What is HoneyFund? and other registry musings

Since I've had a few people ask me about our registries, I thought it would be helpful to do a quick rundown on our less-traditional HoneyFund registry!

Ben and I recently celebrated 2 years of living together and with our fur baby Gypsy. In that time, we've accumulated a lot of the household items that hallmark true adulthood: a Kitchen Aid stand-mixer, non-hand-me-down pots and pans, a good vacuum cleaner, a food processor, and more pint glasses than we know what to do with. We have bedding, shower curtains, a rolling pin, and a meat thermometer. Thus, we wanted to keep our registries realistic about what we truly need. I am terrified of household clutter so we really evaluated what household items we were lacking and which needed to be replaced before making our Target registry. It literally had 10 things at first, but we slowly added a few more as relatives began to request that we do so!

Lake-of-the-Ozarks, MO: Amazing, but not quite Caribbean.

However, what this bride and groom are truly hoping for is a dream vacation to Jamaica. Enter HoneyFund: the honeymoon registry! In a nutshell, HoneyFund is a methodical way of itemizing and collecting pledges toward your honeymoon. As the website advertises, some couples have been gifted with the funds to travel to places as exotic as Bali, Paris, New Zealand, and Africa! We chose a January/February 2015 Jamaican honeymoon because a) two meteorologists traveling to the Caribbean during hurricane season seems like a poor choice; b) escaping Wisconsin during the winter will feel amazing! and c) we want to do our first international travel at a relatively 'close' destination. We selected an all-inclusive resort because...well, it's easy! That, and Ben likes to eat.

We organized our HoneyFund registry into various price ranges: sponsoring part of a night of resort stay, a romantic candlelit dinner, our airline tickets, excursions to Jamaica's natural wonders, and scuba diving lessons are all options! I think that often, a non-material gift can feel impersonal. With HoneyFund, the gift-giver knows which part of the vacation they are sponsoring and can directly connect with the experience that results from their gift.

With all of that said, attending a wedding is time-consuming and expensive. I used to think registries were kind of selfish until I realized they are really more of a convenience for the busy guest who wants to give a gift, but doesn't want to get the bride and groom something impractical. Some of our local guests are graciously contributing homemade desserts to serve at our reception dessert bar, and that is the perfect example of how love can go so much farther than a traditional gift. We hope that no one feels compelled to bring presents, but rather, understands how much their presence means to us!