Anyone use a honeymoon fund?

Honeymoon registry will usually take a percentage of what is given. I advise to not do it. There will be guests that give you cash and that can go towards Italy. Just don't specifically ask for cash.

Be prepared, they are very frowned upon on Wedding Wire.

No. Don't. You cannot ask for money or for your guests to fund luxury vacations. Aside from being tacky, honeyfunds take a percentage of your money, so rather than getting a check from aunt Hildegard for $100 because you registered with honeyfund instead you get $92...doesn't make any sense. If you cannot afford to take a vacay, then don't take one.

Ive seen people use them... Aside from the percentage it takes, its your registry if that what you want go for it. I think people start to feel funny about contributing when people put itemized requests. Like $10 for wine and $75 for 3 breakfasts etc.

OR you could open up a Chase Sapphire credit card, pay for everything you possibly can with it, and use those points for your honeymoon. Just make sure you pay off the card every month. Some may not be able to afford the payments on a credit card, but FH and I are and we pay it in full every Friday. We have more than enough points to get both of us to Cabo for free and go to Puerto Rico in September when my SIL has her baby.

This topic comes up at least once a week. You might want to use the search function and look at previous threads. This is a very controversial topic.

Reasons why honeymoon registries are "frowned upon":

1. The take a percentage from your guests' gifts, when doing the same exact thing (giving you money) would otherwise be free.

2. They're deceptive. They market to your guests that they are gifting you something like a night in a hotel or a dinner out, when in reality the website just gives you a big chunk of money at the end. Not every guest will realize this.

3. They're pointless. Everyone knows that people want cash.

4. They're rude. They can be perceived as asking for cash, which is generally perceived as rude.

5. (This one is just in my opinion, but I know other posters share it) I don't really want to pay for your honeymoon. I'm not even getting a real honeymoon. That's great that you guys want to go to Italy, but why not plan a honeymoon you can afford and go to Italy later? What are you going to do if you don't get enough gifts on your honeymoon registry and then you can no longer afford the trip to Italy? What will happen to those "gifts" people gave you (the night in a hotel room or a dinner at X restaurant) that you can no longer use because you're not going to Italy anymore?

Make a small registry, spread the word that you're saving for a honeymoon, and be done with it.

@AlexisM I keep seeing you talk about the Chase Sapphire Card... I seriously need to look into this. I want to go to Rome for my honeymoon and having miles for the flight would be awesome!

@AthenaKay it's rated the best card to have for traveling. So many airlines and hotels are affiliated with them!

Http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/chase-sapphire-preferred-review/#101

I should've posted a referral link for you to sign up. I would've gotten 5,000 extra points if you do lol

Are you able to still post a referral link?

I have to find it. Please hold....

Well apparently they stopped it for the Sapphire, but by all means, apply away! I love that ridiculous credit card lol

Lol ok! I am seriously going to look into it!

Sweet!

One of my friends is doing it, I am not sure what hers is called but she already has a house. We had to pay for the honeymoon on a credit card we had no other choice. I really do not want to ask guest for money.

I wouldn't mind these if they weren't deceptive and you could actually buy someone a beach dinner or whatever. And the percentage is also enough to make it a no

Ok, so I used a honeyfund, and I'm actually really pro them, so I'll chip in what I found useful about it:

1) The percentage is a lot smaller than previous posters have made it out to be. On $100, I got $98.72. What that annoying? Yes. Is there a way around it? Yeah! People "pledge" to give you something, print their little certificate, and give check or cash. We did that when we were gifting a honeyfund, and anyone genuinely concerned about the percentage the website takes can figure that out.

2) I don't find it rude. Personal opinion, so that was not an issue.

3) While your guests are actually giving you money, if you keep your word and go on the honeymoon, they really did help. We put a spice tour, and when one guest bought that whole event for us, you can bet that spice tour went from "yeah, we will probably do it" to "ok, we gotta get that done and send them a postcard!"

4) You know what my guests told me was rude? Returning gifts for money (and plenty of people do that too).

5) My guests really liked being able to be a part of our next big adventure! Even older guests that I would assume would not be for it really liked the honeyfund.

My final point would be this; I didn't wait for the honeyfund to pay for the honeymoon, because we were going right after the wedding. So we had to borrow money from my parents to cover the flights, hotels, etc. and will be paying them back with what we got from the honeyfund. In that way, my guests could be sure I'd use their money for the honeymoon because there was no way for me to back out of it! Now, is that a luxury a lot of people can't afford? Yup. It also made honeyfund an easy choice.

The controversy around Honeyfunds is surprising to me, though I do totally understand the annoying thing about them taking a chunk of money. I had friends who I consider to be very un-tacky do a honeyfund, and we bought them dinners in Italy. I loved gifting them a memorable part of their trip over, say, a silver charger that they'd never use, or salad tongs or something. Maybe it's because they really used the money for the dinners in Italy. They sent us a photo of them dining at the restaurants with their thank you note. I thought that was awesome.