiance's age is. regardless of that, the both of us are pretty much set up with everything that we need, that some people would give as wedding gifts. now, we are still going to have some things listed for wedding gifts, but we decided to set up an account as a dvc fund.

both of us have been told, by many of our friends and family, that they were thinking about just giving us money as a wedding gift. that is how the idea of setting up a dvc account started.

now comes the hard part in explaining, as short of an explanation as possible, what dvc is (there will be many that do not even know what dvc is) and how it can be the gift that will continue to give for many years to come.

 

[NYwdwfan]

You can always just take the money and deposit to the DVC account - then there's no explaining necessary.

 

[epcotisbest]

If I was planning to give you something from a gift registry you had set up, that is still what I would do even if you gave the world's best description for DVC. If I was planning on giving you cash, then what you do with it is entirely up to you, and I would go ahead and gift the cash.
If I was planning on giving you cash and you asked for a donation to a DVC account instead, I think I would just go buy the ugliest gravy boat ever as your gift, feeling the DVC thing was a bit of an inappropriate request.
In my scenario, you could have put the cash directly toward whatever you chose, including the DVC account. Not sure what you would do with the gravy boat, but since I did not include the receipt, there would be no returning it.
That is a long way around saying I don't think as a gift giver I would be very open to contributing to a DVC account. And I love DVC...just got back from BLT and headed to HHI soon.

 

[NYwdwfan]

Not sure what you would do with the gravy boat, but since I did not include the receipt, there would be no returning it.

This made me laugh.

I actually have a separate savings account I tell my family is called my "Vacation" fund. It's actually Disney fund, but that's neither here nor there for the purposes of this conversation. Any time I get "found money" - birthday money to me, rebate checks, taking surveys online, WHATEVER - it goes into that account. I like to see how much of a discount I can give myself when it comes trip time. @Obi you can establish the same, and just deposit the money there, and the gift givers can be none the wiser.

 

[EOD K9]

I'd have to agree with @epcotisbest If I give cash, you do what you want with it and that's expected. If you told me I was giving you money for your vacation fund, you'd get a back scratcher from me on top of the gravy boat you got. Cash is king!

 

[Disneykidder]

Maybe someone who is throwing a shower could write cards that say, "I lieu of a gift registry, the happy couple would prefer a donation towards a Disney Vacation Club membership."

 

[LizC]

Where I live it is common for most people (99% of guests) to give cash. I would just accept the cash and use it for the DVC membership. If you ask them to "donate" you will have to explain (most likely in writing), and realistically many of them will not understand our "obsession" and they will give less or possibly a non-refundable gravy boat.

Congratulations on the engagement!

 

[BCVTalsJam]

Just set up a Disney honeymoon registery and even though you pick items for people to buy u can just transfer the funds to your checking account and use it for what you want at Disney. That way people think they are actually getting you something other than giving cash. Then you don't have explain dvc to everyone.

 

[WWWD]

I agree with the others on this. DVC is a luxury purchase and those attending your wedding may have negative feelings about "helping" you pay for a timeshare. Would you ask them to fund a corvette?

I'm DVC and I'd be like "you're old enough to fund your own vacations, I'm lucky to get a vacation myself."

Just don't register for much and you'll get cash by default. Avoid the gravy boat at all cost, you will never use it.

 

[Ralphlaw]

When my wife and I got married, we specifically said in our thank you notes that we were using the gift money for a down payment on a house. In my opinion, telling money gifters that you used their money for a piece of Disney is probably a nice touch. Telling people beforehand might be considered, well, a trivial use by some unmagical people.

 

[Obi]

i'm hoping that i didn't upset anyone by my original post.

my fiance', and i, have been looking into becoming dvc members for a little while now. we were planning on setting up an account to put money into it to save up. well, we've been hearing from many of our friends and family that they were thinking about just giving us money since the both of us pretty much have the majority of what we would need.

