A Wedding Registry Alternative: Honeyfund

A Wedding Registry Alternative: Honeyfund

February 5th, 2009 @ 5:42 pm by Mrs. Perfume

Mr. P and I are a little older and “established” (read: old). So we have plenty of dishes, towels, cookware, and furniture between the two of us. In fact, when I moved in with Mr. P this past summer, I left all my furniture and most of my household items, save a few key AllClad pieces, in my loft (which I rent out furnished).

Anyhoo, instead of gifting us “things” we’ve referred our guests (on our wedding website) to Honeyfund.com, where we “registered” by adding activities from our honeymoon. As I’ve mentioned before, we’re heading to Italy, so we registered dinners, hotels, ferry and gondola rides, train tickets etc. It was quite fun registering, and it actually forced us plan out our trip sooner than we otherwise would.

We noted things that we’re going to definitely do/use. Other couples create a wish list. Either way, Honeyfund is great, and we found it much better than the other sites because it is absolutely free. Other sites like TheHoneymoon.com, Traveler’sjoy.com, and TheBigDay.com charge service fees of between 5.5 and 7.5 percent that are added to the cost of the gift!

Though Honeyfund.com charges you for receiving money via Paypal if your guest charges it with his credit card, it still is better than the others, in our estimation anyway. They are currently in the process of reworking their site, so there are bound to be some hiccups, but we’re still happy with it!

At the end of the day, we were feeling a little uncertain/uncomfortable about how to provide our guests with a way to send their well wishes—and by no means, did we want our guests to feel obligated. So on our wedding website, we just gave our guests three options via web links: Honeyfund.com, and two charities that we support.

Are you creating an alternative registry? What are you including on it?

Tags: honeymoon, registry |

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45 Responses to “A Wedding Registry Alternative: Honeyfund”

Bee

frenchbulldog (message) 6,063 posts, Bee Keeper

A good friend mine used a similar site. It was fun to be able to “pick” what you put your money towards, like airfare or massages

2/5/09 @ 5:49 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Cookie (message) 784 posts, Busy bee

That is such a good idea!

2/5/09 @ 5:57 pm (reply)

Member

evelinej (message) 364 posts, Helper bee

It’s a great alternative. We had everything already as we lived together. In our Registry page of our website, we simply suggested monetary donations towards the honeymoon. At first I hesitated but my husband (now) didn’t mind so I went with him on this. I have no regrets. Our friends and family were very generous. We also registered at Macy’s for fine china.

2/5/09 @ 6:00 pm (reply)

Member

AmyM83 (message) 246 posts, Helper bee

Can I just say that the picture on this post makes me drool? I can’t wait for those blue waters and the silky sand…

2/5/09 @ 6:03 pm (reply)

Guest

MrsK23

We used honeyfund for our honeymoon to Bali and fully recommend it! After we signed up, we had three other couples we know also use it and we all had very positive results. The best part of honeyfund is that it does not charge your guests and the fee for paypal is nominal.

Also, our guests appreciated that we selected “items” - like snorkeling or fishing, as it made them feel like they were getting us something instead of giving us $.

Great choice - enjoy your trip!

2/5/09 @ 6:06 pm (reply)

Member

MrsSl82be (message) 1,472 posts, Bumble bee

I think I may use Honeyfund as an alternative for the people who don’t want to buy us actual gifts. We are registered at JCP and will also register at BB&B so that people have options

2/5/09 @ 6:12 pm (reply)

Member

Farley778 (message) 63 posts, Worker bee

I’m using honeyfund for our honeymoon to Maui and it’s fabulous! We’ve already had someone buy us surfing lessons…yes!

2/5/09 @ 6:22 pm (reply)

Member

kosstobe (message) 231 posts, Helper bee

What a great tool - and it’s free…that rocks!! We’ll definitely be using honeyfund when it’s time to register!

