well, i just got married a month ago, and we had that happen to us too, actually several FAMILIES didnt cover even their dinners. At first i was like, WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT? but, i found out later, that they had some finacial difficulties and in one case the husband had JUST lost his job! So... if i had gone with my first instinct and been a jerk or not sent them a card, which pretty much amounts to the same thing.... I would have felt horrible. So, we dont know whats going on in peoples lives at the time, i mean, if they could give you a gift, well... thats too bad... a gift is just that, a gift, if you cant handle that, then dont invite too many people.