TopDawg Travel

Archive for the ‘Honeymoon Registry’ Category

Consider this:  The two of you may have been living together for quite some time.  Or maybe you are joining two fully equipped households and have more toaster ovens and glassware than you can fit under one roof.  The mere thought of another electric blanket or toaster makes your stomach churn.  There is a solution:  The Honeymoon Registry!

 What, you may ask is  “The Honeymoon Registry“?   This is a registry, much like any other registry (at your local department store, specialty store, etc.) that is specifically for your honeymoon and the way you want it to be as you create the memories to last a lifetime. You talk with a honeymoon travel specialist, decide where you want to go and what you want to do and then your specialist will help design your registry to accommodate different levels of expenditures for your family, friends, and guests to purchase for your honeymoon.

If you chose to go to Maui, for example, your air may cost $550 each (round trip).  We would divide that into 10 segments of $55 each or a total of 20 gifts of air.  You might want to rent a jeep to get around the island.  Let’s say for this example, that would be $330 for the week. We can divide that into a daily rate and register for $50/day or 7 gifts of four-wheel driving around the island.  You can be as creative as you are interesting.  Whether it be couples massage, a day in the spa for the bride and a day of golf for the groom, or vice versa, your honeymoon experience can become everything you ever dreamed it would be.  You design your honeymoon and your specialist will help to build your registry.  How easy can it be?  The honeymoon of your dreams with your guests contributing to your experience. 

In the old days (like a year or two ago), the newlyweds to be would go to a department store, a furniture store, even a jewelry store (for silver pieces) and register for the gifts they wanted to receive from friends, family and well-wishers.  Traditionalists might still expect that kind of registry.  Of course in days past there was also a bowl or box on the gifts table for the envelops of cash/checks/gift cards.  Some even had a money tree sitting on the gifts table at the reception.  Traditionalists never had a problem with that concept.  So if you or a member of your family is a traditionalist, think of the Honeymoon Registry as a money tree or a bowl on the gifts table at the reception. 

 Today’s consumer is a more experiential consumer.  Instead of collecting “stuff”, we collect experiences:  moments to remember, a lifetime of memories.  We are looking for what is “next”.  So the honeymoon registry is a wonderful way to help pay for making memories to last a lifetime together!

Just remember to take lots of pictures to share with your family, friends and guests when you get back as part of your thank you’s for those wonderful memories!

How do I love thee, let me count the ways…… (Sonnet 43 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

The Honeymoon. 

After all the stress of planning a wedding, perfecting the invitations, securing the dress, the church, the reception facility and the cake, the bridesmaids and groomsmen, the stress of paying for it all, you suddenly realize your forgot about the honeymoon.  Or Ms. Bride, you needed to give your groom something to keep him occupied so he is not looking at how much this is going to cost, so you assign him “the honeymoon”. 

Now that you have a date set and the plans in hand, you realize he has gone underground and surfaces only for tux fittings and the occasional opinion on the flavor of the cake.  So nothing has been done about the honeymoon, at least not to your satisfaction.

A honeymoon specialist, such as myself, can really ease the strain of the honeymoon planning.  After all, this is the one time in your life, this “trip of a lifetime”,  you do not want to leave to chance and hapenstance.  You should not have to be burning the midnight oil on the Internet reseaching and pricing the honeymoon details.  All those details of air, hotel, food, ground transportation, excursions and activities that the perfect honeymoon should encompass can be overwhelming.  This  is too important and too expensive.  Having a travel specialist to help and advise with issues, large or small, that may come up is so important during this busy time.

The advantage a honeymoon travel specialist offers is the expertise to research and locate the experience you are seeking.   This is the time when newlyweds should be making memories and setting the stage for the rest of their lives together.  Some may want to camp on an eco-beach in the US Virgin Islands, others may want to bask on the beach in an all-inclusive resort and receive spa treaments and pampering, while others may want to explore a country or countries that they have never before visited, seeing a new port every day of a cruise. 

Frequently one must compromise what one wants in a honeymoon to fit within their budget.  That too is what a honeymoon specialist can help you accomplish.  It is wonderful to meet with a couple who have thousands of dollars and want only the best for their honeymoon.  But the majority of couples have a budget and a dream and it is my job to match the wishes and desires to the budget available.

My next entry is going to be on a possible solution to the conflict of honeymoon expectations and desires versus honeymoon budget.