Finding an online wedding fund registry

So, i'm getting married in 2010 and like most couples, i'm busy doing my part for the big day.

This week, I started looking at creating wedding lists online to help our guests select something that we knew we'd want.

Being a sensible couple, we really preferred cash which would allow us to spend on things which we felt were important .. Not to say that toasters, kettles, duvets etc were not important, but let's face it, who wants another toaster?

I had a few basic requirements, which were:

1) Guests being able to make cash gifts DIRECT to the host
2) Reasonable fees
3) No hidden charges
4) Simple and easy site layout

You would have thought that these were basic things which any online registry site would have. But NO ! ... Most charged in the region of 7% for giving guests the ability to do cash contributions. In additiona to that some also charge a flat rate fee. Some hold your money in escrow - and let's face it, after the collapse of wrapit.co.uk, who wants to put their money in escrow?

In my search, one site stood out from the rest

www.your-wedding-list.co.uk

Some benefits include:

- Payments go directly to the host via paypal
- a one-off flat rate fee of £50 - £80 depending on how many items you need to list. 25 items will be enough for us.
- Being able to not specify the value of a gift - this has the advantage of being a permanent item on your list e.g. cash contributions
- Being able to make contributions to an item (at no extra charge!)
- Being able to hide the history so that your guests can't see who's contributed how much
- Being able to send cheques etc direct to the host.

I've signed up for a trial account. I think i'll be coming back in a few months to set up my permanent one.