Get guests to pay for your honeymoon

By the time we began planning a wedding, we -- like many American couples -- already shared a home and had packed it with the stuff of most wedding registries. So when friends asked where we planned to register for our wedding gifts, we blanked.

As a middle-age pair, we have everything for married life -- everything, that is, except the cash for a fabulous honeymoon. A friend who knows we rarely take exotic vacations suggested we register for one. Given the cost of a honeymoon in 2008 -- $3,805, according to The Wedding Report, a Phoenix, wedding-industry research firm -- the concept makes sense. The firm projects that wedding guests in 2008 will pay an average of $96 a piece for a gift -- a price that, if multiplied, could send us off in style. But are honeymoon registries, well, tasteful?

"A honeymoon is a perfectly appropriate gift to request," says Peter Post, president of the Emily Post Institute, a Burlington, Vt., etiquette think tank. "There's no objection to it from an etiquette point of view."
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Registry sites
Service: HoneyLuna.com; http://www.honeyluna.com/ Guest experience: Guests choose and pay for gifts and no fees are levied on giving. Cost to newlyweds: Honeymooners receive funds total minus 9 percent (free registry) or minus 15 percent (registry plus travel service).
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Service: Traveler's Joy; http://www.travelersjoy.com/ Guest experience: No charge to guests. Cost to newlyweds: Newlyweds receive all funds collected minus a 7.5 percent service fee.
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Service: The Big Day; www.thebigday.com Guest experience: Guests pay a 3 percent transaction fee on their gifts. Cost to newlyweds: 7 percent service fee removed from guests' gifts, but fee reduced if travel booked via Big Day to 3.5 percent ($4,000 or more booked) or 0 percent ($8,000 or more booked).
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Service: Honeymoon Wishes; http://www.honeymoonwishes.com/ Guest experience: None, unless couple opts for guests to pay 7 percent fee in lieu of their having it removed from total gift proceeds. Cost to newlyweds: 7 percent off of total proceeds, unless couple elects to have guests pay the fee atop their gift amount.
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Service: Send Us Off; http://www.sendusoff.com/ Guest experience: No fees. Registry appearance is somewhat dull, mostly a list of items. Cost to newlyweds: 7.5 percent service fee is subtracted from guests' gift totals.