Zola or Honeyfund?

Editted to add that we are also currently looking for land to build our dream home, so I also like that I could create a "dream home fund" on zola for people to contribute to that as well.

The issue with this is that you aren’t actually paying for the excursions. The couple just gets a check and can use that money for anything. Also, people don’t need to be encouraged by a website to send you money. Everyone needs money- it’s not going to be a surprise for guests that you do too. What will happen if someone gives $50 toward snorkeling but it costs $100? Will you cover the other $50 so you can do the thing they paid for you to do?

We went with Honeymoon Wishes. It was easy to set up and the gifts are for different activities to do there. We are going on a carnival cruise so it syncs up to your account which is cool.

And I dont care about the naysayers either. We both have owned houses then moved in together. So we have enough pots, pans, and dishes to go around. I dont see the point in asking for more household items when we already have everything.

We're using Zola, i really like that they have free shipping and you can also incorporate your wedding day details and guest list with it. I also use the wedding website feature.

I did Zola

you can add add your own item and create the description for it to be whatever you want

www.zola.com/weddings/glennandalyssa

View Quoted Comment We liked the variety of website designs better too

and several people I asked said Zola “looked easier”

plus they can opt to do cash to save fees

I do believe that couple should pay fees though

We had bought a house before we got married, so a lot of things we needed we already bought.

I also was researching different registry options and personally like the Honeyfund idea but we changed how they could send their funds so they wouldn’t feel pressured to click on what they could afford with several money options. We just had one selective option where they could type in the amount they want to give.

We did get a few people comment how rude it was to ask for money but nowadays, it’s just easier giving a newlywed couple money instead of a gift they may or may not use/like and possible donate. I’d rather them spend the money on what they want/need.

You’re never actually paying money for a specific activity— you’re creating headers that your guests contribute to — on both sites— but the actuality of what you receive is one lump sum of just straight money. You’re only using it towards snorkeling if you then take some of that money and pay for a snorkel trip. So, you can work it the exact same way on either site— you can certainly make up specific category headers on Zola too. Bear in mind neither website pays for the excursion directly and neither knows what the excursion costs— you are the one selecting the prices you’re assigning to the “excursions” ...they both work in largely the same way. The actual things to compare is how much either site is charging— percentages, charging you or guests for credit card purchases etc

I’m all about Zola. I absolutely love my website. I created a small registry and I love that everything’s right there. It makes it so convenient and helps me stay organized.

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As with anything, if you pay for it yourself and then get reimbursed for it by a friend, the friend is not actually paying specifically for that item either because it's already been paid for. Example: I recently paid for 8 concert tickets upfront and then was reimbursed by 6 friends for that concert. So when they gave me the money for their ticket, obviously I did not use it to buy the concert tickets because they were already purchased.

Have you actually checked into honeyfund? You can setup the amount and quantity so some reasearch would go into setting up the registry. For example: if I wanted to put a snorkeling excursion on there and I looked it up and it cost $200, I could put a quantity of 4, $50 gifts or 2 $100 gifts, to cover the excursion.

As I mentioned, I wasn't really looking for opinions on whether or not to do the honeymoon registry. I liked the idea for people to actually know what they were contributing money to, such as creating a memory, instead of just giving us cash and not knowing what we would be using it for.

View Quoted Comment I have absolutely looked in to honeyfund. Your answer doesn’t really answer my question though. Are you saying that the only things you will put on there are excursions you’ve already booked and paid for? If snorkeling costs $200, and you only get $100 toward it, will you still do it? Or are you counting on those gifts before booking excursions?

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Yes we would still do the excursions. We aren't counting on the money from the registry to be able to take our honeymoon or be able to do the things we want to do.

I am pretty sure Zola also lets you do "funds" for different events. Like flights, airbnb, restaurants, etc.

If it were me, I just wouldn't register because I'd prefer to be gifted cash or check or gift cards! People (seem to be at least) perfectly fine giving cash to a newlywed couple even if it isn't asked for for a specific thing. Then you aren't paying the fees with the websites or waiting the days-weeks to deposit into your account.

We did Honeyfund! We asked for money towards our honeymoon excursions (you create excursions on their website for guests to “buy” but once the money comes in it goes to your bank account). Their fee is tiny. No biggie. We also did a few retail registries and Honeyfund let us link to those so it was super-helpful to just tell people “Honeyfund” when they asked where we were registered.

About 1/2 people gave us money, 1/2 gave us gifts. More people who gave us money used Honeyfund instead of giving us cash (better becygetting cash at weddings worried me because of theft). Of people who gave us gifts, some used registries and some just brought other items. Glad we offered a honeymoon fund & traditional retail registries!

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FutureMrsD says it perfectly here!

Megan, if you choose not to register, your guests will know to bring cash/checks as gifts instead. That way, you can use the money towards whatever you'd like and you don't have to worry about any additional fees/waiting periods from these websites.

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@Kenisha (or anyone else who's done Zola) are you allowing guests to see the amount you're requesting, or keeping it private? ...trying to decide which route to go. i never like asking ppl for money - or anything for that matter! So im a little hesitant about sharing the amount, but on the other hand , you know what they say, "a closed mouth doesn't get fed" lol, so i feel like if they're actually able to see the goal they'd be more inclined to give....idunno tho...thoughts?

View Quoted Comment I was kind of worried about people seeing the total amount but if you view the registry like a guest would, the amount doesn’t actually show

Ooh ok, gotcha! good to know!