Best way to ask for honeymoon money?

laplandmad

For our wedding a few years back we asked for travel agent vouchers and a percentage of the voucher was donated to a charity of our choice - I think it was about 3%.
There was lots of choices of voucher to choose from and you could choose your own charity if you didn't want to donate to the list on their website.

Jewelleryfan

Well I hope no one argues as I didnt start this to cause fights, everyone has their own ideas and opinions of what might offend or be ok so that's fine what works for one might not work for another

Mrs_Moore_To_Be

We used the following poem in our invite pack:

We are sending out this invitation


In the hope you will join our celebration


But if a gift is your intention


May we take this opportunity to mention


We have already got a kettle and toaster


Crockery, dinner mats and matching coasters


So rather than something we have already got


We would appreciate money for our honeymoon pot


If you miss the list closing date


Then don’t worry you can wait


For 30th April, our wedding day


When some US dollars will help us on our way


But most importantly we request


That you come to our wedding as our guest.


***


If you wish to visit our online gift registry please go to:


https://XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


Our account reference is XXXXXXX


Alternatively we will have secure wedding post box on the day.

On the day we had a lockable post box which the best man emptied reguarly and the cards were deposited in the hotel safe. Here is our post box:


The after the wedding we sent hand written detailed cards thanking people and telling them what their money enable us to do, also enclosing this link:
www.ourhoneymoon.moonfruit.com

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE appreciated it.

Ignore anyone who comes on here against the idea of money as a present, your asking for ideas on how to ask in the nicest and easiest way not looking to start a yes/no debate. As a bride who has done it I can say it worked very well and we were overwhelmed by the genorosity of our guests.

HTH?

Idiophreak

lovecake wrote: »

Thanks Idiophreak! I haven't done much research into it - it sounded like a good idea, but 9% is a lot! A wedding website is a good idea - I'll need to find someone techy to help! Was it easy to do?

Piece of cake...it comes set up with templates etc...everything's just drag and drop or "edit the text here". If you can use word etc you can easily make the site.

Jewelleryfan

Thanks! That's really helpful! Was your online gift registry for things you needs as well ad the post box for donations? How did you find it using 2 methods? Thanks

Mrs_Moore_To_Be

Our online gift registry was with the people we booked our honeymoon through (Travel Counsellors) and was free to use. We could then have this money as a cheque before the wedding or do what we did which is book excusions or hotels (we upgraded some that we had previously booked) with the money

To be honest we had most of our money given on the day though. x

Jewelleryfan

Ok thanks thought you meant it was a present registry

wanchai_2

minerva_windsong wrote: »

Be aware that you may be opening up a can of worms with this one - people have very different opinions on asking for money/gift lists etc.

I personally would not do the poem and would not say anything unless people asked (let your/your OH's parents know this is what you're doing as older relatives in particular may be likely to ask your parents rather than ask you directly), and then say, "Well we've got everything for our house so we don't really need anything, but if you'd like to get us something then a contribution towards a really special honeymoon would be greatly appreciated." And afterwards maybe write to them and tell them what you used the money for if it was anything particularly special like flight upgrades, a posh hotel, a special day trip, a nice meal etc.

I agree. Giving money as a wedding gift is very common here (Ireland), but YOU DO NOT ASK FOR IT IN THE INVITATION :eek::eek::eek: Instead, guests tend to automatically give money or else ask the B/G or their parents what they would like, and then they can say that they would appreciate money or vouchers or whatever.

But each to their own! In some countries they put their bank account details on the invitations :rotfl:

kmmr wrote: »

This is a serious can of worms on this forum, so be aware! There are loooong long threads arguing about this. Wait til you ask questions like 'should I have chair covers' or the highly controversial 'open bar or not!'

But putting that aside, we did the honeymoon gift list online thing. I was fairly anti it to be honest, but actually we got very good feedback. We made sure we did each thing we listed (although we had already booked things before we made the list) and took photos each time. Just sent out all out thank you cards, each with a picture of their gift. Like us having dinner somewhere, or champagne, or spotting an elephant, or seeing going on a tour of a massai village etc etc.

One of my friends was recently at a wedding where at midnight the groom started opening up all the cards and using the cash to pay the band. I think the guests were a bit unimpresesd...

OMG!!!!!!!!!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

kmmr

lovecake wrote: »

A can of worms indeed :rotfl:! I don't think it's worth arguing over as all weddings, couples and guests are different so it really depends on what you and your family feel is appropriate.

Could you PM me the link to that site too please! Xx

Did I not PM the link to you? Worrying! I wonder who got that information randomly...

Anway, the website is www.buy-our-honeymoon.com but when you set up your own site, you can choose a slightly better name - ours was 'www.our-wedding-list.co.uk/KkmmrAndKmmrsOHwedding.1234

I might be wrong about the setup cost. Possibly it was £75

You can set it up so that there are, say, 3 nights at x location, or for flights we had 12x£xx available. Most of our gifts were less than £30 though.

For some, like 'Artistic Memories' - ie prints and pictures from the trip the guests could get as many as they wanted. Although they didn't know other people had already bought it. This was because we had more guests than things to do!

As we were on safari we also put things like 'spotting our first leopard', 'zoom lens for camera'. People did tend to veer towards the real things (the camera, and the pictures) rather than the 'spotting a leopard', although in the end it's all cash. So I think it shows that some people do like the idea of money being spent on real things.

I'll PM you our specific site.

kmmr

wanchai wrote: »

OMG!!!!!!!!!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I know. It's funny that we are ok with giving money, but don't like seeing it spent like that!

Worse was that there was no record being kept at the time of who gave what amount.