There’s no denying it, honeymoons are expensive. Especially when you’ve just shelled out a ton of cash on the wedding day of your dreams. Traditionally, it was up to the groom’s family to help out with the honeymoon costs, as the bride’s family were usually involved in paying for the day itself. But now that times have moved on, and we’ve all agreed to throw a lot of these traditions out of the window (thank goodness!), things have changed. Of course, if you’re lucky, and your parents have very kindly offered to help you pay for the honeymoon, we’d recommend that you graciously accept. When it comes to paying for your honeymoon, every little helps, and you don’t want to offend anyone.
Save
If not, your first option is to save, save, save. Decide where you want to go on your honeymoon and figure out a budget. Include flights, hotels, meals, drinks, and of course some extra cash for fun. Then, get saving! It’s a great idea to open a separate account specifically for honeymoon savings – this can just be another bank or PayPal account, but a high interest savings account or ISA is ideal. This way your savings will be earning for you, and the limited access will mean you wont be as tempted to keep dipping in to pay for napkin hire and flower girl dresses. The key is to set out exactly how much you will both need to put away per month to fund a honeymoon you really want, then set up a direct debit and then you won’t have to worry about it.
Ask guests to help
If every last penny you have is going on the wedding, there’s another option – ask your wedding guests to forgo traditional department store gifts and instead contribute cash towards your honeymoon. If you’re like most couples these days, you’ll have been living together for a while and already have all of the household ‘stuff’ you need. And with a little help from your friends and family, you’ll be able to fund a honeymoon you’ve been dreaming about ever since you started planning your wedding.
Asking for cash
Of course, you can just put your bank details in your wedding invitations, and politely ask for bank transfers, but if you feel that you or your guests might feel awkward asking for money directly, you could create a honeymoon fund that means your guests can contribute towards your trip.
Set up a honeymoon fund
Whilst some honeymoon funds are attached to a travel agent, our online cash gift registry, Patchwork, allows you to collect cash contributions direct for you to spend when and how you like. Patchworkit.com is unique in that you can create a visual representation of your ideal honeymoon broken down into individual experiences, so your friends and family will be able to see exactly what you want to get up to. You can include photos of everything, from the hotel you want to stay in, to the cocktails you want to drink, then give each of those experiences a price and description, i.e £100 for a night in a hotel, £50 for dinner, or £5 for beers on the beach. Your guests will then be able to choose which bit to treat you to and leave a lovely message. Plus, unlike other gift registries all cash contributions will go straight into your bank or PayPal account, so you can start planning and booking straight away.
Fees
If you’ve already decided on a travel agent, you might find that they have a honeymoon fund you can use included in your package. However, most independent honeymoon funds will charge either a one off fee, or a commission on contributions. At Patchwork, we charge a 3% commission on contributions, meaning it’s free to create and share a patchwork, and we only make our money when you start to collect yours. To read more about our fees, go here.
Ready to get started on your own honeymoon patchwork? Get some inspiration from our customisable honeymoon registries, or create your own from scratch.