Saying "I Do" to Experiences - How a Honeymoon Registry Gave Us Unforgettable Memories

When Patrick and I first got engaged, there was so much to look forward to. After almost 10 years of dating, we were finally going to be able to celebrate that next big step in our life with all of our family and friends. But if you know me, there was one thing I was even more excited for than the wedding - and that was planning the honeymoon.

I normally pride myself on finding the best deals and making the most of my budget while traveling (hence the creation of this blog). But when it came to our honeymoon... we wanted to go all out.

So how do you enjoy a luxurious, 2-week honeymoon in Hawaii without spending a fortune? The answer is simple - creating a honeymoon registry.

While we definitely could've benefitted from registering for nicer home items to swap out the Walmart dishware and second-hand vacuum cleaner that was occupying our apartment, we really valued creating an amazing first experience as husband and wife, and felt that forgoing the traditional registry would be worth it. Spoiler alert: it was all very much worth it.

I wanted to create a registry that was specific to each of the experiences and activities we were planning on doing, rather than just doing a simple "honeymoon cash fund." This way, each gift felt more meaningful. We decided to use Traveler's Joy, which was awesome because we could register for specific items we had planned such as excursions, meals or a getting a rental car. This registry also allows you to split up bigger ticket items into smaller gifts, so multiple people could contribute to one item (for example, splitting a $1,000 rental car into 10 $100 gifts).

Example of a Special Registry Gift from Family Friends

Because our family and friends are amazing, every single excursion we wanted to do was gifted to us, our rental car (Jeep Wrangler, of course) was paid for, and we were treated to a special dinner reservation where we ate the best meal we have ever had. We also made sure to take pictures and videos along the way to send as thank you's for helping make our trip so special.

Balcony view from our condo in Maui - paid for by credit card points

And as always... we maximized our credit card points to put towards our accommodations. We first opened our beloved Chase Sapphire Preferred card right after we got engaged, which at the time, had a bonus offer of 60,000 bonus points, worth $750 toward travel, just for signing up (they're now currently offering 100,000 bonus points to open a card...run!). So, we began throwing all of our large wedding expenses on the card to continue building points - we were also able to purchase all of our honeymoon excursions using the Chase card, and then reimbursed ourselves with gifts from Traveler's Joy. When it was all said and done, our accommodation in Maui was completely paid for.

And alas, we planned our dream, expensive, adventurous, unforgettable, "ball out" honeymoon without breaking the bank.

While the wedding day is exciting, it is also a whirlwind and goes by in what feels like a blink of an eye. Taking 2 weeks in a beautiful destination to soak in all the happiness and joy is something we will never regret, and the memories we made together are truly priceless. Might be an unpopular opinion, but it was much better than a vacuum cleaner.

Need inspiration? Take a look at how we registered for our honeymoon:

https://www.travelersjoy.com/nicoleandpatrick2022/

Stay tuned for the full itinerary :) Happy Traveling!