How to Set Up a Honeymoon Fund: The Ultimate Guide for Newlyweds
Weddings can be an expensive and sometimes stressful time for couples – despite all the excitement about married life. Many people choose to head off a honeymoon and this can be of large additional expense.
Many couples now choose to ask for contributions towards this special trip instead. Setting up a crowdfunding page so that all your donations are in one place is an easy way to facilitate this. This quick guide will explain how you can do this.
Understanding Honeymoon Funds
What is a Honeymoon fund?
Whether it’s a staycation, that backpacking adventure or a luxury hotel, all honeymoons come at costs. Some couples choose to ask for contributions to their honeymoon fund instead of physical gifts – this might be to contribute to the logistical costs like flights and accommodation or for some spending money when there. Starting a GoFundMe means that the link can be easily circulated amongst friends and family and they can donate at their leisure.
Benefits of a Honeymoon Fund
Traditionally, weddings would be a time where gifts could be given to help the new couple set up a life together. The need for this has waned over years as more people live together before marriage. By having a honeymoon fund, it means you take pressure off people attending your wedding trying to choose a physical gift that you might like – and it also means you don’t get duplicates. People know that their gift will go towards a brilliant experience and also that it’s something you definitely want. Setting up a GoFundMe for the fund also means that you have an easy link which people can follow and donate to at their convenience.
Honeymoon Fund Etiquette
If you do choose to start a honeymoon fund, there are things you can do to show people you appreciate their contribution. Make sure to thank your donors through GoFundMe but also send them a text or email when you see that they’ve contributed. Send cards after the wedding and update the fund page with how the trip is going or what you’ve used their contribution on. You can also use pictures and even video to keep telling the story here.
Choosing the Right Platform for Your Honeymoon Fund
Popular Honeymoon Fund Platforms
So, you’ve decided to set up a fund to get that dream romantic trip off the ground. So what platform should you use?
Criteria for Selecting a Platform
When choosing the platform you want for your honeymoon fund, there’s a range of things to consider. It’s important to look at the user experience and how easy it is to manage the fund once you’ve set it up – does the website and app seem intuitive to you? Can you easily post updates, thank yous and share the links to social media? All of these things are easily ingrained in the process at GoFundMe and you can easily explore your options on the app or on the browser version of the site. It’s also easy to donate anonymously – no names have to appear publicly.
And another thing to consider is platform fees. Take some time to explore your options before choosing which you’d like to go with.
Setting Up Your Honeymoon Fund
After you’ve chosen your honeymoon fund platform, it’s time to get it set up. If you choose GoFundMe, it couldn’t be easier to start your fundraiser. Think about what you’d like your fundraiser title to be – something that is snappy and easily conveys what this fund is for. You can upload an engaging picture or even video to your page as well to help tell the story – one of you and your spouse-to-be might be appropriate. Start your fundraiser and get sharing!
Personalising Your Honeymoon Fund
An important part of any crowdfunding success is to really personalise the page and tell a story. Include some detail in your fundraiser story of how you and your partner met and how you decided that this honeymoon destination was going to be the one of choice – maybe it’s somewhere you always wanted to go or holds happy memories for you both. Set some clear goals in there about where you want to go and what you want to do, plus what the donations will be used for. If you don’t have clear goals on what you’re going to use your honeymoon fund for then make that clear – a goal can be to decide on your adventure when those who want to contribute have! Keep posting updates when you hit certain milestones; this could be enough for flights or a hotel, or a certain number of days before the wedding / honeymoon itself. Really try and get your own voice in there.
Tips for a Successful Honeymoon Fund
Communicating About Your Fund
It’s important to share and circulate your fundraiser when it has been started, but also make it clear that no one is under any kind of obligation or pressure to donate and any contribution is options and appreciated. Any emails or social media posts sharing your fundraiser could make this clear so that no one feels pressure to give money. You can have a look at our top tips on sharing your fundraiser here.
Suggested Contribution Levels
An easy way that you can make people feel like their donations will be really appreciated is setting up contribution levels and passing those on, too. You can start as small as you wish, letting people know that their £10 will go towards a nice drink or a meal at your destination, right up to where you feel comfortable and what it will get. These don’t have to be contributions by one person either – you could make it clear that when the fundraiser reaches £100 for example overall it will pay for your first meal together on the honeymoon, for example. When you reach these milestones make sure to thank your donors, too.
Saying thank you
With any kind of fundraising, thank yous are very important and perhaps even more so when you’re crowdfunding for a personal cause. There are various ways you can thank your donors after a contribution on GoFundMe. You can send thanks to them via the platform, but it also might be nice to send a personalised email or even text message to really show you’re appreciative too. After the event sending thank you cards is always a nice touch, especially if you can tell your kind donors what you used their contributions for.
Leveraging Your Honeymoon Fund Contributions
Budgeting for Your Honeymoon
There are several ways you might use a honeymoon fund to budget for a honeymoon and manage your honeymoon contributions. You might want to wait and see how much you get before deciding and booking what is in your budget, or you might already have somewhere booked and in mind before you open one and are using donations to bolster the lovely experience. Whether it’s the former or the latter, think about how you want to use these funds on your honeymoon. Think about how much you’ll realistically need for flights, accommodation and then spending money whilst you’re there when setting your goal if it’s more the former. And for the latter think about what special experiences you’d like to prioritise and have a ball park figure for how much that will cost.
So, what are you waiting for?
Setting up a honeymoon fund is an easy and modern way for your loved ones to really give you a gift that will be well utilised and appreciated. It means that people can donate what they wish as soon as you start the fund – it doesn’t have to be at the wedding. Start your GoFundMe today and get going for your dream trip.