Wedding registries aren’t limited to large department stores, in fact, there are a ton of ideas for the modern day bride and groom. With an abundance of online options, thinking outside of the big box stores has never been easier. Your guests can help with everything from your honeymoon to helping fund a charity that creates a clean water supply for a small village in Africa!
Here are a few of my favorites:
Photo Credit: Forsaken Fotos
Experience Gifts
Already have all of the essentials you need for your home? Giving the gift of experience is one of the newest trends in wedding gift giving and an experience creates a memory that you two can share for a lifetime. You can tailor your requests to what you already know you love to do or you can choose something that you have always wanted to try. These can be added to the registries mentioned below.
A few ideas to get you started:
- Cooking Classes
- Dinner/Lunch Cruise
- Spa Package
- Helicopter Ride
- Hot Air Balloon ride
Charitable Donations
Another option, if you aren’t into gifts for your home or you want to be socially conscious, is to create a wedding registry for your favorite charities. Your families and friends can make a donation in your honor, and it’s the wedding gift that gives back! Two popular websites:
Crowd Rise – This site lets you choose from a huge list of charities and then your friends and family can donate on your behalf in lieu of a gift for you.
Photo Credit: Damian_p58
Honeymoon Help
With your entire budget set on wedding day planning, you may be tempted to postpone your honeymoon due to limited finances. Why not let your guests help? My wife and I used this option for our wedding and as an incentive to our guests, we offered to send them a photo of us while we were enjoying the activity that they helped to fund. It was a big hit with our guests.
The Honey Fund – You are able to request cash to cover airfare, meals and everything you need for a memorable honeymoon. They do withhold a small portion of your donations – around 2% – to help pay for their services. However, take into consideration that asking for cash from your guests is a serious etiquette faux pas and this service helps avoid that situation.
Gift Registries
With so many stores to choose from, registering for gifts can seem overwhelming. One store may not have everything that you want or need, so do you register with multiple stores? Of course, that takes time and time is something you don’t have an abundance of when you’re trying to plan the wedding of your dreams. So, why not register everything, all in one place?
My Registry – This site allows you to register gifts from any online store so that they show up under one registry, with a custom link you can provide to your guests.
