As a newly engaged couple, you and your partner might have started thinking about how you’ll raise money for your honeymoon. If you’re also paying for your own wedding, then it might be especially important to make sure you have enough funding to pay for each event — and that might have led you to consider crowdfunding through GoFundMe for your honeymoon.
GoFundMe lets anyone host a fundraiser for a cause near and dear to them for free. You might have donated to funds in the past raising money for families after a parent gets sick or a friend who needs help paying for a beloved pet’s vet care. These funds can do amazing work in communities, bringing people together to help out a stranger in need, and they often help people rebuild their lives after an unexpected disaster, such as a fire or tornado.
But GoFundMe wasn’t built as a honeymoon registry platform, and if you treat it as such, you might find that your wedding guests are less than enthused to contribute to your fund. Here’s why you shouldn’t use GoFundMe as a honeymoon registry — and what you should use instead.
How couples use GoFundMe as a honeymoon registry
Couples who turn to GoFundMe as a honeymoon registry often use it as a cash fund, basically a pool in which anyone can contribute any amount of money that they’d like. Once you select your fundraising goal, guests can start giving money in any amount, which means no one has to feel obligated to give more than they can afford on your gift.
GoFundMe does offer some back-and-forth between you and your guests to keep them updated on your progress. Once someone contributes, they can choose to post their names publicly along with the amount they gave. You can post updates, letting people know how your honeymoon planning is coming and any bookings you’ve made with the money raised so far. This also gives you the opportunity to thank guests along the way.
Although couples set their weddings as a deadline for their GoFundMe, the platform does not have a hard rule about deadlines. You can withdraw your money at any time, and you can leave it up after your wedding date if you’re still getting donations.
There are, however, some features unavailable to GoFundMe users that Hitchd users have access to, such as:
- The ability to create individual gifts as well as cash funds
- Tracking capabilities that monitor who contributed to each gift or cash fund on your registry
- A wealth of payment options from bitcoins to personal cheques
- Emailed thank-yous that can be sent as soon as you receive a gift
Honeymoon registry platforms like Hitchd function just like a traditional wedding registry that you’d find at a department store — except that all of the gifts are related to your honeymoon. You can add gifts such as a romantic dinner for two, a snorkeling excursion or a spa package — whatever you need to help raise money for your dream honeymoon.
Why you shouldn’t use GoFundMe as a honeymoon registry
While GoFundMe might seem like the easy and free way to encourage guests to give you money as a wedding gift, it comes with some serious drawbacks.
Here are a few of the biggest problems with using GoFundMe as a honeymoon registry.
It’s tacky
The majority of fundraisers set up on GoFundMe are set up to help people facing serious problems — unexpected medical problems, a natural disaster, a lost job or the sudden death of a loved one. A GoFundMe for a honeymoon stands out, but not really in a good way.
While you may truly need the money to pay for your honeymoon, the platform is mainly used by people facing serious, like-alertering problems. As much as you might want a nice vacation, you don’t necessarily need one, not in the same way that a family needs help after their home burns down.
Seeing your fundraiser on this platform will likely not sit well with your guests, many of whom have probably contributed to other GoFundMes in the past. Even if they understand and sympathise with your fundraising goal, they might feel uncomfortable giving on this platform.
It makes your wedding feel like a cash grab
Wedding etiquette decries that no one should ever feel as if there is a cover charge in order to get into your wedding. Although most guests want to give gifts because they love you and your partner, they should never feel forced or obligated to give a gift or a certain amount of money.
Using a GoFundMe as a honeymoon registry will instantly make your wedding feel like a cash grab to guests. Instead of having gifts to choose from on a traditional or actual honeymoon registry, they’ll feel like the only option is to give cash, and that’s never acceptable for weddings.
Your wedding should focus on the love you two share and the joy of combining your families and friends together. If guests feel as if this wedding is happening just so you two can raise money to go on a trip together, it’s going to cause some bad feelings. Your gratitude towards your guests, even if they don’t bring a gift at all, should be your focus, so whatever wedding registry platform you chose, it should make guests feel welcome, appreciated and respected.
It lacks personalisation
GoFundMe might allow a few photos and a nice introduction, but it lacks a lot of the personalisation features that Hitchd and other honeymoon platforms offer.
For example, you cannot create individual gifts with GoFundMe, which prevents you from showing guests what you plan to do on your honeymoon and why. Guests want to feel invested in your journey. That’s why so many people like to give home goods as wedding presents. They want to help you two build a home and give something meaningful that will be used when you host guests or cook your first big family holiday meal.
Having individual gifts and writing out brief descriptions provides you with the opportunity to explain what the guest will be giving and why it will be meaningful to you. This helps guests feel more invested in your honeymoon registry and understand how their gift will help you two creating a memory that will last for the rest of your lives. If you’re asking guests to send the two of you on a few romantic dinners, provide links to some of the restaurants you plan to visit and explain why you chose them. Your guests will likely learn something about you and your partner’s relationship that they didn’t know.
You also cannot send personalised thank-yous through GoFundMe in the same way that you can through Hitchd. Once a guest buys you a gift off your Hitched honeymoon fund, the platform allows you to send a thank-you email right away, in which you can express your gratitude and share a bit more about what you plan to do with their contribution.
Why using a professional honeymoon registry is best
All of these factors add up. If your guests feel slighted or unappreciated, then they likely won’t contribute to your honeymoon fund at all, and there may be some hard feelings after the wedding. You don’t want that, so it’s best to use a professional honeymoon platform such as Hitchd instead of opting for a free service that doesn’t actually serve your needs.
Hitchd allows users to create a honeymoon registry that meets their exact needs. You and your partner decide on all of the gifts, write out descriptions and introductions (don’t worry, we have templates if you need help) and withdraw funds on your own time. The platform allows for all types of payment options, so if your family is really into bitcoin, you can set up various payment options to accommodate everyone — even cheque writers.
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “You get what you pay for.” The saying is especially true for honeymoon registries. While you can choose free platforms that weren’t designed for honeymoon funds, you’ll almost certainly have a better experience by using a service that was designed to meet your needs.
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