If you want to feel like a princess on your wedding day then a personalized wedding registry is perfect so that your gifts will be special too. It also gives you and your soon-to-be spouse an opportunity to get the items you might need in advance, such as home furnishings for when you move in together. The best part? Your guests don’t need any experience or knowledge about any of the gift items – just browse through the available items, pick out your favorites and let them choose!
Wedding Registry Overview
Your wedding registry should reflect who you are as a couple. We’ve provided a wide range of registries for your review. Our list includes traditional retailers like Crate & Barrel and Macy’s department stores. In addition, trending now are online cash funds so guests can fund your honeymoon and even charitable collections where your guests can make monetary donations towards the causes closest to your heart.Â
Create a registry shortly after your engagement. This gives guests many opportunities to give you congratulatory gifts. A wedding registry helps with shopping as it narrows down what items are needed all in one place. It also gives guests plenty of options based on price point – regardless if it’s expensive or not. Registries should be updated periodically so that any items which become unavailable are taken off and new gift items are added.
Registering with multiple stores used to be a common practice. Nowadays, many people register at just one location and get all their gifts delivered through one account. As such, there no longer is the need to visit different stores – which we think is a huge plus. Universal registry tools like The Knot or Wedding Wire make it easy to compile all your requested gifts into one place so that guests don’t have trouble accessing multiple stores or sites.
Tips to Setup Your Wedding Registry
Regardless of what you decide, here are a few tips to make wedding registry setup easier.
- You don’t want your guests to have any trouble registering, and a registry that’s easy breezy for everyone involved is ideal.
- Consider whether you prefer a wide variety of products, or whether you prefer fewer but more carefully curated items? What kind of gifts do YOU want? Timeless classics from well known brands or handcrafted artisanal treasures?
- There are a lot of benefits to registering from a store that has physical locations near loved ones. This is especially true if they aren’t keen on dealing with shipping and handling.Â
- Consider what outcome you’re trying to achieve with your wedding registry. Some couples register for traditional wedding items like decorations or furniture. You could also set up an account with local charities instead and take advantage of the opportunity to giving back to the community.
Here are some of our favorite wedding registries, by category:
All-in-One Registries (listed in alphabetical order)
Blueprint Registry
Blueprint is a David’s Bridal Company. They are an online registry service and wedding website builder where you can add items from big box retailers or local stores. You can also search for and add gifts by room, create group gifting options or cash-based gifts for your honeymoon, first home, or personal charities.
Two weeks after your wedding, Blueprint Registry will send you a list of each gift you received and who gave it to you.
Joy Wedding Registry
Joy lets you add items from any of your favorite stores and connects all your registries in one place. You can choose anything from gifts to experiences and charitable donations too. They are the only cash fund registry with zero fees. So your guests can help fund anything from your honeymoon to your first home. Other sites charge between 2.4% to 2.95% for the same service.
Joy describes the user experience as “fast, flexible and free”. Guests can shop for everything in one spot and you can manage and track all your gifts on one site. In addition to their registry, Joy offers free wedding websites, save-the-dates and invites, powerful planning tools and personal customer support.
My Registry
MyRegistry is perfect for those who prefer to shop from unique boutiques online instead of one specific store. You can find anything from home furnishings at sites that don’t have their own registry services, to experiences like cooking classes or skydiving lessons! If you’d like to request charitable donations, you can do that too. Your guests will love knowing that their gift will help support an amazing cause while being unique.
Zola Wedding Registry
With Zola, you can add anything from gifts to cash (for a fee) and even pet gifts. The guest experience is just as great. Guests can checkout through Zola instead of being routed onto third party websites. Couples also get 20% off their registries for six months after their weddings with this service. Zola can also host your wedding website and manage your RSVPs. You can also add registry items and design your own matching invitations for free.
All-in-One Stores (listed in alphabetical order)
Amazon
Find just about anything you want to fill your wedding registry. Popular items range from waffle makers and cookware sets to electronics and even Amazon Prime shows. Thousands of items can be found with a simple search on this massive e-commerce site. You’ll get a 20% completion discount to get your remaining items on your wish list. As well, they also offer free two-day shipping on eligible items and the best part is the 180-day return policy.
You can upload your favorite pics, add notes and highlight what gift items you love most. Amazon also keeps a detailed list of who bought what gift and when. This makes it super easy for you to send an appropriate thank you to every guest.
Bed Bath & Beyond
This place is perfect to get all of your essentials, like housewares and linens to appliances. They offer a 20% completion discount and a price match guarantee. Guests are guaranteed and have assurance to get the best value. Bed Bath and Beyond has a number of tools to make the registry process easier – an interactive checklist, a registry analyzer, a thank you list, and a smartphone app.
Bloomingdales
Bloomingdales boasts 5 reasons why they’re the world’s best registry:
- They offer everything for every home with an extensive selection of home goods.
- A team of dedicated registry consultants that will support you along the way.
- Special offers such as 20% before your wedding on dresses, suits, intimates and more. And 20% off everything on your registry for 6 months after your wedding day. Bonus gifts from some brands are offered when you purchase the remaining items on your registry.
- Helpful planning tools and guides, including a printable checklist and a “Thank You” card manager.
- In-store events like spa days, lingerie fittings and men’s styling events before your wedding. They also offer perks from partners such as The Travel Siblings to help plan the honeymoon.
