We were delighted to receive an invitation last week to join Style Me Pretty‘s Little Black Book of hand-picked wedding vendors. As part of the screening process we were asked to provide ten facts about us and our company. We thought it might be fun to post them here too!
- Buy Our Honeymoon is run by Shelley and Andrew Green — and we originally set up the site in 2005 for use at our own wedding. We’d lived with each other before taking the plunge, so we already had all the housewares traditionally given as gifts, and very little room in our flat for any more. The honeymoon registry concept hadn’t really made it across the pond to the UK at that point, and since Andrew had been a web developer since 1996, we decided to create it all completely from scratch.
- Our honeymoon was a three-week, 3000-mile road trip across Florida and the Deep South. We were amazed at the generosity of our family and friends, and we can honestly say that they all helped us to kick-start our marriage with the most amazing honeymoon we could possibly have dreamed of. It sounds like marketing flannel, but it’s absolutely the truth: those memories are far more valuable to us than physical gifts ever could have been.
- It was only after the birth of our daughter, Zoë, that we decided to further develop the site for other couples to use. Some friends-of-friends really wanted to have a registry for their honeymoon to Las Vegas, so a lot of our initial work was to expand on what we’d done, for them. Their enthusiasm, and the great response from their family and friends, really convinced us that the service might have legs.
- Shelley’s dad was born and grew up in West Virginia, and Shelley lived there too when she was a toddler. She’s told that, for a while, she talked with an American accent, but lost it when she moved back to London, aged four.
- Andrew’s father was born in 1911 and, as a young man, worked as a footman to the former Lord Saye and Sele at Broughton Castle, and then as a butler to the Courage family (at the time, owners of a large brewery here in the UK). Despite this, neither of us have ever watched Downton Abbey.
- To celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, we totally plan to repeat our honeymoon — but of course taking the girls with us (our second daughter, Ava, is now nearly two). We can’t be sure which one of us is the most excited about this.
- We called the site “Buy Our Honeymoon” because we knew that our family and friends would find it amusing (we were very careful to make sure everyone knew we really, really didn’t expect gifts). In developing the business, we’ve found that the name is helpful for couples in understanding the concept — but most couples use one of the other URLs we offer for their actual registry. Most guests never see those words at all!
- We’ve been shortlisted as the UK’s Best Wedding Gift List in the annual Wedding Ideas magazine awards for three years running now, alongside giant High Street retailers and household names. We’re hugely proud of this, and very, very grateful for the support our customers have shown us.
- We’re always amazed by the creativity and adventure shown by couples using the site. One of our earliest couples spent part of their honeymoon on an expedition to Antarctica! Others have included fantastic gifts on their registries, including his-and-hers tattoos in Thailand, a drive through Death Valley, or scorpion kebabs from the night market in Beijing.
- Until about a year ago, our offices (and before that, our home too) were in-and-below an old Victorian shop in Greenwich, just a stone’s throw from the Thames and about a hundred yards east of the meridian. Just before we moved in, some scenes from the Mike Leigh film All Or Nothing were filmed there. The movie itself came out after we’d settled in, so it was very bizarre to see our home (looking quite different, but clearly recognisable) on the big screen!
Our listing will appear in the Little Black Book soon! Thanks so much to Kristina and the team at Style Me Pretty!
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We can hardly believe it, but today buy-our-honeymoon.com turns five! Since 2007, we’ve been serving couples across the globe who want a practical, independent alternative to a traditional department-store gift registry, and we’re still growing. It’s time for party hats and Tizer!
This past year has been our busiest yet! We’ve served more couples, and helped guests reserve more gifts, than ever before. Our customers have been based across 38 different countries, and have made plans for over 130 different honeymoon destinations. Last summer, we gave our site a top-to-toe redesign, and we were honoured this January to have been Highly Commended for the third year running in the annual Wedding Ideas Awards.
And as always, we have lots of plans for the year ahead. We’ll be introducing several new and exciting features for couples later this year, and we’re working on upgrading and improving the cogs and gears that run the site behind-the-scenes. Like all five-year-olds, we don’t like to sit still for too long!
We’re committed to bringing you the best wedding list service possible, and we’re really thrilled that so many of our customers take the time to send us their kind words of feedback, fantastic suggestions, or to recommend us to their friends and family. Many of our new customers choose us for themselves, having used us first as a guest — and we’re really honoured and grateful. Thank-you all!
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Most couples using our wedding list service choose to collect the value of their gifts directly into a PayPal account. Doing this means that your guests can pay immediately online using a credit or debit card, and we’re able to help track payments as part of your Gift History. Some of our customers, though, prefer to receive cash or cheques on the day of their wedding, and others leave details on making a balance transfer to their bank account. We’re committed to offering a uniquely flexible service.
Last month, Barclays Bank launched a new service that we think has the potential to provide a brilliant payment option for our customers here in the UK. Called Pingit, the service allows people to send and receive money using a simple app on their smartphones. By simply providing guests with your mobile phone number, you can receive payments directly into your bank account, without having to pay any fees.
Although you have to register with the service to use it, you don’t have to bank with Barclays to receive money. However, right now you do have to bank with Barclays to send money — though Barclays plan to lift that restriction soon. Once that happens, we think this service will be a great alternative to online payments through PayPal for anyone based in the UK, and we’ll offer extra FAQ pages for guests to help guide them through the process.
There’s a lot of activity in the field of person-to-person payments at the moment, and it’s great to see big institutions like the banks start to offer new and innovative services like this. We’re all very used to making online payments with a credit or debit card, but we think that simple, convenient and trusted alternatives are just round the corner. We look forward to supporting every viable option that comes along!
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We’re completely thrilled to reveal that Buy Our Honeymoon has won a Mumpreneur UK Gold Website Award!
The award acknowledges visually pleasing and easy-to-navigate web sites run by parents or parents-to-be, and we’re very honoured to be in such excellent company.
Mumpreneur UK offers a brilliant support network to mums (and dads) in business, and websites submitted for the award are considered by three professionals in the online industry who mark the site on a variety of criteria. The gold award is the highest level presented, so we’re truly delighted and deeply grateful!
We launched Buy Our Honeymoon shortly after our first daughter was born, and we’ve found that balancing the needs of our family with the needs of the business has actually benefitted our customers. The flexible working schedule involved means that we’re often more available at times when couples need us. Part of the reason we’re able to deliver famously-prompt responses to email enquiries is that we’re not a traditional business.
Of course, it’s the web that makes this kind of business possible. The way we work has changed so much in the last 15 years, led by the growth of the Internet. This has enabled working parents to be more creative and innovative in terms of finding a work/life balance.
If you’re interested in the work of Mumpreneur UK, check them out on Facebook and Twitter!
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