Weddingbee Blog

I think it’s safe to say that I don’t like cooking. The only thing all my exes and husband-to-be had in common was their love of cooking, and I’m still unsure whether it was out of desire or necessity. I even dislike grocery stores (except Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods Market for their yuppie aesthetic), because they’re usually too cold and too florescent.

Don’t get me wrong. I love food and the pretty Calphalon products I see on the Food Network. I love going out to eat and using words like hollandaise, tapenade, and ganache with reckless abandon. I also live in a dense urban area with A-plus food, and I have zero kids (surprise!). Still, the process kills me.

To be slightly more useful in our meal prepping, I’ve graduated to making salad (not one of those ready-made bags, either) and being the all-around vegetable-chopper when we make dinner at home. But because we already have decent pots, pans, plates, and more wine and pint glasses than we can count and store, our home-goods wish list was a short one.

Therefore, we went straight to Honeyfund after hearing great things about a friend’s Hawaiian honeymoon registry.

The site doesn’t take a cut of your gift money, but there are a handful of minor negatives. There are ads on the site, firstly. The free version has a so-so layout, but you can upgrade to a snazzier one if you pay a little. The primary problem (and difference from traditional registries) is that you can’t make credit card purchases directly on the site. Therefore, all of your gift-buyers have to either write a check and mail it to you, or bring cash or check to the wedding. This may not be obvious right away if any of your guests are internet-averse, but so it goes.

With traditional registries, I heard you get a discount on all the un-purchased items on your registry after all is said and done. Not a bad deal, and further incentive to create one. Plus, Crate and Barrel apparently does an awesome registry party with free champagne: two words I enjoy, especially together. But how do you decide where to register and what goes on your list?

Did you choose a combination of traditional and nontraditional wedding registries? If you’re married and used a honeymoon registry, did that confuse your guests?