Honeymoon Registries: A Guide to Asking for Your Honeymoon as a Wedding Gift

Written by Jerry Windley-Daoust


Continued from page 1

What can you list on your registry? If you can buy it, you can list it. Typical registries list transportation, lodging, activities, special amenities, and meals. Expensive items are usually broken down so guests can choose to pay only a portion ofrepparttar item. For example, a honeymoon registry might list 10 gifts of $100 each toward your $1000 airfare expense.

Some honeymoon registries allow you to personalize your registry with a message to your guests and descriptions ofrepparttar 146168 different parts of your honeymoon, perhaps even allowing you to upload pictures torepparttar 146169 registry.

3. Announcingrepparttar 146170 honeymoon registry Once your registry is set up, you need to let your wedding guests know that it exists. Many registries will provide you with printed cards announcingrepparttar 146171 registry and its web address; you can either mail them withrepparttar 146172 wedding invitation or separately. Some registries will e-mail your wedding guests if you provide their addresses.

The more tactful approach is to let your guests know about your registry indirectly. Let your parents, close friends, or wedding party members know that you have a honeymoon registry; they can passrepparttar 146173 word along to guests. Or create a wedding web page with up-to-date information for guests, and include a link to your registry on that page. You can then listrepparttar 146174 address of your wedding web page in your invitation without directly bringing uprepparttar 146175 issue of gifts.

4. Buying gifts fromrepparttar 146176 honeymoon registry Guests look up your registry by typing your last name(s) into a search box onrepparttar 146177 registry website. After reading what you want, they click onrepparttar 146178 item(s) they want to buy and pay forrepparttar 146179 items overrepparttar 146180 website. Most registries also allow guests to purchase items by phone.

The gift-giver usually receives a certificate that is either sent torepparttar 146181 wedding couple or torepparttar 146182 giver (to hand on torepparttar 146183 couple in person); some registries charge a fee to mail this certificate. Other registries notifyrepparttar 146184 couple ofrepparttar 146185 gift by e-mail. On any registry, you can track how many gifts you have received simply by logging intorepparttar 146186 registry.

It's important to note that most registries require guests to pay a service charge forrepparttar 146187 privilege of contributing to your honeymoon. The service charge is a percentage ofrepparttar 146188 cost ofrepparttar 146189 gift;repparttar 146190 registries we surveyed had service charges ranging from 3.5% to 15%. So if a guest wants to pay $100 toward your airfare andrepparttar 146191 honeymoon registry website imposes a 10% service charge, she will end up spending $110.

5. Paying forrepparttar 146192 honeymoon The wedding couple are ultimately responsible for paying for their honeymoon expenses. That means that any portion ofrepparttar 146193 honeymoon that must be paid prior torepparttar 146194 wedding (airfare, room deposits and so on) comes out of your pocket. Some or all of those expenses might be picked up by your guests, although most couples' honeymoon expenses are not completely covered by their registry. It's wise not to plan a more extravagant honeymoon than you can pay for yourselves.

Whatever money wedding guests contribute towardrepparttar 146195 honeymoon is placed in a holding account. The registry sendsrepparttar 146196 couple a check (or electronically depositsrepparttar 146197 funds into their account) on a predetermined date, usually a week beforerepparttar 146198 wedding. Even thoughrepparttar 146199 wedding guests paid for certain parts ofrepparttar 146200 honeymoon,repparttar 146201 couple is really free to userepparttar 146202 money for anything they want.

6. Thanking guests It's important to write thank-you notes to guests who bought part ofrepparttar 146203 honeymoon (just as you would write thank-you notes for any wedding gift). It might actually be fun to thank guests forrepparttar 146204 honeymoon, though, because you can describe your experience inrepparttar 146205 note—you might even include a picture.

Jerry Windley-Daoust runs the Creative Honeymoon Ideas website, where you can learn more about honeymoon registries, including a side-by-side comparison of six popular honeymoon registries.


The History of Engagement Rings and Wedding Bands

Written by Reno Charlton


Continued from page 1

GREEKS

The ancient Greeks are thought to have beenrepparttar forerunners inrepparttar 145788 rising ofrepparttar 145789 traditional engagement ring. Given as a token of care and affection,repparttar 145790 rings used byrepparttar 145791 Greeks were known as betrothal rings and were given before marriage. However,repparttar 145792 giving of these rings was not always a pre-requisite to marriage and was often given inrepparttar 145793 same way as a friendship ring might be given today.

ROMANS

As seen by their use ofrepparttar 145794 wedding ring, ancient Romans weren'trepparttar 145795 most sentimental of people, andrepparttar 145796 early version of their "engagement ring" were thought to have carved keys on them. It has been debated that this could have been to symboliserepparttar 145797 woman's right to access and own half of everything following marriage. However,repparttar 145798 more sentimental like to think thatrepparttar 145799 key may have been a key to her husband's heart.

ROYALTY AND THE AFFLUENT

Engagement rings as we know them today - stunning gems encased in precious metals - became popular in aroundrepparttar 145800 fourteenth or fifteenth century, whenrepparttar 145801 affluent andrepparttar 145802 royals began to exchange and wear these jewels. However, these items were so expensive that nobody other thanrepparttar 145803 royals andrepparttar 145804 rich could afford to exchange them. It was to be many centuries before these engagement rings would become more popular or traditional.

Why a ring?

The purpose of engagement rings and wedding bands is to convey deep emotions of eternal love, eternal happiness, eternal commitment, and eternal togetherness. In fact, these rings signify eternity - betweenrepparttar 145805 giver andrepparttar 145806 recipient. A ring, of course, is a complete circle with no break and no end or beginning, which means that it just goes on and on - it is eternal.

And, since folklore has it thatrepparttar 145807 fourth finger ofrepparttar 145808 left hand has a vein leading directly torepparttar 145809 heart, it is only natural that both engagement and wedding rings would be worn on this particular finger, which was once reputed to be a direct route torepparttar 145810 heart.

Summary

In short, it is clear thatrepparttar 145811 giving of a ring in honour of a union, betrothal, and marriage has been going on since ancient times, and although it may not always have been as glamorous and romantic as it is today, it was still a way of exchanging a contract of betrothal or marriage.

Thankfully, today's wedding bands and engagement rings are not made of hair, grass, plants or twine as they may have been in ancient times, but of beautiful metals set with stunning gems, such as platinum, titanium, white gold, gold, sapphires, diamonds, rubies and emeralds. These incredible items of jewellery are likely to remain as popular as ever asrepparttar 145812 centuries go by, and even asrepparttar 145813 rest ofrepparttar 145814 world advances in to a futuristic and technological age, it's hard to imagine a day where a beautiful diamond engagement ring doesn't meltrepparttar 145815 heart of its recipient.

Reno Charlton is an award-winning author and freelance writer providing consumer information on such topics as wedding bands, jewelry boxes and promise rings.


    <Back to Page 1
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use