2/5/09 @ 6:27 pm (reply)

Guest

Emmy

What happens if you have to cancel your honeymoon for unexpected reasons. I am just wondering as this happened to us due to a death in the family. Do you get the $$ back from Honeyfund?

2/5/09 @ 6:51 pm (reply)

10.

Member

West Coast Bride (message) 672 posts, Busy bee

We’ve lived together for two years, and lived alone before that. The last thing we really want is for people to buy us stuff. We started a honeymoon registry with our travel agent, who charges nothing, can process payments worldwide, and issues gift cards to the giver so they have something to put in a greeting card if they want. It’s a fairly new concept to a lot of people, so we thought the online aspect might be an added hindrance to older poeple who don’t use the internet or don’t like to book and sell things online.

2/5/09 @ 6:56 pm (reply)

11.

Guest

Chris

Hey Emmy-

The money goes straight to you, not the website and then to you. That way you can return it yourself. I’m sorry about your circumstances.

2/5/09 @ 7:31 pm (reply)

12.

Guest

Liz

Honefund is great! We registered our honeymoon with them and actually received a lot of responses. I think a lot of people like the idea of giving money anyway so this was a way of us showing what we would be putting the money towards.

2/5/09 @ 7:45 pm (reply)

13.

Bee

Miss Spring Roll (message) 718 posts, Busy bee

Definitely a good idea, I kind of wish Mr. SR and I would have done this.

2/5/09 @ 7:51 pm (reply)

14.

Bee

Mrs. Sea Breeze (message) 912 posts, Busy bee

What a great way to do this. And putting it on your wedding website is both effective AND elegant. Snaps to Miss P.

2/5/09 @ 8:21 pm (reply)

15.

Member

catrelle83 (message) 292 posts, Helper bee

ours is similar, but we’re using buyourhoneymoon.com
it’s the same principal as honeyfund, and it also goes directly through paypal, which we love! i think it’s such a great alternative for couples who already have “stuff.” We’ve had a really great response to it, and people have been really enthusiastic about it!

2/5/09 @ 8:24 pm (reply)

16.

Bee

Miss Duckling (message) 1,349 posts, Bumble bee

I love the idea of honeyfund! I’m so jealous you get to go to Italy. We unfortunetly need everything we can get on our registry because we basically have a bed, microwave, knives and a futon. haha

I’ve also heard of couple registering at REI and other fun places when they don’t need to furnish a house.

2/5/09 @ 8:33 pm (reply)

17.

Guest

Kit

I think they’re a wonderful idea if your guests are open to them!

2/5/09 @ 8:34 pm (reply)

18.

Member

Berkeley_Bride (message) 54 posts, Worker bee

This is exactly what we plan on doing as well. I especially love that you’ve included charities as an alternative for your guest. I hadn’t thought of that, but will now definitely include some too!

2/5/09 @ 8:42 pm (reply)

19.

Member

angeldoc (message) 142 posts, Blushing bee

I’m so glad to hear many of you used honeyfund.com! I just discovered it and now am using it for our honeymoon registry. Now I feel much more excited about the prospect of using them!

2/5/09 @ 8:54 pm (reply)

20.

Member

hirsche (message) 227 posts, Helper bee

ooooooo… great info! We have talked about a honeymoon registry and only begun researching! I LOVE that it doesn’t charge a big percentage =) Thanks!!

2/5/09 @ 9:09 pm (reply)

21.

Bee

Miss Bruschetta (message) 5,553 posts, Bee Keeper

Definitely sounds like a neat idea. But, Mr. MagPie and I really want/need the Wusthof knives and All-Clad cookware, so we’ll hafta bankroll the honeymoon ourselves.

2/5/09 @ 10:59 pm (reply)

22.

Member

nanzpm (message) 17 posts, Newbee

i made one already!

2/6/09 @ 2:07 am (reply)

23.

