Tacky wedding "invitation"

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by Wine&SilverBlue

My dad's work partner's son recently got engaged. A few days ago they got the following "invitation" in the mail:

An 8.5" x 11" sheet of printer paper with a homemade printed "invitiation" mentioning that they had gotten engaged and would be getting married in Bermuda - to let the couple know if you would likely be attending so they could help everyone get travel arrangements, and then included a "reminder magnet" with their picture and the date. I think it said invitiations would then follow to those who were interested.

In other words - "Hi we're going to have a destination wedding so we don't need to pay for a wedding and a honeymoon and we know you aren't really going to come so we're not even going to send you a real invitation. Instead we'll send these to everyone we know so we can fish for gifts without worrying about them coming to the wedding, and then the few people who come can get real invitations - that way we can narrow our costs and guest list but still milk everyone for gifts."

At least that's how my parents interpreted it...

Should they get them a gift?

Is this kind of invite common or tacky? or both?

They should give them a gift and I think your parents are being overly analytical and paranoid.

This is a common invite for people who are getting married overseas--or simply out of town. Why are they concerned about the couples motive for getting married overseas, anyway? Every couple has the right to choose their wedding logistics based on budget and convenience. The family members and friends who can attend will attend without being pissy about it.