Sending a check to bride & groom before they are married

amother

Papaya

Sun, Jun 03 2018, 9:35 pm

I received a wedding invitation. I would like to respond to the invitation and include a check to the chosson and kallah in the same envelope as the response card, since we will be unable to attend.
How should I make out the check?
Is it appropriate to make the check payable to Mr. & Mrs., or Rabbi and Mrs., even though they are not married yet? Any other suggestions?
What do others do?
Awaiting your replies ASAP.
TY

amother

Ivory

Sun, Jun 03 2018, 10:03 pm

amother wrote:

We address the check to the bride or groom (whichever side we know).

amother

Mauve

Sun, Jun 03 2018, 10:03 pm

Make it payable to cash. I did not change my last name and a lot of our checks that we got were addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Husband’s last name and we couldn’t cash them for a while.

chocolatecake

Sun, Jun 03 2018, 10:22 pm

I make it out to Mr and mrs husbands first name and last name. I feel bad to not write the girls name but I dont want any last name issues.

amother

Crimson

Sun, Jun 03 2018, 11:38 pm

I got married recently and the easiest thing was "His Current Name OR Her Current Name" or just "Cash". This way either one can cash it (they don't have to go in to the bank together which they need to do if you write "His Name & Her Name"). Plus, use their current names because you know they already have IDs and bank accounts set up with that. We got all sorts of variations that resulted in us needing to jump through hoops to cash.

Teomima

Sun, Jun 03 2018, 11:53 pm

I agree with a combination of what Ivory and Mauve amothers said. Make it out to either the bride or groom, the person you know.

I know our situation is unusual, but dh and I changed our last names together and dealing with the checks was such a nightmare for us when people just assumed I was taking his name. Plus we hadn't had a joint account and weren't planning on getting one but had no choice in light of some of the gifts we received. I was grateful for the gifts, but it was so complicated. A simple check to him or me would have been far easier.

essie14

Mon, Jun 04 2018, 1:02 am

Teomima wrote:

We also had such a hard time with checks made out to <groom> and <bride> <<groomlastname>>. It takes a while to change your last name, if you’re doing it at all.
We got a few checks made out to just one of us and while it seems a bit strange it made our lives so much easier and now I do the same thing.

amother

Wine

Mon, Jun 04 2018, 6:23 am

Write a check to the bride and/or the groom. As in Leah Goldberg and/or David Cohen. That way they can deposit it into individual accounts or a joint one.

amother

Jade

Mon, Jun 04 2018, 7:52 am

Ruchel wrote:

what??

A check made out to cash means you write "cash" instead of a name, and the bank gives u cash in exchange for the check (instead of depositing it into your account). This means anyone who has the check can use it.

zaq

Mon, Jun 04 2018, 8:36 am

Ruchel wrote:

what??

Checks made out to cash are like cash—anonymous—and may be cashed by anyone. If the check gets lost or stolen, something that happens quite often here in the US, the finder or thief can cash it and the intended recipient is out of luck. In the US, thieves plunder mail boxes in hopes of finding checks.

bamba

Mon, Jun 04 2018, 10:31 am

Make it out to either bride or groom.
We had so many issues with cheques made out to me and my husband. We didn’t have a joint account. There were a few cheques we couldn’t cash!
Was very annoying.

amother

Burgundy

Mon, Jun 04 2018, 11:53 am

amother wrote:

Not quite. You typically still need to have a bank account with the institution to cash the check.

amother

Ivory

Mon, Jun 04 2018, 12:06 pm

amother wrote:

Write a check to the bride and/or the groom. As in Leah Goldberg and/or David Cohen. That way they can deposit it into individual accounts or a joint one.

You can do this? write and/or 2 people and the bank accepts it?