Some of the couples that I work with already live together and have already created a home. They do not need household items like furniture and kitchen supplies. They may already have bought beautiful pieces of furniture for their home that they have little interest in replacing. Considering the size of the average New York City apartment, they do not want more items that they have little storage for. For these couples, I like to suggest doing a honeymoon registry. If you use sites like Honeyfund, you can create your own gift registry with items like flights, hotels, romantic champagne dinners and activities like scuba diving, zip lining or hiking. For the larger budget items, you can portion them into reasonable amounts. Perhaps it will allow you to visit nicer restaurants or stay at more luxurious hotels than you were originally planning to. The gifts are paid directly to you. When you write your thank you notes, you can tell your guests about your experiences and how much you enjoyed their gift.
Image via Amanyara
We used Traveler’s Joy honeymoon registry over Honeyfund because it had a better designed registry page, more functionality, no ads, and it has 24 hour customer service and a 1800 number.
Sorry, the URL for Traveler’s Joy is http://www.travelersjoy.com
Thanks for sharing!
No matter how you look at it, you are asking friends and family to open their wallets. Gift giving is evolving. Many couples getting married today already have pots and pans and food processors – why would they need more stuff? A Honeymoon Gift Registry is a great alternative – friends and family contribute to a couple’s overall experience and forever lasting memories through a trip of a lifetime. Not only is the gift giver contributing to something very, very special but when that couple returns they share pictures and stories of their adventure. In my eyes that is more special and meaningful than a pot or a pan. A recent Honeymoon Gift Registry study revealed that more money is given to Honeymoon Gift Registries than traditional gift registries. This trend proves that friends and family get more joy out of contributing to an experience rather than giving a material object.
In addition, let’s look at the dollars and cents of a Honeymoon Gift Registry vs. a Traditional Gift Registry. When you register for, let’s say a set of plates at Crate & Barrel, you are asking that person buying the gift to pay full price for that item. (not to mention shipping costs) The mark up on items like that is incredible – upwards of 200%. When you are contributing to a Honeymoon Gift Registry whether the couple is doing a DIY honeymoon or working with a travel agent/planner the couple has options of getting the best bang for their gifted dollars.
Finally, let’s look at the real costs of paying a Honeymoon Gift Registry Service. There are a few out there that are “free” but when is ANYTHING free? Those organizations are either selling your information to spammers (have you noticed an increase in spam emails since signing up?) or they are littering their website with all sorts of advertisements many of which go on your personal Honeymoon Gift page. There is a second tier of Honeymoon Gift Registries like my company, SendUsOff that don’t employ these tactics to get paid. They simply ask for a small percentage of the final total of what the couple receives. Remember that places like Crate & Barrel, Nordstrom’s, etc. are asking for 200% on the front end; why not pay a much smaller percentage on the back end, get the gift you really want – a trip of a lifetime – and get a much bigger bang for your gifted dollars!
Jacq Nichols with SendUsOff.com
We used Wanderable (http://www.wanderable.com/honeymoon) and it was amazing. I think it’s the prettiest one out there.