With the cost of the average wedding today exceeding $20,000, many wedding couples find themselves footing an ever-greater portion of the bill. That often means your honeymoon budget gets shorted. Since, many couples have already established some form of household by the time they get married, there is less need for the traditional bridal registry fare of blenders, Crock-Pots and toasters. So what does the average 27-year-old brideto- be do to ensure she gets a honeymoon that is "the trip of a lifetime?"

"More and more, brides are taking advantage of one of the hottest trends in the bridal business, the honeymoon registry," says Scott Ellingboe, cofounder of The Honeymoon (www.thehoneymoon.com), an automated, online service that couples can use to create their personalized honeymoon gift registry. "Today's newlywed has had four to six years on average to establish a household. They simply don't need more stuff," says Ellingboe.

Unlike a traditional wedding registry comprised of housewares, the honeymoon registry allows couples to register their honeymoon and its component parts. One couple that used the registry for their honeymoon to Europe received gift items such as: Serenading Gondola Ride in Venice, Tour of the City of Florence and Dinner by Mount Vesuvius. Couples love the honeymoon registry because it allows them to create a honeymoon experience that may not have been financially possible. Wedding guests like the honeymoon registry because they can give a gift that is fun and a better reflection of their own personality than a set of knives.

The Honeymoon is also one of the largest honeymoon-only travel companies in the United States. Couples can use the Company's Web site to research honeymoon destinations, shop for honeymoon packages, and book their honeymoon cruise online. And, with a growing list of suppliers that provide valueadded honeymoon packages tailored to the honeymoon market, the Company is starting to get married couples seeking romance travel. After all, there's no better way to feel like a honeymooner than to be treated like one.