However, we are still going to put some items on a bridal registry. things that we don't have and could possibly use.

we thought, and still do, that if people are going to give us cash that we would put that into the account for dvc.

we were just trying to figure out what we could say, or not say anything at all, about where they money would go to. we were thinking, and perhaps we are incorrect on this and i will freely admit if i/we are, that some people would be curious as to what we were going to put the money towards for our married life.

again, i apologize if i made anyone upset. it was not my intention to upset anyone.

 

[epcotisbest]

i'm hoping that i didn't upset anyone by my original post.

my fiance', and i, have been looking into becoming dvc members for a little while now. we were planning on setting up an account to put money into it to save up. well, we've been hearing from many of our friends and family that they were thinking about just giving us money since the both of us pretty much have the majority of what we would need.

However, we are still going to put some items on a bridal registry. things that we don't have and could possibly use.

we thought, and still do, that if people are going to give us cash that we would put that into the account for dvc.

we were just trying to figure out what we could say, or not say anything at all, about where they money would go to. we were thinking, and perhaps we are incorrect on this and i will freely admit if i/we are, that some people would be curious as to what we were going to put the money towards for our married life.

again, i apologize if i made anyone upset. it was not my intention to upset anyone.

Not upset at all, just giving my opinion on how I might react in that situation. Again, if I gift you cash, what you do with it is entirely up to you. Hope you have a great wedding and many, many happy anniversaries. Maybe some of those anniversaries will be celebrated with DVC trips.

 

[NYwdwfan]

i'm hoping that i didn't upset anyone by my original post.

my fiance', and i, have been looking into becoming dvc members for a little while now. we were planning on setting up an account to put money into it to save up. well, we've been hearing from many of our friends and family that they were thinking about just giving us money since the both of us pretty much have the majority of what we would need.

However, we are still going to put some items on a bridal registry. things that we don't have and could possibly use.

we thought, and still do, that if people are going to give us cash that we would put that into the account for dvc.

we were just trying to figure out what we could say, or not say anything at all, about where they money would go to. we were thinking, and perhaps we are incorrect on this and i will freely admit if i/we are, that some people would be curious as to what we were going to put the money towards for our married life.

again, i apologize if i made anyone upset. it was not my intention to upset anyone.

No being upset here - I was just trying to play Devil's Advocate as to how someone who is NOT enamored with Disney may react to being told a wedding gift was being used towards a Disney timeshare. Hence the suggestion to keep it mum

 

[AmongMadPeople]

I vote don't officially tell anyone what you plan to use the cash for. Then I think thank you notes are an appropriate place to say something vague, like thank you for helping us start our new life together, or we used the money for something fun on our honeymoon. I don't think you have to specifically say you bought a timeshare.

 

[Tiggerish]

Cash is the most common wedding gift in my neck of the woods, too, and no one I know would expect to get details of what their cash purchased. Even though it's what people do give, it's still considered "not the thing to do" to come out and ask for it.

Congratulations, good luck with the wedding planning, and I hope you get piles of cash.

 

[Disneykidder]

You'll likely get cash and checks as your wedding gifts and you can use it as you see fit. My friend had a huge wedding and thy used all of their gift money on a Marriot timeshare. Just use it as you see fit.

 

[awoogala]

It depends. There are a lot of online sites now for honeymoon funds, or a downpayment on a house, etc. for a wedding gift registry. I have no issue with this. http://www.honeymoonwishes.com/ Just like a regular registry, I'd rather be sure the newlyweds got something useful. It's usually put into the shower invites, just like a "regular" registry would be.
I also think it depends on where you live- East coast weddings are pretty much always $ gifts, where I have heard that in other areas, people still bring real gifts to a wedding. In NJ, NY, PA, I've never seen anyone show up with anything but an envelope.

 

[awoogala]

http://www.disney.honeymoonwishes.com/
Ha! Even Disney has their own version!

 

[Phonedave]

I'll third or fouth the opinion that cash is the most common wedding gift (At least here in the NYC area). Even with a registery, 85% of your gifts are cash. Nobody expects to be told what you are going to do with it - although sometimes people do say so, in the thank you note.


-dave