Creating your wedding registry might seem like a simple and easy task that you can do in an afternoon. You go to Macy’s, get one of those fancy scanner guns, and go to town. Wrong. You can’t just waltz into the store and scan everything that you like. It takes thought and planning to make a registry that is perfect for both you and your significant other.
Don’t let this idea of creating a wedding registry being difficult scare you away from creating one. Many people don’t even want to bother, whether because they don’t want to deal with the headache or they don’t want to come off as greedy. The fact of the matter is: Your guests are going to buy you wedding presents. You might as well pick out what you want and need so that you don’t have to return every gift that you get. This is where a registry comes in handy. Don’t fret about it being hard; we’re here to help with this list of tips and tricks to creating the perfect registry and coming out of your wedding with your most needed and enjoyable gifts.
1. Decide on Your Personal Style
One of the first things that you need to do when starting to think about your wedding registry is to sit down and decide what type of style that you and your significant other have. This is going to be a lot easier if you both have the same taste, but that isn’t always the case. Even if you don’t always like the same thing, you can combine your styles together. Buy some magazines, and both of you go through them and pick out what you like, and then compare notes. You will find something out there that both of you like.
2. Figure Out What You Like to Do
You also need to sit down with your significant other and think about what the two of you like to do. If you like to cook, you probably want to add more cooking products to your registry. If you like to entertain, you want to add things to your registry that will help you do so.
3. Set Up Your Registry Early
From the moment that your friends and family find out about your engagement, they are going to start sending gifts. The earlier that you can create a registry for them to buy from, the better off that you will be.
4. Register in Multiple Places
Don’t just register in one place, especially if it is a small store in your hometown that not everyone has heard of. Ideally, you should register in two or three locations. Make sure that at least one of them has an online registry for those who live far away, and make sure, at least, that one is a brick and mortar store that your guests can go to and pick something out for you.
5. Decide if Anything Needs Replacing
Getting married is a great time to replace anything that is broken or worn out. If your toaster doesn’t work all the time, or you’ve had the same sheets since you were in college, it’s time for an upgrade. Go through both your own and your significant other’s items, and look for anything that could use an upgrade.
6. Register for a Wide Range of Gifts
Rule of thumb: If you have invited 150 people to your wedding, then you should have at least 200 items on your registry. First off, there are going to be people that you don’t invite to the wedding who want to buy you a present. Your grandmother’s neighbor who watched you grow up, but you don’t know, might want to send you something. You don’t want to run out of gifts for people to get you. That’s when they start buying whatever they want, and you have to return three cars’ worth of gifts. Secondly, people love having options. If you registry for a large selection of gifts at different price points, you are giving all of your guests options for whatever they want to give you that works for their budget.
7. Update Your Registry
Most of the time, your wedding registry is going to automatically update after someone buys something off of it. But that’s not always the case. You want to make sure that you check on your registry to see what has been bought, and make sure it reflects that. Also, you want to update it with additional gifts if you see that it is getting low. Again, you always want to make sure that your guests have a wide range of options to choose from.
