Honeymoon registries — the guy’s POV

We’ve already had a couple of discussions about registries here at Groomify, but something that I recently had a (brief) conversation about was the idea that having a registry where wedding invitees could “purchase” a part of your honeymoon. First off, I’ll say that I’m not really a fan. While the Wall Street Journal’s Jane Hodges reports that even the Emily Post Institute says that honeymoon registries see “no objection to [them] from an etiquette point of view,” it’s so easy to agree or dismiss the perception of having others finance a vacation.

Upon reading that entire WSJ article, I “get” the statement made in the sidebar / photo caption, discussing how a middle-aged couple might “have” everything they need in life or to have a home together, leaving this as an acceptable option, but isn’t it still asking for people to pay for a vacation? I guess if I kept following this train of thought, I could argue that asking people to finance your china cabinet or glassware or utensil drawer could be viewed the same way, but it feels different to me. There’s certainly a difference between building a life together and building a sandcastle in Tahiti, but is this a case-sensitive thing that should be considered as such?

On top of this whole thing, I think we start getting into the whole “how much of a gift should people be buying us?” situation when talking about registries in general. To that extent, I think gifts that are further along on the “we’ll always think of you when we use your fine china” tend to tug more on the motional heartstrings - even for a guy - than the “oh yeah, and these eighteen people were kind enough to pay for our flight to Bali” sentiment.

Enough from me, though - what do YOU think?