With more and more newlyweds living together before marriage and the average age of brides and grooms steadily rising to 28 years of age, the need for traditional registries is slowly dying out. Instead, more and more people are turning to ‘experiential’ registries. One such type is the honeymoon registry.
The Big Day
The Big Day is one such online honeymoon registry. In fact, they operate the largest honeymoon gift registry and was the recipient of the Better Business Bureau “Business of the Year” award. Since 2001, they have helped almost 50,000 couples experience their dream honeymoon.
The reason why I like The Big Day so much is:
1. They have extremely friendly and helpful travel advisors ready to help you pick the right package. Each advisor specializes in a specific location, so they have first-hand experience with your destination.
2. They provide an easy to use online tool to help you build your own registry, if you wish.
3. They make it so simple for you to share your registry with family and friends – you can even link to your big day registry page to your wedding website.
4. They notify you every time someone makes a purchase.
5. There’s no sign up fee. Although if you don’t use The Big Day’s travel agency to book your travel package or your package is under $2,000 there is a 7% service fee (if your package is valued at $2,000 or above, this fee will be reduced to 3.5% and if the package is valued at $3,500 or above, this fee will be waived).
6. Your guests have a couple of different options for payment.
7. Once all of your gifts are in, The Big Day will either send you a Paypal transfer, direct deposit into your bank account (US accounts only) or send you a check via snail mail.
Tips
The registry is broken out into ‘experiences’. In addition to flight and accommodations, you can also add romantic dinners for 2, breakfast in bed, tour packages and even sunglasses to wear on the beach! It’s totally up to you how you customize your package.
1. Be reasonable – Don’t expect your guests to purchase you a 4 night’s stay in a 5 star luxury resort. Break out larger items so people can mix and match the experiences they get you and they’re suited to every price range.
2. Sell, sell, sell – The way you word your trip is so important in getting people excited about buying you an item. They want to feel like their gift is special. Instead of saying: “Dinner for 2”, tell them about the place, the ambiance, what you’ll be eating.
3. Promote, promote, promote – You need to let people know about the registry for it to be successful. Link it to your wedding web page and tell your maid of honour to spread the word. Just remember to be tactful. It’s not OK to publish any registry on your wedding invites.
Anniversary Registry
Last year, The Big Day launched an Anniversary Registry so families can purchase amazing vacation experiences for their parents and grandparents on their milestone anniversary. What a great idea!