Make the most of your Honeymoon Registry

The Wedding Industry The Wedding industry is a $50 Billion Dollar a year industry. Every year an average of 2,400,000 weddings are performed in the United States alone. $20,000 is the average amount spent on a wedding. Half a million couples will celebrate a destination wedding this year with an average of 46 guests flying with the bride and groom to the wedding. During the past two years, unlike other industries, the Wedding Industry has shown no decline in numbers – in other words, the wedding industry has proven to be robust, and recession- proof.

Honeymoon Industry Among couples that have a wedding, 99% take honeymoons. Honeymoons comprise a $12 Billion a year industry with couples spending an average of $5,000 on their honeymoons. The average length of a honeymoon is 11 days. 45% of honeymoon destinations are domestic and 55% are international. 86% plan to travel more than their parents did 79% plan to travel after they have kids Average Age of honeymooners is 26 for Brides and 29 for Grooms

What is a Honeymoon Bridal Registry? On our free online honeymoon registry, Brides & Grooms list anything they want to do on their honeymoon – even portions of their trip. First they book their travel as normal, then they go online and create their own bridal registry list. It works just like a wedding gift registry. Instead of buying pots or pans, toasters or towels, guests purchase portions of their dream honeymoon as a wedding gift. We do not book travel or make reservations. We provide Brides & Grooms a way to get more money to spend on their trip or to get reimbursed for monies already spent. Its free to the agents, brides and grooms, there is a 7% processing fee to cover management of the account, gift cards, wedding web page etc.

For example, instead of a crock pot – guests can buy the couple “A Picnic on the Beach” or a “Couples Massage”. Using and promoting the honeymoon registry, the couple receives an average of $ in gift money to spend on their honeymoon.

The changing needs of honeymooners… With the younger generation not to concerned about receiving traditional China and Silver, and with the rising cost of the ceremonies going up towards $20,000, younger couples still want to take a honeymoon but need financial help. As more couples live together prior to marriage, are older when they marry or are on consecutive marriages, the need for more “things” is not as great as the need for a vacation experience. Second marriages comprise 37% of all weddings performed equaling 888,000-second marriages per year in the United States alone. The average wedding is extremely costly averaging $20, and honeymoons averaging $5, Couples don’t want to send out announcement cards asking to “Please send a check to my travel agent at” or “No gifts please; just cash”.

How does the Honeymoon Registry Benefit Travel Agents? Give your clients a way to have extra money to spend on their booking. Last month Jose and Claudia Martinez received $5, to spend on their perfect honeymoon. Do you have clients that want a longer or more luxurious honeymoon, or would rather have monies towards their honeymoon instead of more pots and pans? Now you can offer a way to increase the amount of money Brides and Grooms have to spend on their trip by using the honeymoon registry.

How are service fees paid It’s a free service to you and your clients. There is a 7% processing fee on the transaction – this covers all account management,order processing, the wedding web page, and gift cards. We are the only site where the couple can choose to take the service charge out of the gift amount they receive or add it to the gift amount at the time of purchase.

Make 20% commission on registry item service charges You can make commissions on more than their travel booking. You will receive commissions on service fees from items that are purchased on the registry, spa treatments, extra activities, even shopping ! You receive 20% of all service fees collected, the average you receive is $ Last month our highest commissions were paid to Travel Agent, Joan Venazial. She helped promote her clients registry and received $ commission from us.

Take the Hassle out of In House Registries Why print cards and account for checks in the mail from the couples weddings guests? We do all the accounting for you! Its simple, free, automated and gives your clients beautiful, classy, state of the art technology to use as their registry and is proven they will receive more gifts.

It’s free & we don’t book travel! This is a completely free program – no cost to join, operate or to use our materials. Its already on your website, you just have to let your clients know about it. We are not travel sellers and are never in competition with you. We want to help you book more travel! We are registry experts – that is all we do. More bookings for you = more registries for us.

