Weddingbee

Kilkenny, Ireland - from Flickr

One of these days, my sense of humor is going to land me in hot water, if not the unemployment line. In the meantime, I’m running with it.

Take our honeymoon registry, which came with far too many tempting customization options for me to pass up. When we first set up our Honeyfund page, I followed one of the boring sample templates they offer as a guideline - I listed the “item” we wanted and gave a basic description as to what it was.

Yawnsville for me and Yawnsville for our guests. Because, really, half the fun of buying a wedding gift is picking out something cool, colorful, neat, etc. from the couple’s list. But when you’ve got a honeymoon registry with nothing but hotel names or restaurants for guests to look at, it robs them of the fun of shopping. I’ve tried to put some of that fun back into the process.

For the Lovebug Lovefest (or, Operation Consummation), we’re taking a self-driven tour of Ireland, with a short stopover in London. Below are my 2-cent tips (with a few of our UK-specific examples) for making a honeymoon registry a little more interesting; like a website, I think it’s a good opportunity to inject a shot of personality into your wedding.

1. Put some thought into descriptions. Offering details as to the what/where/how of your trip will make gifting that much more fun for your guests.

Instead of just “Gas”, we asked for “Petrol for Our Rental” with the description You can literally fuel our adventures! You wouldn’t want us to run out of gas and be mobbed by those vicious Irish sheep, would you?

2. Link to outside information and images, if possible. Your guests may never have heard of The Glens of Antrim before. But when can they click on the item’s title and see beautiful pictures of where they’re sending you, it becomes a much more meaningful present. Sightseeing stops are an especially cool registry gift when you send your thank-you in the form of a postcard from that location.

3. Make gifts fun! A honeymoon registry is license to be as silly and creative as possible, since it really doesn’t matter what specific things you ask for - all the money goes to the same cause. And the more fun an item is, the more likely someone will want to get it for you.

We added “Membership to the Mile High Club” as a gift, and a few different people have mentioned that THEY want to be the ones to give that to us; it’s like a race to see who gets to give the best gift! For our “Car Rental” item, we linked to this funny YouTube video, to get people laughing about the idea of us getting lost in some Eurotoy vehicle.

4. Break it down! Get creative when breaking down larger items such as airfare, food costs, and so on. Don’t just write “Airfare, Part 2″. Have fun asking guest to “buy” specifics such as your seat belts, cushions, tray tables, etc.

We broke down our rooming expenses to include room service (We’re hungover from all that Guinness; please send us up a tray of croissants and those cute little pots of jam!), extra towels (Ever notice how hotel room towels seem to just disappear? Don’t you hate that?), and even the bed itself (Here’s your chance to sponsor the most important part of this whole journey: the bridal bed!).

5. Get cultural. Regionally-specific cuisine makes great, cheap registry items. Describe what the foods are; make your guests vicariously hungry! We listed meals of “Blood Pudding” and “Shepherd’s Pie” (We’ve been assured that no shepherds will be harmed in the preparation of our dinner).

6. Let them choose. Don’t forget to list a few “Guest’s Choice” gifts, so your friends and family can be equally creative! Encourage them to tell you what they’d do, if they were on your trip.

For those having a honeymoon registry, what fun, outside-the-box items did you add?

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