Well, there are things people might think about and then there are things people are crass to actually say.
If getting married, you might wish that you receive lots of cash gifts to help defray the costs. But to actually ask for such upfront, or to be offended by non-cash gifts, or cash in insufficient amounts is just unbelieveably classless.
Your budget should not be relying on everyone paying their own freight.
that is for dang sure. we had several people come totally empty handed to ours. we bitched between ourselves but that was that. In neither case was it lack of funds, it was just thoughtlessness.