Registry Focus: Honeymoon Registries

Or What to Do When You Already Have a Covered Casserole

These days, as more couples approach the altar having already lived away from home--separately or together--household goods are often fully stocked. By the time the Big Day rolls around, there's a perfectly good covered casserole, toaster, coffeemaker and cookie sheet or three somewhere to be found.

For you well-established folks who can't fit another frying pan into the cupboard, there's a need to receive something, well, different. And since guests appreciate a clue when it comes to gift-giving, registering for that something different is the way to go.

And you know you need a honeymoon.

A honeymoon registry works much the same way as a traditional gift registry. Only instead of rolling pins and bundt pans, guests pool their dollars to help pay for airfares, hotels and luxurious cruises.

Besides scoring much higher on the romance meter than that rolling pin, contributions to a honeymoon registry can also serve as an immediate adhesive bandage for the budget. Knowing that, for instance, a chunk of your hotel room is covered can allow you to spring for the extra band member or dozens more roses you've wanted all along.

Here's how it basically works: Contact a travel agent or do an online search for honeymoon registries--you'll uncover lots of them. Also, resorts, adventure trip companies and traveler's checks businesses often include a registry as part of their services. Some even provide gift cards for guests, a record of contributions to you and other little extras. Just be sure you're choosing a reputable one whose terms fit your needs before you sign up.

Some honeymoon registries make it easy for guests to pay for a specific element of the trip, rather than just a percentage of the hotel or airfare. A scuba session, day on the golf course or night on the town are just a few.

Or picture this: Your friends Frank and Fran wake to their first full day of married life. As they view a tropical sun from their balcony suite, breakfast arrives. Next to the fresh papaya juice rests a card expressing your personal wish that they enjoy their meal, courtesy of you, as well as a long and happy life together.

Try doing that with a covered casserole.