Honeymoon fund

Ask your family and friends in your social circle how they feel about a honeymoon fund. Some social circles and families love them and others are horrified at the idea and do not give cash or equivalent for any occasion. Find out what is acceptable in your group.

If you do decide to register to appease the older generations and upgrades are not your thing, go for something fun in a range of prices that you wouldn't buy yourself but you would like to have. An instapot, a frozen drink machine, a sound bar for your tv, card/board games, things related to your shared hobbies, etc.

Personally I don't like them and I will always buy a physical registry gift and bring to the wedding because that is how my family/social circle works.

You will get mixed opinions on if they are tacky or not. I, personally, just find them useless. A honeymoon fund is a website you can set up for the guests to give you money. You can break it up sometimes as like "swimming with dolphins" or "sunset cruise" or whatever, but the website links to your personal bank account and all the money just gets deposited into the account. They are not actually purchasing these experiences (which is 1 thing that rubs some people the wrong way). The bigger issue, to me, is that all of these honeyfund sites charge either you or the gift giver a transaction fee. If the person wants to give you cash, they can simply do it like it's been done forever: cash or a check in an envelope/card at the wedding. No middle man and no extra charges. If people ask if you're registered anywhere, you can simply tell them you are not, and they will more than likely divert to cash at the wedding.

View Quoted Comment Thanks so much, and makes sense.

View Quoted Comment Thats a good idea. Thanks

A honeyfund/wishing is an alternative to a registry which allows your guests to give you a monetary wedding gift. Some people organise these by having designated websites or bank accounts, others simply get cash given at the wedding (my preferred approach). Generally a wishing well is broader because you're not specifying any 'thing' the money is going toward.

For example, I am having a wishing well and our guests who want to give a gift will drop an envelope (usually a card with cash) in a small locked box at our wedding and that will be monitored by and later brought to us by my MOH.

Having a honeyfund/wishing well is totally fine however it is telling guests that generally tends to raise eyebrows. If people ask you what to gift you, it is totally acceptable to advise you're having a honeyfund/wishing well. We are including a 'wishing well' card in our invitation suite because where we live, people find it really practical knowing what to get the couple (and it is a norm for us). Americans however tend to take umbrage with this practice and find it 'tacky' but it really depends on your crowd. For us Australians on the other hand, we don't understand why people get so offended by this and prefer guidance on what to gift the couple.

View Quoted Comment Think I like that better than the honeymoon fund, I feel like its asking for money lol. Thanks so much

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A wishing well is pretty much the same in that it is technically 'asking for money' but is more flexible because it usually involves cash (not a deposit or money transfer) and it is used at your discretion. Ultimately though, it depends on your crowd how you proceed.

With our crowd, no one will batter an eyelid about a wishing well (and noting it in our invitation suite) but there are (mostly) Americans on this site who will fight tooth and nail to tell you how 'tacky' it is.

View Quoted Comment I tink my crowd will be ok because it namely them asking about all this.

I don't find them tacky at all! I will always give money to a new couple since nobody wants just a bunch of junk. I'm not planning to register for anything in the hopes that people gift us money.

We are doing not doing a honeymoon fund or registering. If asked I say we are not registered but there will be a card box. I don't give more details. I expect nothing from my guests other than them to enjoy themselves, if they want to bring a card they can do so. It's implied of how I want it to go,, but I'm completely ok if nothing comes of it. .. which I'm sure won't happen

They’re not tacky! I’ve actually learned that you can make a “house down payment fund” also. I felt kind of weird about it so we won’t be doing that, but we set up both a honeymoon fund and a registry.

I personally do not think registering for a honeymoon fund is tacky! I've heard of different sites where you can register for specific items for the honeymoon, like plane tickets or excursions, that way your friends and family know exactly what their money is going towards, which I think is nice.

I would suggest still registering for typical house stuff as well. I also own my house and my fiancee moved in with me so we already have furniture and kitchen stuff. But I am still registering for kitchen and bathroom stuff to upgrade. Idk about everyone else, but when I first moved out on my own I just bought cheap pots and pans, and plates, and towels. Now that I have the opportunity I'm going to register for some slightly nicer ones and just donate my old stuff. Just because you have the essentials doesn't mean you don't want new things!

Whichever route you go with is totally acceptable, though! Some of the older people may find a honeymoon fund tacky (my mom does) but it's really whatever you want.

Cool idea I thought about doing
Place bets at wedding reception
2 jars one with bride n one with groomPlace $1 to $10 bets in the jars they want the cake smashed in face.. all money goes towards honeymoon Or put cash app or others ways to send money on website labeled as honeymoon fund

View Quoted Comment Didn't think about it that way thank you

View Quoted Comment Thanks, I like that.

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This is great advice!

My fiance and I are open to the idea of gifts but I feel like it would be better to just ask for money contributions for wedding/honeymoon expenses. We are both saving and we have some family helping with our initial wedding costs,but we don't want to be in any debt from our wedding or honeymoon if we can because our families are only able to help out so much. I feel like this is a smart thing to do if you really don't need more "stuff".

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Agreed they are convenient!