Weddings: What Would You Register For?

I just got engaged over the weekend (eek!) totally book marking this! Now, onto setting a date and selecting a venue….

-Dara
http://www.peoniesandhoneybees.com

i was surprised at how generous people were at my wedding. When I was doing my registry, we just put a bunch of things on that we’re all expensive! Lol. My favourite ones we received were a gold candlestick, a cuisinart mixer, and a $16 garlic press which is AWESOME!

Hey Joanna,
I am so moved by your sister’s story. I also lost my husband (sweetest family doc) to NSC lung cancer. My son is getting married in May and they will not have a registry but will suggest guests donate to medical research. The bride is choosing Parkinson’s and my son is letting me choose what cause I would like guests to donate to. Would your sister have suggestions for any lab or research specific to lung cancer ? It’s so difficult to know how to get funding directly to the research itself. I have a feeling your sister might have some good suggestions.
Thank you Joanna and I am so sorry for your loss.

Most of our registry items have been put to great use. There are a few stand-outs that I would absolutely recommend again: high quality linens (think about how much time you spend in bed… especially as newlyweds!), serving dishes for all your dinner parties and holidays, high quality stemware, and for those who live in small spaces, beautiful storage like woven baskets and pretty boxes. Of the things I regret putting on the list, here are the few that immediately come to mind: a huge stock pot with strainer (it takes too long for the water to boil, and when am I ever going to feed that many people?), an iRobot (but my mom wanted it, so at least it found a new home!), and a pizza stone. Single-use kitchen appliances are just not a good idea and take up space.

A word on adding expensive items to your registry: we waffled on whether to add a gorgeous wooden storage trunk from Crate and Barrel that was something like $600/$700, and ultimately decided to add it to benefit from the registry discount we’d get for all unpurchased items. To our surprise, a group of friends decided to pitch in together to buy it for us! Now it has a place of honor in our hallway. We don’t know how we lived without it, and we sit on it / take shoes in and out of it every day. Our friends love seeing it whenever they come over.

So you never really know!

We registered for a lot of stuff we thought we needed to register for (I never used that salad spinner), so almost four years into our marriage, I have a better idea of what I would have registered for. I think a nice dinner set, and good serving dishes are definitely great things to register for.

Kristi | Be Loverly

Registering for wedding gifts was so much fun! We didn’t live together before we were married, but I had lived on my own for a few years, so we didn’t need tons of home stuff. We got many, many duplicates and simply returned them for gift cards.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but we did NOT ask for gift cards or cash. That’s a little tacky in my opinion.

I love baking, so I would DEFINITELY register for a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, and I’m really really hoping someone will get it for me, I mean, us. They’re kinda expensive for me now, being a college student, so I can’t think of getting one for myself now, so I’ll leave that to a rich uncle (lol). My boyfriend’s mother and sisters got theirs as wedding presents (no one in my family registered for one, that I know of), and they all use it pretty regularly. I know I would register for lots of baking tools if I don’t already own them by then. I just love cooking and kitchen appliances/tools, so lots of that. A good set of knives is super important!:)

First of all, I absolutely loved registering and wish I could do it all over again. We tried to stick with the basics on ours and quality pieces that would last forever. Our most expensive items were a couple of shun knives, pots and pans and an Emile Henry casserole dish. But overall, everything was under $150 and there were a lot of items in the $20-$50 range. I always think it’s a bit silly when I look at a friends registry and there are extravagant items like $300 toaster ovens and complete sets of La Creuset (when I know the person has never cooked anything ever). We registered at Williams Sonoma and Sur la Table. Still love everything we got almost 7 years later.

I have really mixed feelings about doing a registry. One the one hand, I think it’s kind of rude to present people with a list of stuff to buy you (and, I think, is more seen as so in the UK, where I’m from) especially since they usually have to fork out just to come to the wedding! But on the other hand, as a guest, I appreciate knowing that I haven’t just wasted my money on something that the couple don’t want or need. We’re getting married in November and I’m not sure what we’ll do – I think we will do a honeymoon registry if at all. We’ve lived together for 5 years and have everything we need, but what we don’t have (and would appreciate so much more than more stuff in our tiny flat) is the money to go on a really great trip together.

