Paddi22....well said!! We believed that our wedding was a celebration and just delighted to have our family and friends there with us. We also suggested that people donate to charity if they would like to, which a number of people did. I'd hate to think of my elder relatives having to fork out €300 on a present they can ill afford. And as many people pointed out, wedding already put financial strain on the guests (time off, travel, accomodation, outfits etc).
We're not rich, but we made sure we budgeted our wedding to a level we could afford without having to depend on "cash presents". It's not necessary to spend €15k to €20k....ours cost a fraction of that with 80 guests in a top Dublin hotel.