Housing
In Lieu of Gifts, Please Make a Down Payment on Our New Home
Couples are ditching traditional wedding registries in favor of crowdfunding campaigns that help them purchase their first house together.
When it came time for Armand Lebrilla and Stephanie Cuellar to compile their wedding registry, their first thought was, “We don’t need any of this stuff.”
After living together in a Los Angeles apartment for a year before their August 2018 wedding, they realized they already owned all the trappings that make up a typical wedding registry: dinnerware, towels, cutting boards. What they didn’t have, though, was their own home to shelter the goods. So they created an account with Honeyfund, a registry site designed to help couples fundraise for their honeymoon. But instead of requesting cash for a lavish vacation, Lebrilla, 31, and Cuellar, 32, said the money would go toward a down payment on their first home together.