Increase Honeymoon Leads We provide ways to help generate more leads, through marketing materials, templates, letter templates and bridal show training. Agents that have used our techniques at shows have increased their leads to an average of 156 per show!

How can you market to honeymooners? Make sure your registry is easy to find on your website. Use a button or text link that is not only easy for Bride & Groom to find – but easy for the guests that are buying gifts to find, you don’t want frustrated guests signing off your website. Tag all correspondence with “Find out about our Honeymoon Registry” or “Find out about our Wedding Websites” have that link go to your site. If you have an automatic system respond to any honeymoon inquiries with and about your honeymoon registry and wedding website. Each time you send out a package in the mail, include your one page flier about your honeymoon registry.

If you have an office or storefront, print out the poster about your honeymoon registry and post for your clients to see. Once your clients have done their registry, take a moment to see what they have signed up for. Take that opportunity to book upgrades or commissionable items that they want. Print out announcement cards for your clients as a gift for booking with you once they have registered.

Enhance your website with items that you can earn commissions from by posting links by other vendors in the honeymoon industry. Offer bridal/honeymoon clothing, magazines, personalized romance books, global phones, etc. All set up through credible middleman sites that ship direct to couple. Cultivate working relationships with businesses in your area that you know – bridal shops, florists, ladies gyms, bakeries, and hair salons. Trade referrals with them either by a “referral sheet” or web space. Add to any advertising that you currently have in Yellow Pages, newspapers, etc. that you have a honeymoon registry or free wedding websites. Send out a press release or be a contributing writer to local newspapers. Become an expert on Honeymoon Destinations or Travel Tips, even a “what not to do” article. Host a “Honeymoon Night” in your area with a local supplier, get couples to book on the spot with special offers

How do you sign your clients up? You book the travel and refer the couple to the registry to sign up. You do not have to sign them up yourself, but taking a moment to show your clients where to sign up is recommended. Its It’s already on your YTB site under “Extras”

How do Brides and Grooms register for what they want they want to do? The couple’s go online and register for anything they would like to do on their honeymoon, even portions of their trip. We walk them through every simple step. We give ideas of what to ask for, or they can create their own. They just click on what they want.

Your clients have their own Wedding Website

How are gifts purchased? Guests go online, view all the gifts the couples wished for and then purchase a gift for the couple. Its safe and secure we never store or reuse their information. Remember – most gifts are not purchased until 5 days prior to the wedding – the couple has all ready paid for the trip so they are essentially getting reimbursed for their expenses – they also have more spending money for their trip!

What happens after a gift is purchased? The guest sends a gift card via The gift money goes into our Merrill Lynch account We pay the Couple The couple can view all their cards at anytime through their account login

When does everyone get paid? The Couple can collect their gifts at anytime through pay pal or check via request. Travel Agents are paid within 14 days after the wedding date. There is no minimum and everyone can be paid by check or pay pal.

What our Couples say about using the registry…. We were so happy with the results we had from our registry. The staff at HoneymoonWishes.com was always so professional and the ideas they had for our registry were great! We had lived together before our Wedding and so we had everything for our home that we needed. This was a great way for our guests to give us something we really wanted." --- Andy and Kim Wilhelm "My best friend recommended that we register our honeymoon because we were combining two households into one and already had two of everything the last thing we needed was more housewares! Our cruise was truly a dream come true.I could have never asked for a better gift from my friends and family. I had no idea there would be so many extra things to do and buy on a cruise until found the information on your site, using the registry let me do it all!" --- Anthony and Susan Martinez "You guys are so great. I am excited about the success of this website! Everyone complimented on how wonderful this website is. Thank you for making our wedding so enjoyable with this very unique gift. =) Thanks a million" --- Bridgette Picardo "Again thank you so much for all of your extra effort with this. Our family sincerely appreciates it. You're the best! I appreciate all of your help." Sincerely, Amanda Stephens PS. Thank you Kristin for helping to make my parents dream vacation come true !!! --- Jason & Amanda Stephens