Bridal Express: Q&A: Shelley from Buy Our Honeymoon talks to us about their gift registry

In our new regular feature, I'm talking to the industry experts about their businesses and their predictions for the hottest wedding trends. In our first installment, I've got together with Shelley from Buy Our Honeymoon to find out more about their honeymoon gift registry. I first met Shelley last year at The National Wedding Show were she was wowing visitors with the idea of swapping out a traditional gift list for a bespoke honeymoon and I'm really delighted she's taken the time to answer a few of my questions.

Hi Shelley! Tell us about Buy Our Honeymoon - what's the concept?

This is an alternative wedding gift list service for those couples who already have or don’t need yet more homewares. It’s an opportunity to create your own wedding list where you can add anything you want!

Most couples use us as a registry of special treats for their honeymoon, such as carriage rides or scuba diving, candlelit dinners, anything! Their guests then give them the funds to do the activities.

You aren’t limited to honeymoon activities. Many people add items from shops too. This is a great way to get the best bargains and not force people to pay for overpriced items. This isn’t simply asking for cash, which can feel very impersonal. By choosing specific activities and honeymoon experiences, it’s an opportunity for your guests to start you out on your married life on a once-in-a-lifetime high and creating a gift of memories.

Is the traditional gift list something that couples are moving away from? Why is that?

I think there will always be a place for the traditional department store wedding list — there will always be young couples who are just starting out but increasingly there is more diversity: older couples, re-marrying couples, same sex couples. It is very common for people who have lived together for many years to find it very wasteful to replace all their perfectly lovely kitchen appliances.

I think in these difficult economic times, couples are even more conscious of not wanting to be wasteful, making them more able to be honest about what they really want. And as weddings have become more expensive, it puts even more pressure on honeymoon funds!

Tell us about some of the things on offer through the site. What requests particularly wowed you?

Some couples are amazingly creative and their personalities shine through the list, I love that! One Canadian couple asked for sock yarn to do some knitting on the beach and some liver snapps for their little dog Emmy Lou, who wasn’t able to go on the honeymoon with them. I just thought that was so wonderful. Their list was extremely popular and you could see why: their guests could understand how person and individual it was to them.

How easy is it to set up an account with you?

Extremely! And I make sure of that – ha ha! I am what you might called ‘an average Jo’ where computers and technology is concerned, so everything is tested by me first. If anything is open to confusion it’ll confuse me and so it's re-done. If I find it easy, it is easy.

All you need to do is click ‘start your free trial’, add a few details and you’ll have seven days to play with the site. We start you off with some text and items to help you on your way.

There's been a lot in the news about protecting wedding spending, how do you ensure your clients receive the things they've been gifted?

I think one of the things people like about us is that we allow complete independence and autonomy through the site. We don’t handle or hold the gift funds. Couples choose a variety of ways to request gifts either online with a credit card directly into their own PayPal account, bank transfers, cash/ cheques or even direct to their travel agent.

They have the completely security of knowing that they are in charge of their own money and that it’s theirs as soon as it’s given.

What does your bespoke research service entail?

Absolutely everything and anything! You answer a short questionnaire about where you’re going, what things you enjoy doing and why you chose your honeymoon destination. This gives me a holiday personality profile, enabling me to select the most appropriate things to add to your list, and try to write it as if you’d written it yourselves.

This is a wonderful part of my job as I am able to spend my days researching truly amazing places and thinking of wonderful things for couples to do while they are there. Everyone’s requirements are different, some people simply don’t have the time to write up the list for themselves, others are looking for someone with experience to help them find things a little ‘off the beaten track’. I often help with hotels but some couples haven’t even decided where they are going yet! I can help them track down great places depending on the time of year and their requirements. I feel it’s like the role of an old fashioned travel agent, someone who can help you make a good choice - for many people it feels like a big decision and it’s helpful to get a bit of support.

How have you responded to customer feedback?

We’re really proud of Buy Our Honeymoon and how it has changed and developed over the last two years. We have added so many features based on the requests of our customers. You can edit the wording on your gift notification cards and choose the design, you can have multiple currency conversion rates and even translate PayPal into other languages. We can set release dates for your list, you can add your own pictures to your items. We’ve added the option for people to contribute to an item instead of buy it out right. We’re always open to suggestions and have got loads of items in the pipeline for later in the year.

Where can we find out more?

We keep track of all our new developments on our blog, at http://blog.buy-our-honeymoon.com/

Thank you so much Shelley!

Look out for more upcoming Q&A's with industry experts!