If you’re planning your wedding and starting to think about how to approach the concept of a gift list, and thinking about a dreamy honeymoon, then this feature is for you.
What if I was to say to you that you could actually seamlessly combine both the ‘gifts’ and the ‘honeymoon’ parts of your wedding planning into something fun and enjoyable, that would result in a practical way of making it incredibly simple for your guests to contribute to a gift that’s truly valued and appreciated? Have I piqued your interest? Good! Then allow me to introduce you to Buy Our Honeymoon, a super smart solution for couples who would love to enjoy a honeymoon after their wedding and who aren’t really interested in more traditional wedding gifts.
Buy Our Honeymoon redefines the traditional wedding registry, by focusing on what really matters to you; creating precious first memories as a married couple. Instead of accumulating unwanted household items as gifts, it presents a simple and convenient way for your guests to gift your parts of your honeymoon. That could be a contribution towards your travel and accommodation costs, or it could be a romantic dinner under the stars, or a thrilling excursion.
It’s a genius idea, and Buy Our Honeymoon have created a platform that makes it super easy to pull off in real life. They present a straightforward, fun and flexible way to organise your honeymoon plans and wedding gifts
We recently spoke with Shelley and Andrew Green, co-founder of Buy Our Honeymoon, to find out more. Bookmark this page and enjoy the read folks!
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Would you like to introduce Buy Our Honeymoon?
Buy Our Honeymoon is an alternative wedding gift list service for funding the honeymoon of your dreams. Instead of being given more stuff for your home, you can use your wedding gifts to make your honeymoon happen.
We’re completely independent, so you can use our service with any travel provider, at any point in your planning.
You can make your gift list as detailed or as simple as you like, and your funds are always paid directly to you, facilitated by the site, so they’re yours as soon as each payment clears.
It all means your guests get to choose a meaningful wedding gift, while you get the help towards paying for your honeymoon plans.
What are the key things couples should consider when booking their honeymoon?
It’s really important to remember that this is your first holiday together as a married couple and doing what you love is more important than conforming to an idea of what a honeymoon should be.
So of course you should go to a beach paradise if that’s your bliss, but avoid it if days spent lazing in the sun isn’t your idea of heaven. Maybe you’d prefer city lights, or safari adventure, or an expedition off the beaten track?
If you want to marry in summer and postpone your honeymoon until the winter then that’s entirely your call – you shouldn’t feel you need to leave directly from your wedding.
And if you would instead like to stay closer to home to simply enjoy time relaxing after a busy time of wedding preparation – that’s totally fine too.
If you want to bungee jump or get covered in mud? Enjoy it! Don’t alter your dreams to fit in with a glamorous ideal.
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How does Buy Our Honeymoon allow couples to fund these all-important honeymoon essentials?
Buy Our Honeymoon is incredibly flexible. You are not tied into any particular travel provider: you can find the best deal and fund the cost from your honeymoon gift list, whenever you feel ready. You can make your travel arrangements even after your list has closed.
When you create your registry, we provide you with a selection of ideas to get you started. All the essentials are included, such as flights, accommodation, transportation and food. You can use these as a basis for your own creativity.
Guests love being able to buy something romantic and specific from your list, so it’s fun to break your travel down into interesting components: 100 miles of your flight over the ocean, the first and last nights in your hotel, fuel for your rental car, a room service fund.
Some couples prefer to simply ask guests to contribute to an overall fund, it’s absolutely possible to set that up instead. As well as individual gift items, Buy Our Honeymoon lets you set any gift as an open contribution — and we give you loads of space to detail your honeymoon plans as well as describing an individual gift.
We also have our unique gift suggestion facility, where guests can leave an open contribution along with a message to say what they’d like you to spend the funds on!
However, there’s more to a great honeymoon than just the destination isn’t there?
What turns a great holiday into the trip of a lifetime? Being able to do everything you’ve ever wanted to. This is the time to indulge your dreams!
You can raid the minibar, swim with dolphins, splurge at an expensive restaurant or stay in a luxury suite. Everything that you’ve always thought was a bit too extravagant? Your honeymoon could be the ideal time to do it.
Weddings can be very expensive and you might not feel you have the budget left to indulge. But if your friends and family have bought it for you as a gift, well, there really is no excuse not to treat yourself!
As well as bigger ticket items, it’s also worth adding a few smaller gifts that can be just as special. Maybe have a cocktail at the airport to celebrate your departure? Add a gelato fund, a picnic lunch, or even sunscreen!
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What are the most popular experiences that couples want on honeymoon?
If you’re one of the many couples headed for an island paradise, you’re probably likely to include scuba diving, snorkelling or other similar watersports on your honeymoon gift list. And for lots of people, swimming with dolphins is a bucket list experience.
Why not live like a movie star on your honeymoon? Tracking down the best restaurants, ordering champagne, and cocktails on the beach are all also high on many couples’ wish lists. Spa treatments, theatre tickets and helicopter tours are all hugely popular.
You can include anything you can think of as part of your honeymoon fund, and often the most unique, offbeat gifts are the first to get snapped up by guests. Diving with sharks, Christmas dinner on the beach, dehydrated food supplies for a hike across Iceland, a night in a haunted hotel.
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And upgrades – what do couples seem to really love? What makes a big difference to the overall honeymoon experience?
A honeymoon gift list gives you the opportunity to upgrade. Upgrading your hotel to a luxury suite is very popular — but upgrading your entire trip is also very possible, in ways both big and small.
Perhaps hire a limo to take you from the airport to your hotel, or take cabs everywhere instead of the bus. Buy ‘skip the line’ passes at theme parks and museums. Every gift can make your honeymoon a bit more relaxed, a bit more luxurious.
We’ve seen some couples adding ‘other stuff’ to their lists such as luggage and even ‘just married’ bikinis! Is this popular too? What are the kinds of extras couples love?
Over the many years that we’ve been running Buy Our Honeymoon we really have seen it all! Knitting supplies to while away the hours in flight? Check! Cat sitters, dog sitters and even turtle sitters? Check! Weapons grade mosquito repellant? Check!
Because it’s not a store, there isn’t a catalogue. You really can include anything you can think of. Some couples have funded their travel insurance from their gifts, some include carbon offsetting, and some mix and match gifts for their honeymoon with gifts for their home.
Speaking of carbon offsetting, and in light of growing environmental concerns, how does Buy Our Honeymoon address the carbon footprint of travel?
Just as you’re not limited in any way regarding the gifts that you add – neither are you limited in where you go, how you get there, and who you book with.
Our service isn’t only for couples taking long haul flights to a paradise island halfway around the world. Many couples use us to help fund their honeymoon adventure much closer to home, or booked with companies who specialise in sustainable travel.
You could consider hiring a campervan for a glorious tour of the Scottish highlands, or bringing your bikes on a cycling honeymoon around France. Take the Eurostar to Amsterdam, or the Orient Express to Venice.
Even if you do fly, taking the option to spend your holiday money with local, ethical suppliers can help make a real difference. And since your funds are yours to spend right away, you have the flexibility to make whatever arrangements suit you best – by booking in advance, or waiting until you arrive at your destination – and by using any provider that you find.
We’re here to help make that happen.
Plan Your Honeymoon
Buy Our Honeymoon
Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