Crate & Barrel
Perks of registering with Crate and Barrel include a 15% newlywed discount that is valid for up to 6 months after your wedding day. They can offer their team of wedding registry experts to help guide you. In addition, they host private virtual and in-store registry events and they offer real-time gift alerts in the app. As a bonus for signing up, each couple will receive a pair of their best selling stemless wine glasses. For your guests, they offer group gifting, free shipping from $49+, a price match guarantee and speedy in store pickup.
Macy’s
Macy’s offers special discounts for items added to your registry – 25% off men’s, women’s & kids’ styles, plus shoes and fine jewelry and select home goods; 15% off watches & small appliances & 10% off furniture, mattresses, and rugs.
Once you’re enrolled in their registry, they offer 10% back in Reward Dollars on every eligible purchase. They also offer 5% back on a gift card for every eligible gift someone purchases from your registry. A 10 to 20% discount for items is offered for the remaining things on your list for 6 months after your wedding day. Their “Celebration Consultants” are available by appointment for virtual one-on-one sessions to help curate your wedding registry.
Pottery Barn
In case you’re at a loss of what to add to your wedding registry, Pottery Barn has curated a Top 100 list of must-have items. They offer one-on-one registry help to create the perfect registry, special events at your local store for tips and treats, an easy registry checklist, and a 10% completion discount valid for 6-months after your wedding. If you’re a fan of all things monogrammed, they can personalize select items for the newlyweds.
Target
Target offers “group gifting”, where a group of guests can all chip in for a bigger gift for the couple. If cash or experiences are your thing, then there are lots of options at Target – they partnered with Honeyfund, Uber, and Princess Cruises. They offer a 15% discount to use online and in-store to get the rest of the gifts on your wedding registry too.
Williams Sonoma
Great wedding registry idea for the foodie couple! When you create a registry with Williams Sonoma, you get a VIP experience with the experts which includes private tours, registry help, and complimentary demos. Couples will receive a 10% completion discount up to six months after their wedding day. Bonus gifts are offered from their leading brands when added to your registry and when guests purchase from your registry. They’ve also included an easy checklist to manage the gifts as well as a wedding registry app to curate lists and track purchases.
Wedding Experience Registries (listed in alphabetical order)
Feather the Nest
Rather than asking for your guests to furnish your home with knick knacks, Feather the Nest helps you ask for funds to put towards the down payment of a new home, renovations or home additions. Their site helps you build your “nest” in 3 easy steps. First, you fill out the form with the crowdfunding details. Second, you spread the word about your nest to family and friends to help fund. And third, you thank your supporters for making your home dreams come true.
Hitchd
Their tagline is “fund memories, not things”. This registry site is dedicated to funding your honeymoon, not more items for your home that you don’t need. They help you create any gift, experience, cash fund or charitable donation for your guests to fund.
Their gift templates make it easy for you to great your own registry or you can have the flexibility of creating your own. Monetary guest contributions can be accepted through a number of payment options such as credit card, PayPal, Venmo, direct transfer, and more.
Their registry isn’t free; they charge a one-time fee based on your wedding size. But apparently, they state this ends up being the most cost-effective option in the long run. Other registries either charge a percentage of your overall earnings or heavily up sell your guests.
Honeyfund
Honeyfund’s wedding registry makes it easy for guests to give what couples are asking for – cash gifts! Couples register for their dream honeymoon and each Honeyfund reflects the couple’s unique style. This site makes it quick, friendly, and easy for wedding guests.
Honeyfund is the most trusted honeymoon registry and cash registry for the last 15+ years. They have a customizable wishlist and they offer open-ended cash gifting (low fees). Their gift card registry features nearly 200 popular brands (no fees). Couples have immediate access to gift funds with no lengthy waiting period. Your guests are never charged a fee and to offer premium flexibility. They link to a universal registry and store registry to link for easy one-stop shopping. This online registry has been used as a cash gifting site for honeymoons, wedding costs, down payments, charities, and more.
SPUR
As an experience-based wedding registry, couples can register for honeymoon experiences. To make it affordable, guests can buy as little as 10% of a gift, so you can register for that dream honeymoon experience. There is no fee to set up the registry and Spur experiences never expire. For extra flexibility, if your experience is not fully purchased, you can redeem towards other Spur experiences. Couples can also register for tickets to concerts, sporting events and performing arts. In addition, 5% of registry sales will be donated by Spur to the charity of your choice when indicated on your registry.
Travelers Joy
As one of the first honeymoon registries, Travelers Joy has served over 400,000 members since 2004 and they are the official honeymoon registry partner of the largest wedding websites in the world. Couples have the freedom to decide where, when and how to arrange your travel; you can book your honeymoon with any travel agency or airline.
Travelers Joy provides lots of tools to make customizing your wedding registry easy. Expect tools such as a gift image library, Google Maps integration, automatic slideshows, themes, and more. Their “Instant Registry” feature can complete your registry in just a few minutes. Once you’re ready to redeem your gifts, Travelers Joy sends you a bank check directly to your checking account or PayPal account. From there, you can easily thank everyone with a generated list of all your guests, the gifts they provided, amounts, and full contact information.Â
Conclusion
Registries have come a long way. Now there’s a type of registry for every type of couple. Don’t be afraid to explore these new options, but also don’t be afraid to stick with tradition. It’s all about what you and your partner love and want.