Member

flbeachbride (message) 328 posts, Helper bee

We have lived together for 3 years so we are in the same position as you are. We used honeyfund and have loved it so far! Our friends used traveler’s joy; we thought about using that but I did some research and decided on honeyfund. The fees charged by paypal are the only fees (it should be 3%) and that way our guests would know the funds were coming directly to us. Now we just can’t wait until the honeymoon!

2/6/09 @ 7:00 am (reply)

24.

Guest

MrsB

We did a charitable donation registry. While we wouldn’t consider ourselves “old” by an stretch, we felt like we already had what we needed and loved the idea of giving the money to some deserving charities instead. We did not use one of the website options as they often take a small percentage of your donations and they don’t offer as many local charities. We instead created a trust account for guests to make a donation into (or give it to us in the form of cheques). It worked out wonderfully and I would recommend it to anyone who is in a similar circumstance.

2/6/09 @ 7:46 am (reply)

25.

Bee

Mrs. Pinot Noir (message) 772 posts, Busy bee

I love the idea of a honeymoon gift registry. I really wanted to do this but Mr. PN wasn’t keen on it… After paying for our entire honeymoon out of pocket I think he was singing a different tune…

2/6/09 @ 9:08 am (reply)

26.

Member

LoriLori (message) 234 posts, Helper bee

We’re old here too and it’s the second time aroudn for both of us so I’m not sure if we’ll even register anywhere BUT I like the idea of this and will definitely check this out. Thanks so much for the post!

2/6/09 @ 9:18 am (reply)

27.

Bee

Miss Champagne (message) 1,068 posts, Bumble bee

I love this idea- hope you get some good help!

2/6/09 @ 9:22 am (reply)

28.

Guest

phruphru

I totally love this idea and have contributed to friends’ honeymoon funds in the past, but you should be warned that if you have any old-school guests, they will raise eyebrows. While the idea of a honeymoon fund is taking off these days, it’s still not considered “proper” to ask guests for cash.

2/6/09 @ 9:34 am (reply)

29.

Member

LzzNYC (message) 877 posts, Busy bee

Thanks!!! I heard about this but didn’t know where to go =)

2/6/09 @ 9:43 am (reply)

30.

Member

AmandaP (message) 37 posts, Newbee

Me & the Mr. are also older and well established so we considered doing this too.

2/6/09 @ 9:46 am (reply)

31.

Member

ktdid23 (message) 482 posts, Helper bee

We booked our honeymoon through Liberty travel, and they have their own honeymoon registry. We put together a honeymoon registry through them, as well as 2 more traditional registries for our kitchen/home. The honeymoon registry was a big hit and we were able to upgrade our hotel and enjoy various treatments at the spa! This is a super good way to really be able to splurge on your honeymoon - in your thank you cards, it might be fun to send out pictures of you and your husband enjoying the “thing” each person gifted you. For example, a pic of you and him ourside the spa for someone who purchased you a couples massage. just a thought!

2/6/09 @ 10:50 am (reply)

32.

Bee

Miss Perfume (message) 1,632 posts, Bumble bee

@Emmy: Basically, you get the cash no matter what.

@West Coast Bride: Yes, I think anything online is hard for older folks. So we’ve resigned ourselves to not expecting much! (And that is fine!)

@catrelle83: ah, never heard of that one! glad to hear that it’s effective!

@MagPie518: Wusthof knives are awesome. Have you used their version of the Santoku? It’s my favorite!

@nanzpm: @AmandaP: @kosstobe: @angeldoc: @hirsche: @flbeachbride: @LoriLori: Excellent!!

@ktdid23: Great idea!

2/6/09 @ 11:18 am (reply)

33.

Member

cinderellasmom (message) 146 posts, Blushing bee

What a wonderful and thoughtful idea! I like that on your webisite you also offered up your charity of choice! Seems less like you are asking for money! And how cool for one of your guests to pay for snorkeling etc…

I think you are right about older folks– perhaps they will go the CASH method??

2/6/09 @ 1:09 pm (reply)

34.

