We’ve made it to the last Wedding Wednesday and I am so excited to be chatting all things Wedding Registries! I posted a question box on my Instagram stories to get questions straight from you guys so I’m going to be answering those along with sharing some of my additional thoughts and tips!
Where did you register and how dod you do it?
Choosing where to register is kind of overwhelming because there are SO many places to register these days. Some of the things I considered when deciding on where to register for were: what kinds of things we wanted to register for, the ages of our guests and where people like to shop, and where we would get the best registry perks. We ended up registering at Williams Sonoma, Bloomingdales, Over The Moon, and Blue Atlas Marketplace. Ultimately I made these choices for a few reasons. Williams Sonoma and Bloomingdales both have stores and I wanted there to be in-person shopping options for our guests. Over The Moon has a unique assortment of gifts that you can’t find in other places, and they also have a built-in ability to add gifts from other websites to their registry, which gives you a lot of option. I liked that Blue Atlas Marketplace is local but still has an online shopping experience for our guests out of state. For most places, you can easily start your registries directly online, but if you’re able to it’s fun to go in store and see the pieces in person.
What are registry perks?
Registry perks are incentives offered to convince you to register with a certain retailer. Bloomingdale’s had by far the best registry perks in my opinion—they offer a 20% off completion discount for 6 months after your wedding, which means that for 6 months you get 20% off of anything on your registry that people didn’t buy for you so that you can “complete your registry.” The loophole here is that you can continue adding things to your registry even after your wedding, so you can use the 20% off on things you want for your home even if you weren’t initially registered for them. Bloomingdale’s also gives you a registry perks card that offers 20% an assortment of clothing and shoes from the day you register to your wedding day to help you “prepare” for the wedding. This comes in handy when shopping for bridal shower dresses, etc. but I’ll admit it was kind of hard to use. Online it didn’t always work and in-store a lot of times the salespeople didn’t even know what it was. Williams Sonoma offers a 10% completion discount and this discount also applies to Pottery Barn, West Elm since they’re all connected.
How did you decide what to register for and where?
These days, there is so much crossover of product between retailers, so it was a little tricky deciding what to register for and where. I think one of the biggest mistakes people make when building their registry is not thinking enough about the future. There are a lot of things you could register for that you might not need now, but you will probably want down the line. For example, we registered for full sets of 12 for all of our dishes, flatware, and glassware. While we may not necessarily have a need for 12 right now (we don’t even have the space to host a dinner for 12 if we wanted to), I know that we won’t be in this apartment forever, and our circumstances will likely change. Additionally, I feel like I hear a lot of young people saying that they already live together and have what they need, but your wedding registry is a great time for you to upgrade some of your starter things. If your anything like us, the stuff you have in your first apartment together are not things you invested a lot of money on. We were in this boat and one of the best pieces of advice my mom gave me when we first moved in together was not to spend money on all the nice home things I wanted, so that I could register for them one day. So, that’s exactly what I did!
When picking designs for certain pieces, I tried to pick ones that weren’t too trendy, or that I knew I wouldn’t get sick of. In terms of deciding where to register for everything, we registered for almost everything for the kitchen at Williams Sonoma except for a few Le Creuset pieces that showed up as backordered on Williams Sonoma, but in stock at Bloomingdale’s. At Bloomingdales, we registered for lucury items like crystal and a bunch of Juliska pieces we wanted. The reason I decided to register for our Juliska at Bloomingdale’s is because that way anything we didn’t get, we could purchase after the wedding with the 20% off perk. This is definitely something to consider when making your registry. Over the Moon and Blue Atlas Marketplace have a lot of crossover in product so I used Over The Moon for things only available from them and then everything else I did with Blue Atlas Marketplace.
Did you register for China?
