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The envelope, the knot, and why thirty thousand
The money is the invitation's other half. A friend gives thirty thousand yen, a relative more, and the amount is expected to be an odd number of 万 — because an even one divides cleanly in two, and a wedding is the last place to suggest dividing. Two 万 has become acceptable when given as three notes rather than two, which tells you the rule is about appearance rather than arithmetic. Four and nine are avoided outright, 四 sounding like death and 九 like suffering. The notes should be 新札, which means a trip to a bank beforehand, because handing over worn money says you did not plan to come. Then the envelope. A 祝儀袋 carries a 水引 cord across it, and the knot is the part that matters: 結び切り is tied so that it cannot be undone and is used for things that should happen once — a wedding, and also a funeral — while a 蝶結び bow can be untied and retied and is for things you would wish repeated, like a birth. Pick the wrong one and you have wished the couple a second wedding. Write your name on the front, the amount inside in the formal numerals, and hand it over at the 受付 with both hands. Finally, budget twice: the 二次会 afterwards charges its own 会費 at the door, usually five to eight thousand yen, and nobody will mention it in advance.