Member

Crash (message) 378 posts, Helper bee

We have 2 traditional registries and donating to our ‘team’ in a fun run we will be doing a couple months after the wedding. We were initially turned off by the honeymoon registries since they took so high a percentage out… it seemed like whoever wanted to give cash would give cash either way but since this one only charges the PayPal fee we will have to reconsider. Thanks for posting it!

2/6/09 @ 1:46 pm (reply)

35.

Member

saramari (message) 315 posts, Helper bee

What a wonderful idea! Thanks for sharing this find.

2/6/09 @ 9:27 pm (reply)

36.

Member

LuckySmith (message) 15 posts, Newbee

We are also doing a honeymoon registry. Took me a bit to convince my fiance that we should do a registry period let alone a honeymoon one. We set ours up with our travel agent. You can’t pick out specific activities to pay for (what I really preferred) but there are absolutely no fees and I don’t have to mess with setting anything up online. We decided to go this route because we have lived together for nearly all 3 years of our relationship (and he’d lived on his own for several before that). Now our circumstances have changed a little and we’ll be moving in with his parents in a month. I definitely don’t want to register for a bunch of stuff that will only get put in storage for a indefinite period of time.

2/7/09 @ 12:32 am (reply)

37.

Guest

Christy

We used Honeyfund as well- everyone thought it was very easy to use. Most guests chose to print out the certificate and give us checks at the reception. A few people used paypal and I actually forgot about the money until 6 months after the wedding date! It was a confusing, then nice surprise when I logged on to paypal.

2/7/09 @ 11:54 pm (reply)

38.

Guest

Jaime

I think more and more people are adding alternative registries now. Great ideas! Love the idea of adding your charities too.

2/8/09 @ 12:05 pm (reply)

39.

Guest

Thank You Cards: Like Sandra Lee, Semi-Homemade » Weddingbee » The Wedding Blog

[...] you may know, we did not register for anything. Well, actually, we buried a pseudo registry (Honeyfund.com) in our wedding website, but didn’t think anyone would navigate to it. However, people are more [...]

5/14/09 @ 11:28 am (reply)

40.

Member

iswimibikeirun (message) 507 posts, Busy bee

Glad to see a more “established” bride . . . but we’re even older! I think some of my house hold is older than some of the brides, so it may be time to replace!

5/22/09 @ 12:33 pm (reply)

41.

Guest

Sara Margulis

thanks for the kind words about our service! if anyone has questions about it feel free to email me at sara@honeyfund.com

FYI just a clarification from the original blog post. Honeyfund does not charge the fee for the PayPal payments. That fee goes to PayPal.

5/26/09 @ 12:00 am (reply)

42.

Guest

Nicole

Thank you so much for posting about honeyfund! I recently started a wedding registry blog at kireinest.com, and hadn’t heard of the company before I’ll be getting in touch with Sara to learn more!

6/1/09 @ 7:09 pm (reply)

43.

Guest

Alterna-Registry » Weddingbee » The Wedding Blog

[...] maybe some older guests who don’t have access to the internet). Mrs. Perfume blogged about her Honeyfund a few months [...]

6/20/09 @ 6:59 pm (reply)

44.

Guest

msnackpack

We want to use honeyfund instead of gifts because we’ve been living together for a year and a half already so we have everything we need. We are planning to go to Oahu because i lived on maui for a few months and he’s never been, so ive tried to find fun typical “hawaii”things to do for our registry. But When do you let people know where you are registered. In the save the date? I know invitations usually go out 2 months before and it will be much more expensive to book reservations 2 months before…any ideas?

7/23/09 @ 12:09 pm (reply)

45.

Bee

Mrs. Perfume (message) 1,632 posts, Bumble bee

@msnackpack: we had a tab on our wedding website. we let people know of the site (which included a lot of logistical information for the wedding, pictures, and a guest book) on the insert that we included with our invitation. Hope that helps!

7/23/09 @ 12:14 pm (reply)