YES! It makes me so sad to see that so many people don’t register for China anymore. I went through so many different patterns before settling on this beautiful and classic monogram style. There were many beautiful, colorful designs I loved, but I ultimately wanted to go with something that I knew I would never get tired of and would never “go out of style.” The nice thing about going with something simple, is that it can always be mixed and matched with more “fun” china down the line if you want to grow your collection like I do. While I know we likely won’t be using our China much now, I’m so excited to have it for so many holidays and celebration for years to come as we grow our family and start our own traditions.
How did you balance prices on your registry?
Balancing the price points on your registry is super important because registries are used by some people for both bridal shower gifts and wedding gifts and the budgets for those are not always the same. I tried to have a balance of gifts in a variety of price points ranging from under $100 to as high as $700. The bulk of the gifts were in the $100 to $250 range, which felt like a nice balance. I also made sure to monitor our registries regularly and make sure that as people were buying gifts, there was still a nice balance of price points for everyone, which sometimes meant adding more things to the registry to fill any gaps.
Is there anything you decided not to register for that most people do?
A lot of people register for sheets and towels and we decided not to do that. This was ultimately based on both my mom’s advice and my own observation that those items are usually people’s least favorite things to purchase as a wedding gift and are oftentimes left unpurchased anyway.
Did you notice any trends in things people like to buy?
In my experience, I think people like to buy gifts that are A) singular gifts in their entirety rather than part of a larger set and B) gifts you will have forever rather than something that will only last a year or two (like sheets and towels). I tried to keep this in mind when I chose what to register for!
Did you do a honeymoon fund? Why/why not?
I think this one is a little tricky and might be controversial, but I am against doing “honeymoon funds” or “cash funds.” In my experience, the people who want to give you money are going to give it to you anyways! We did not have any funds in our registries, but we had many people bring cards with cash and checks to the wedding itself, regardless. Personally, I just didn’t feel comfortable asking people to give us money.
Did your husband choose any of the registry items or did you do it all?
Yes! Shane and I went together in person to Williams Sonoma and Bloomingdales for the initial start of our registries, and he helped pick our stemware, flatware, pieces of our bar, and some cooking gadgets! Ultimately, he didn’t really care very much about it though, so I got to make the final decisions.
What did people end up not buying from your registry?
As I referenced above, I noticed that people didn’t like buying things that were part of a set like dishes, flatware, etc. We actually got a lot more pieces of our China than our everyday dishes and I think this is because China is deemed as more special. There were also a handful of other gifts that didn’t get purchased that were more like “nice to have” things and not necessities.
Did you have to buy anything to complete your registry? How did you decide what to prioritize?
After the wedding, we used some of the cash we received to complete some things. There were plenty of gifts that didn’t get purchased, but we didn’t feel like all of it was a priority to buy ourselves. We ended up purchasing the remaining pieces of our everyday dishes, and our flatware, plus a few other small things. Then, we decided to use the remainder of the money to upgrade our bed from a Queen to a California King, including the mattress, bed frame, headboard, sheets, bedding, etc. Everything we need! We didn’t get all of our China, but that is something I’m comfortable collecting over time since the need for it isn’t urgent. I’m hoping to get some more of the pieces for it for Christmas (Hint, hint…)!
Do you have any favorite registry items so far?
We didn’t use any of our gifts until after the wedding and it has been so fun having a fresh start with it all! We donated our old things we didn’t need anymore and it really felt nice to just declutter and refresh everything. It’s so hard to narrow it down because we received so many gifts we love and use all the time, but a few that come to mind are our toaster, our coffee machine, our pot and pan set, our dutch oven, and some fun serveware. I’ve had so much fun having friends over and enjoying all of our gifts.
If you made it to the end of that all, thank you! I know that was along one, but there was so much for me to share. I honestly could have gone on about that all forever. If you have any follow-up questions, be sure to send me a DM on Instagram! I’m happy to help!
In case you missed them, you can check out…
Our Wedding Video here
The story of my wedding dress here
The details of the morning of the wedding here
Our ceremony recap here
A peek into our reception here
Our wedding details here
You might also like:
Last week’s Wedding Wednesday Recap
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