Wedding Wednesday: Registry Tips from a Newlywed

Happy Wedding Wednesday friends! Depending on who you ask building a wedding registry is either one of the funnest things or one of the most stressful items to check off the wedding to do list. For me, it was so much fun. Remember when you were little and your parents asked you what you wanted for Christmas, you’d spend hours flipping through your favorite catalogs and circling every toy you ever dreamed of – registering for your wedding is just like that! I thoroughly enjoyed this process and being a newlywed myself just coming off this process I’m giving my honest tips and advice below!

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite love quotes from the fabulous F. Scott Fitzgerald

“I love her and that’s the beginning and end of everything.”

x – L e a h

{How do I know what I should be registering for?}

Before registering take inventory of your home, what do you already have, what do you have but would like upgraded,  and what are the items you definitely need to add to the list. This is the time to upgrade your bedding, towels, flatware, and dinnerware. Creating a registry is something that should be fun for both you and your fiance as you are essentially building your home together. Take the time to review what you need now, what you’ll need five years from now, and any special pieces you could possibly pass down to your children one day. This could be something as simple as a cookie jar or a kitchen aid mixer you’ll use for years during their childhood.

{Register for a variety of price point items}

. You might feel a little guilty scanning in that $400 Kitchen aid mixer I mentioned above, but please don’t. You can’t assume someone won’t buy you that luxury item just as much as you can’t assume everyone only wants to spend $20 on you and your fiance. Big ticket price items make for a great group gift and most registry’s offer for your guest to start a group gift fund online. It’s also not unlikely a group of coworkers or family members would get together and go in on this special gift for you.

{Choose at least three places to register}

Register at three stores, this is especially important if you or your fiance are from different towns or possibly living in a new city yourself. This variety of stores gives your guest different options while shopping for you. Almost all stores offer an online registry but double check and make sure at least one of your store choices has this feature. This will make things so much easier for your guest to order online if needed, especially if they can’t make it to the wedding and want to send it directly to your front door.

My list of registry store recommendations include the following:

Target, West Elm, Zola.com, Dillards Home, Macy’s Home, Bed Bath and Beyond and keep on scrolling for my favorite idea when it comes to registry alternatives.

{The alternative registry, the honeymoon fund}

It’s 2016, basically 2017 and it’s very common for couples to not only get married later in life but to also have lived together before marriage. Either way there’s a pretty good chance you both already have a lot of the necessity’s covered and while everyone wouldn’t mind upgrading the items they already have  perhaps there’s an alternative. Lucky you, there is! A honeymoon fund is an excellent alternative to your normal wedding registry and they’re becoming more and more popular each year. There are dozen’s of sites out there that offer customized web pages for your guest to hop onto and read all about your upcoming trip and gift directly to your honeymoon fund.  Be sure to read all the fine print before committing to a website as some take a percentage of the amount given by guest as their commission earrings. Erick & I used Wanderable and loved it. We didn’t have as many of our guest use this option as we thought would have BUT (big but here) I think some people are just old school and would rather hand you the money themselves. The majority of our wedding gifts were cards with check or cash and a note telling us to use it towards our honeymoon opposed to gifts off our registry. I think as long as you have your honeymoon fund out there and known to your guest  that’s  a big part of it. If they choose to gift to your honeymoon fund they are going to make sure it gets to you whether that be on the site or via card.

{Smart planning and thinking ahead}

Here’s the deal, a lot of items that  you will use at your wedding reception can also be used again throughout the celebrations in your home for years to come.  So instead of buying Cake stands, drink dispensers, buckets and baskets, crates, picture frames, ect, register for them. The majority of your gifts come from the bridal showers being held before the actually wedding day, meaning you’ll have those items to use on the wedding day if needed.  I  can’t tell you how many home good items I registered for and received that I was able to use for our reception decor – that’s a double win if you ask me!