Honeymoon Funds: A Great Wedding Debate
It’s no doubt we’re all feeling the crunch these last two years, while still trying to maintain the illusion we’re all financially literate. So how in the world are you supposed to pay for a wedding AND a honeymoon? What if you want something else entirely? Enter honeymoon funds: online or in person “fundraising” to afford those first few days as a married couple and continue the celebration a little while longer.
Honeymoon Funds: Fabulous or Tacky AF?
The great debate has gone on for years. It’s always been a tradition to bring a card with a physical gift or monetary gift to weddings, but people tend to forget that when it comes to online honeymoon funds. There seem to be two groups of thought here: either it’s a fabulous idea or tacky AF. I tend to fall somewhere in between; you should always do BOTH a gift registry (hello upgraded appliances!) and a “honeymoon fund” to cover other expenses.
Honeymoon funds are fabulous in the sense that many of us are getting married later (sometimes after having kids leave the house even) and we likely have a full household of dishes, appliances and linens. With a honeymoon fund you can use the money for whatever you wish. Going this route, I highly recommend making some sort of note so you can thank whoever gave you the money later on. Some online fund hosts allow you to make a statement on what you’re planning to use the money for. For the couple who has a fully paid for honeymoon, but needs a down payment on a house, this is a great option.
If you’re doing honeymoon funds online, why would you need a traditional registry too? For some people, the thought of just giving money is hard. They want to make sure you’re using it on something you need, and not what they consider to be a frivolous item. There are also a few Great Aunt Sue’s who insist on going into a store to buy from a printed out registry. Give them the opportunity to choose that perfect toaster to fit your needs. It can be hard to decide what to put on a registry if you’ve already gotten two households full of stuff, but think about things you might want to upgrade. Maybe you’ve longed for a Kitchenaid Mixer, but your current Walmart Mixer is still working and $400-500 seems like a lot to spend. Put it on your registry.
The Best Honeymoon Funds
Almost every website has the option for adding honeymoon funds now, so I recommend doing a little research. I’ve found the following to be the two best options and personally used one of them for our wedding. Of course, as I find other amazing options I’ll come back and update this post!
Honeyfund
I haven’t personally used Honeyfund but we considered it when we were planning our own wedding. One of the neatest things Honeyfund offers is their “Starter registries”. These are great if you haven’t been able to decide on a honeymoon destination as they include everything from food and accommodations to romantic couples activities for all skill levels. You can also use a customizable wishlist or register for gift cards.
A few things to note: There are no fees passed on to your guests when using Honeyfund. Gift cards never incur any fees, but cash gifts will pay a 2.59-3.5% fee (plus a $0.49-$0.59 fee per transfer) when transferred to your account. If you’re not getting married, their sister site (Plumfund.com) is great for fundraising, crowdfunding and all occasion cash gifts. Honeyfund offers travel partners to help you get the best deals on your travel once your ready to book. Because it’s cash in hand, you don’t have to wait or “max out” your registry. You can transfer funds at any time and use them to book your honeymoon.
Zola (Our Registry Host)
We loved our Zola registry for one major reason: We were able to register for traditional items as well as experiences and our honeymoon. We used their experiences search to find things we’d like to do as a couple, and then booked these “date days” after our wedding. It allowed us to get some good couples time without our kids in tow. The best part is the registry was already integrated with our wedding website, making it easy for even the tech-challenged guests to rsvp and browse the registry at the same time. Plus I was able to manage invites and RSVPs from the back end of the site.
I loved being able to add gifts from other sites to our registry as well. We had a full household but wanted a few “upgraded” items. So we registered for things like luxury linens, an incredible knife block and a high end coffee maker (Because coffee is life).
One downside was I knew who purchased what, the moment they purchased it. I wasn’t able to find a way to turn that off, though you can have the gifts held and sent on or after your wedding date if you wish.
The fees at Zola are lower than anywhere else I’ve found. It’s a flat 2.4% fee to cover credit card processing (according to the site), and you can cover this fee or choose to have guests pay this fee. Personally, having your guests pay is tacky AF and something I would NEVER recommend doing.
So which is best?
In hindsight, I might have used more of the features of the Zola registry, though the Honeyfund’s starter registries would have been a useful feature. I (Markie) kind of willy-nilly added things that sounded fun, with no actual organization to our registry.
Choosing a honeymoon funds website is personal based on what you want. You could always skip it and just do the jar method at your wedding day, but it’s a lot more fun for you and your guests if they can “buy” a special part of your honeymoon.
