Tips & Advice
One of the best parts about planning your destination wedding is creating your registries for wedding gifts. However, a registry for a destination wedding is a little different from a registry for a traditional wedding. You will likely have fewer guests in attendance and those guests are already spending more money up front than traditional wedding guests to travel to the location you choose for your destination wedding.
You should consider these differences when you are registering for gifts. It is the greatest gift to you that your guests are traveling from long distances to share your special day with you. That doesn’t mean you should not or cannot register for gifts at all. While a traditional bride and groom might register for gifts at several different stores, it might be more appropriate for a smaller wedding to register for smaller gifts at one place. You don’t have to give people this information unless they ask for it, but there is a chance that people will be interested in the information if you do register traditionally.
Some couples opt for alternate registries, including a small donation to a charity of their choosing. You can find a cause you are really passionate about and frequently set up an account online to collect and track these donations so you can keep up with thank you notes. With a Starwood Honeymoon Registry, you plan the honeymoon of your dreams and your guests can make contributions to cover the costs. "Honey Money" as it's called is good for up to two years. You can find out more at http://wedding.weddingchannel.com/catalog/store_information.asp?retailer_uid=11500.
Another great green option is finding a service to offset the carbon footprint you are creating with your travel. Carbon Fund lets you calculate the carbon footprint of your event and travel, find how much money it will take to obtain the resources to offset it and then send that amount to your guests so that they can contribute to a fund help the cause of offsetting the footprint. More information is available at http://www.carbonfund.org/Calculators.
Other green gift ideas include adopting part of an endangered rainforest for reclamation. Your guests choose what program suits them the best from a brochure and donate straight to the charity at 888-MY-EARTH. You can likewise adopt an acre of threatened wilderness to save and protect through The Nature Conservancy’s Adopt An Acre Program. You can find your acre in any continent or habitat and find out what lives there and thrives there on The Nature Conservancy’s Website. See more at http://support.nature.org/site/PageServer?pagename=index_aaa.
You can create a wonderful gift registry to reflect what you are passionate about and that will not break your guests bank or overstep the rules of etiquette surrounding a destination wedding. Do a little research and find something that will make you happy to say was your wedding gift from the people you love the most! |
