With more and more couples getting married at a later age these days and many people getting married for the second, third, or even fourth time or beyond, traditional wedding gifts are harder for guests to buy.
People often already have all the standard items that one might purchase and might not even want goods at all. As such, if you’re saying “I do” sometime soon, it’s worth putting together a wedding registry to help your attendees know what to gift you. Here are some top tips for making this process more of a success.
Put Your List Together Early
Giving people plenty of time to shop is vital so they’re not stressed about finding something close to the wedding. Put your list together as early as you can to give your guests enough shopping weeks to budget for and choose the right thing. The sooner you can send out your registry information to all those invited to your wedding, the better.
Be Authentic to Who You Are as a Couple
Next, be authentic to who you are as a couple when developing your wedding registry. While it may be natural to want to keep other people happy and thus to put some things on your list you think are expected of you to include, try to avoid going along this path. Instead, only request goods or services you want and will use, from small to big ones.
For example, you might feel pressured to add some nice wine glasses to your registry, but if you and your partner only ever drink whisky or other spirits, you won’t get much value from wine goblets. Or, if your house is already stocked to the brim with “stuff” and what you’d really like is help affording the honeymoon of your dreams, or you love the idea of having guests give to the charity of your choice, don’t be afraid to ask for this. It’s your wedding, and you can make the rules, so don’t cater to some external supposed etiquette that won’t make you happy.
Ask for Specific Contributions Rather than Cash
Another tip is to ask for specific contributions to experiences or expensive items you’d like to invest in rather than just asking people for cash. Many guests will still feel a little weird about contributing cash (or a check) only and will wonder if you will really buy anything memorable with it. You can make attendees feel more comfortable and help alleviate any pressure you might be feeling by being very specific about what contributions will go towards.
For example, let’s say you’d love for wedding guests to put money towards your honeymoon. In this situation, why not request a voucher for a romantic candlelit dinner at your chosen honeymoon accommodation or that five-star restaurant you’ve always wanted to try, or get people to pitch in together to buy you a scuba diving adventure at your honeymoon destination or a flight upgrade, etc.
You might even want people to help you have the wedding you’ve always hoped for. If so, again, instead of cash, why not ask people to buy some rocket fireworks or other products so you can have the light and sound display you’d love at your wedding, or ask a few of your closest friends to pitch in and help you buy your dream wedding dress, etc.?
Going about requests in this way helps people see precisely how their gift will be used and feel better about it in turn. You’ll also get what you’d really like and can enjoy letting people become more involved in helping you tick items off your bucket list.
Keep Items on One Big List
You should also make things easier for yourself and your guests by compiling all the items on your wishlist onto one primary document rather than having multiple registries at different vendors and expecting people to check out all of them. Keeping on track of various lists can be tricky, too, so it’s much easier for everyone if you keep every wishlist item on one master list, no matter how many different vendors goods or services may end up getting sourced from.
You can combine wares onto a comprehensive spreadsheet that you keep updated or use a specific registry app or other software to help you compile items from various places.
Some other vital wedding registry tips for success are to have plentiful gift options in a range of budgets so there’s something for everyone to choose and plan for late shoppers, as some people will only remember to get your gift organized on the day before or even the day of your wedding. Plus, always write thank you notes as soon as possible after your wedding, with individual acknowledgments of the specific things each person or group gave you for your present.
Following these tips will help relieve some of the stress of sorting out your registry for you, your soon-to-be spouse, and your guests.
