In recent years, couples getting married have moved from the traditional household items registry to honeymoon registries. Honeymoon registries, offered by websites such as Honeyfund, Honeymoon Wishes and Wanderable, allow couples to set up a registry where the gift is a honeymoon related activity. For example, if Bob and Joe make a registry for a honeymoon in St. Lucia, they can register for activities (e.g. boat rides, couples massage), food and beverages (e.g. hotel champagne) or even travel-related items (e.g. camera, luggage).
Couples who use honeymoon registries say that it’s more pragmatic. Couples are getting married (comparatively) later in life and/or have already lived together for a while; this means that they already have all the household items that they need. Those in favor of honeymoon registries say that times change. Guests are already going to give some form of wedding present, so why not something that will be more useful to the couple?
Those not in favor list various reasons, for example, general tackiness of asking people to give money to fund a trip, awkwardness of giving monetary gifts (i.e. people are less comfortable giving a small amount, even though that may be what they can afford. It’s easier to give off a traditional registry because at least it’s not obvious to everyone as to how much or little they paid), belief that giving a tangible item is a better way to show the guest’s love to the couple (i.e. a couple will remember the guest’s gift every time they use the item; it’s harder to do when the guest is paying for an experience).
To be blunt, I think honeymoon registries are tacky. While I have no objection to giving cash as a gift, it’s gross to push the costs of a celebration on the guests, as the wedding and honeymoon are traditionally the couple’s financial responsibility. And while times change, then why not ditch the tradition of wedding gifts? First, many guests, who used to be mainly from the community in which the couple lived, now have to travel and find accommodations to attend. Therefore, being at the wedding is already a substantial expense. Second, there’s no expectation of gifts for housewarming or graduation party. So why the expectation for weddings, when what is being celebrated is not an actual accomplishment?
So what do you think of honeymoon registries?
