This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure here.
I often get emails from brides wanting advice on how to save on weddings. Planning a wedding can be both exhilarating and exhausting, but one part of the wedding process that many brides get excited about is conquering the infamous wedding registry. Wedding registries can be a wonderful tool to help friends and family keep track of what you need and want, and while part of the goal of a registry is for family and friends to be able to bless you with gifts for your new life together, there are also ways for you to save as you create your registry!
Top Wedding Registry Tips
Choose Your Registry Carefully
There are several options for wedding registration, but make sure to choose your stores/websites wisely. It can be easy to want to register at many different stores but consolidating your list to about three or less stores makes it more manageable. In today’s world, it’s far more common to register at sites like Zola or The Knot, which let you easily pull products from many different stores to one unified registry! Just be sure to read the reviews about which one is more reliable or easier for guests to use. (We’ve heard more good stories about The Knot, but my daughter used Zola with no hiccups.) You can even make a wedding registry on Amazon, which can be a more frugal option for guests.
See my post on wedding registry incentives for more details about all the registry options as well as perks and bonuses.
Think About What You Really Need
You don’t have to have the most expensive items for your new life together. It is nice to have new things, but I would err on the side of practical instead of just buying whatever’s trendy at the moment. You might want to choose really nice bedding for your bed since it’s something you’ll see every day, but when it comes to kitchen items, choose durable items that will last, not just expensive appliances or decor that you’ll never use!
Add FUN Items Your Guests Will Enjoy Buying
On the other hand, don’t just think about practicality…I’ve heard this advice from many newlyweds who didn’t receive the trashcans or storage bins they asked for, but instead were gifted the fancy cake-cutting sets, pretty napkins and fine china. The reason why? Your guests want to give you things that they find fun, charming, and full of personality. Not things that are practical, though they know just like you do that those are necessary. Don’t worry – someone will buy you towels and bedsheets, your guests know that you need those things! But to give them a little encouragement to buy a gift you really want, be sure to pick a fun version. Instead of Amazon Basics towels, choose something monogrammed or in a particularly lovely color. Maybe instead of boring white sheets, pick ones with a playful print. Your guests will feel like they gave you something “you”!
Make Sure to Manually Track Purchases
While registries are a great way to keep track of gifts, some websites/stores tend to have trouble marking gifts as purchased on the registry, so every once in a while, it is a good idea to look over your registry and make sure everything has being marked off as purchased once you have received them. Most registries allow you to manually change the purchase history of items so you can change the items to purchased when the website fails to mark them off. This will help to avoid duplicates and make for an easier return process.
Know the Return Policy and Exchange Policy
Different registries have different limits on how long you can return items. Also, pay attention to when the clock starts ticking. Some registries count from when the item is purchased (which, depending on how long you’re engaged, could be many months before your wedding). Others count from the date of your wedding.
Store exchange policies are different for each store so make sure you know the specific policies for the store you are returning a product to. Bed, Bath, and Beyond allows you to return almost any item for cash as long as it’s on your registry. Target will take back items listed on your registry, but will give you gift cards instead of cash for returns. Also keep in mind that registries expire after a certain amount of time, so you’ll want to make any exchanges early.
Add Items at Various Price Points
Make sure to add items at several price points. Your friends and family have different amounts they would like to spend and it is helpful for them to have a range of prices to choose from. Don’t be afraid to put a few of those special splurge items on the list. If the item is a little more expensive than you think most will be comfortable spending, remember friends and family might go in together and purchase a larger gift for you. Many registries have options for group gifting where people can just contribute any amount – consider adding a “couch fund” or a “honeymoon fund” to your registry instead of asking one person to pay for those high-price gifts. But add cheap gifts too, even some items under $15! Your college-age friends living on a tight budget will thank you.
Choose Carefully
A word to the wise: only add one of each item, and don’t just throw everything on your registry that looks cute. Your registry website may make you freak out by telling you that you need to add 200 gifts to the registry to make sure each guest has something to buy, but don’t let that tempt you into adding three cutting boards, five spatulas, and two different comforters. Odds are if you are a younger newlywed you won’t have space to store those items, and you’ll resent having duplicates. You’ll also want to make sure you read the reviews for everything, even if you’re in a hurry, so you don’t waste your guests’ money by having them buy you something that immediately breaks. It’s always more important to put what you really see yourself using on a registry than putting a gift on the registry for EVERY guest – though do make sure to factor in wedding showers when calculating your gift count!
Be Patient, This Takes Time!
This process can be overwhelming and take a long time to go through. It takes a lot more time to read reviews than you’d think, and collaborating with your significant other to make sure you’re both happy with the registry before sharing it can lead to conflicts until you both come to reconciliation about your different tastes. Remember to have fun and give yourself grace if it takes a few months to finish!
Hopefully this advice is helpful as you think about something that’s a wonderful tradition for starting a new life with someone else. Take it easy, go slowly, and soon you’ll have a gift list that’s personalized, practical, fun, and guest-friendly.
Want more frugal living ideas?
