Some days it feels like we got married yesterday.  And some days it feels like we’ve been married for so much longer… not to mention that it feels like Ben and I have known each other for way longer than we have.  I went almost 31 years without him in my life, but as time goes on, it’s hard to remember life BEFORE Ben.  Ok, yes, I do remember life before Ben.  I wouldn’t have gotten to a place of meeting him without it.  But, when you meet your best friend and begin a life together, it gets harder and harder to imagine life without them.  I guess that’s what I’m trying to say!

Since we were older when we got married (I had just turned 32 when I walked down the aisle and Ben was 30), we both had houses filled with things you typically register for.  Granted, we did upgrade some things (like silverware, yay!) and add some things to our repertoire (like pots and pans and sheets, etc.), but since we’re living in a small house with not a lot of storage, it didn’t make sense to keep registering for things that we didn’t have room for.  So, Ben proposed the idea of having a Honeymoon Registry!

It was brilliant!  I’d never heard of it before, so he explained a little of what it was because some friends had done this for their honeymoon to Europe two years earlier.  It’s really just like it sounds… you list things for your honeymoon, such as accommodations, eating out, activities, snacks, etc., and break them down into different price points and quantities and voila!  You have a Honeymoon Registry!  Ours isn’t active anymore, but you can see the page where we linked to it and explained it on our wedding website.  And you can see an example from The Honeymoon website below.

What actually happens is that people purchase specific things on your registry, and the money they spend is put into your account.  Five days before your wedding, The Honeymoon website sends you a check for all the things that have been purchased up to that point.  So, yes, it does take some discipline to deposit the check and use it for those specific things that people purchased for you.  But how fun for you (and them!) to have others play a part in creating such a memorable trip!  For those friends and family that purchase things on or after your wedding day, no worries!  You’ll be sent one more check 30 days after your wedding so those items that were purchased are given to you as well.  And even though it will be after the fact, my suggestion would be to go ahead and do the things you’d listed on your registry so that when you get home and get a surprise of another gift, you can share with that friend how much you enjoyed what they gave you!

Since the Honeymoon Registry was a big deal to us but a new idea to so many of our friends and family, some sweet friends of mine threw me a shower for JUST this registry!  And it was so much fun!  I walked into my friend’s house and the smell of crepes filled the air with touches of Paris all over.

When you purchase something from this website, it gives you the option to print out a card so you can tell the bride and groom what their gift to you was.  So the gift portion of the shower was just as fun as other showers!  I opened cards instead of boxes but it was so much fun to see the plans for our honeymoon unfolding as each envelope was opened.

The other thing that happened because of that shower was that people who went to our website and looked at the Honeymoon Registry, saw that other things had been purchased, so they felt better about doing something they may not have done before.  I really do not remember the dollar amount of what we received, and it doesn’t really matter.  But what I do remember is that people were so generous and so excited for us.  I printed off the notes that they left us as they purchased things so I’d have a record of their sweet words at such an exciting time in our lives.

So how did we use our registry??  Well, we stayed in an apartment in Paris for 11 days, so we had things on our list like trips to the market (we listed 8 of these at $20 each) and morning crossants and café au lait (we may have listed 10 of these at $10 each) since we were able to cook and keep food in the fridge.  We also broke down the cost of our flights and the apartment into different increments so that people could contribute to those things as well.  So, while we may have had several entries for “Airfare”, there were different price points so anyone who wanted to could contribute to our flights.

Someone provided us tickets to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
(This isn’t the top, but I like this photo better than the windblown ones from the top!)

Some friends who have lived in Paris gave us some restaurant suggestions, so we put those on our registry as well. One evening was dinner at Chez Georges to celebrate having been married for a week!  And another evening was for dinner at a restaurant that ended up being closed for a private party. But instead of turning us around, they put us into a car and took us to their sister restaurant! Crazy fun evening that was!

Of all the times I’ve been to Paris, I’d never been to the top of Notre Dame.  The line was always too long or it was always too hot or something… but this time, we wanted to go!  So, it went on the registry too and some sweet friends gave us those tickets as their gift!

And just like any view from the top of any building in Paris, it was well worth the climb.

Hopefully this will help get the word out about Honeymoon Registries at least a little bit!  I’d never heard of them before and I LOVED that we did it!!  While I am so thankful for all of the things friends and family gave us to build our home together, I’m also very grateful for those that helped us create memories during our first trip together as husband and wife!  If you’d like to see more of our ventures around Paris, you can click here!