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Wedding gift registries baffle me. I appreciate when couples share a wish list of registry items because it takes the guess work out of wedding gifting. Knowing that you are getting a gift that the couple actually wants and needs feels better than coming up with something on the spot. However, making my own registry was another story. As a bride myself, I honestly feel that I do not need anything for our home. Today, most people get married when they’re a little older and more established, which I feel is a great thing.
Matthew and I have been living together for five and a half years. We live in a lovely little studio loft where we already have everything we need. Our lives together have completely meshed. We already have had the debate over whose blender we keep and whose blender we donate along with other duplicates (like our Playstations). We have also filled the missing gaps together over the years from simple things like bed sheets to larger items like our vacuum cleaner. More kitchen supplies, towels, linens, picture frames…. no thank you. To be honest, the thought of getting more stuff right now really stresses me out. We don’t really need it and we would have no place to put it. I have discovered that a lot of couples feel this way.
What Matthew and I really want more than anything is to celebrate our wedding day our way with our closest family and friends. We want to share beautiful experiences instead of things. Many young people have been embracing this grand idea that experiences together such as time with loved ones and traveling are far more important than large houses and more stuff. One of our personal “wish list” items is to travel more. So instead of a gift registry, we decided to create a Honeyfund, a registry where we can list experiences (and their costs) for our wedding guests to make a purchase for instead of a material item. We will be using our registry to have a memorable three-week European honeymoon! These are experiences that we will cherish our entire lives. I will take a day sailing around the Greek islands over a kitchen-aid mixer any day.
We wrote out a list of the honeymoon expenses and experiences we will need assistance for: plane tickets, hotel/airbnb rooms, vehicle rentals, museum passes, passport renewals, meals, and other travel related costs. There are numerous websites that make creating a honeymoon/ wedding fund easy and polite. Asking for money has long been a faux pas for weddings, but in these modern days I feel it is even more rude to ask for things, especially things we don’t want. This way guests feel that they are giving us a gift that we love, and we are going to truly enjoy the experience their generous gift provides.
Websites like honeyfund.com make this process easy. We chose Honeyfund because we liked its easy layout and safe reputation, although there are many other funding registry sites available. Here is our Honeyfund to show you an example of what a Honeyfund registry looks like. We went with the free listing as it really does everything we need. It is free for guests to give a cash donation at the wedding, however, gifts made through the website do cost a tiny percentage from the gift for the site to process (and they have to make their money somehow). Still, we believe that it is worth it because it gives our guests a safe, secure, and polite way to make a gift contribution.
If you need home supplies for your new life together, have fun with your traditional registry. Honeyfund registries aren’t for everyone and there is no shame in asking for things you truly want and need. But if you are looking for an alternative that will help you achieve your goals together, then a Honeyfund may be for you.