Love this post! I kept it super simple when registering and listed only the necessities ( I hate clutter!). In lieu of a regular wishing well, we did a wine wishing well. Each person put a tag on the bottle and wrote when we should enjoy it (your first married Christmas etc…) and who it was from…

Check out my wedding posts here: http://lipsticksandwich.com/?p=1944

My husband and I just got married in September and did not register for gifts as we are in our 40’s and felt like we have everything we needed. We had a small wedding (family and close friends only) and those that gave gifts mainly gave cash or gift cards to local or online businesses. We have three acres so many of the gift cards were for local gardening shops which was fun! But our favorite gifts we received was a gift card for a company we could use to make a photo album/prints from our wedding photos. It was the favorite gift we received because after saving for and covering all our wedding expenses I don’t think we would have worked into our monthly budget the costs of making a high-quality album of our day!

We contacted a local art gallery and registered for art! We have beautiful pieces that we get to see and enjoy every day. Beats a toaster.

We registered at Macy’s primarily because there seems to be at Macy’s at every mall, so it was easy for guests. Plus they run a lot of sales, which can be helpful to guests, too. Initially, I was against registering at all- it felt so greedy! But my cousin, who married a year before me, didn’t register and it upset a lot of the guests. My aunts and other cousins wanted to buy her exactly what she wanted, not take a guess on something like cookware or sheets. They all complained about it behind her back! Her bridal shower was a lot of anxious faces waiting for her to open their gifts and see that she liked it. So my mom urged me to do it because it makes the guests feel good to buy you what you want and will use. Maybe my family/circle is just weird, but people seem to prefer giving gifts over cash or checks.

I love using things about knowing who gave it to us. It’s been fun to have friends over and serve them wine in the glasses they gave us. We’ve tried to invite people over for dinner or happy hour and to use their gift in front of them. I took pictures of our Thanksgiving feast and sent them to some gift givers who live far away. Surprisingly, my husband’s friends- all dudes in their mid 20s- are the ones who get the biggest kick out of it.

We did a honeymoon registry and a traditional registry. I was really dreading the traditional one (we’re both in our 30’s and have plenty of stuff), but it actually ended up being fun! Favorite items:

– Matching zwilling cooking pieces (12″ non stick is probably our most used, though i’m interested about the square pan now!)
– Another Shun knife or two
– crockpot with the timer is AMAZING
– I always thought the Kithenaide mixer was hype, but OMG I LOVE IT. I mean, so easy, and everything I’ve made with it so far has been amazing.

We registered for the normal pieces, but since we really didn’t need stuff (such as dishes, champagne flutes, etc.), we returned everything and used our 20% day (we did BBB, but I do love Macys!) to get nice sheets and fluffy towels, which we also love!

It should be noted that our Honeyfund was awesome too. I really think we had the best of both worlds!

Nice towels and sheets are the gifts that keep on giving! I also really like our plate ware – it seemed like a lot when we first got married, but having a full set is wonderful now when we host parties or holidays. Other surprise hits: the rice cooker and wooden cutting board. What I wish we had skipped? The George Foreman-style grill, and the giant electric griddle. Bulky appliances like that are a storage nightmare and you rarely use them.

We hardly registered for anything because I had been living on my own for 5 years before we got married. My hodge-podge of house ware that I’d scrounged together seemed adequate enough. It’s common to get “presentation money” instead of gifts where I’m from, so little did we realize how much money people were willing to spend on us for gifts!

We did register for camping gear, but oddly no one seemed to think that an appropriate wedding gift…

Our best idea was registering for Amazon and Target gift cards! We moved to a different state right after our wedding, and it was so nice to not have to move all the gifts with us. Those gift cards helped us stock the house with all the “boring” stuff we needed, and wouldn’t have had a ton of extra cash for: cleaning supplies, toilet paper, pantry supplies. We also didn’t hesitate to use any cash we got to have a meal out in the middle of all the chaos! Now for all our friends getting married, I like to get them a beautiful set of coffee mugs, some high-quality coffee/tea, and an Amazon or Visa gift card.

This was something my husband and I really struggled with when getting married last year. We didn’t want more stuff because we already have everything we need in our tiny house. Didn’t like the honeymoon registries either because they take a cut. Here in the South, the pressure to register was intense! But we stuck to our guns, didn’t register, and it worked out great. Most people gave cash, which was what we really wanted anyway.

We got married well into our dink stage so we registered for high quality every day plates from Heath ceramics and love making each meal special. We have two plates from their Alabama Chanin line that we pull out for when others might use fine China. Register for what you love and would never splurge on for yourself if you already have your essentials.

We’ve only been married 6 months and I already regret several items from our registry: waffle maker, salad spinner, ramen bowls, way too many different types of glasses