Congratulations on your engagement! This is a really exciting time in your life. It’s also probably going to be a bit stressful.
During this next year, I want to walk through this process with you. I’ll give you a 12 Month Guide to planning your wedding and explain things along the way. You can start from the beginning here (click). Come back to this blog each week for the next installment.
Week 26 – Gift Registries
Hope your wedding planning isn’t terribly stressful! We’re going to have fun this week with gift registries! That means you get to shoot a price gun…may be a good point to mention to your fiance to get him in the store. 😉
When registering for gifts it’s important to consider your guests. It may sound strange, but it’s true. Here’s what I mean by considering the guests with your gifts. You don’t want to register at a small boutique when most of your guests are from out-of-town and don’t have access to it. Likewise, you wouldn’t want to select only high-priced items when most of your guests are college students.
Here are a few tips on how to strike a healthy balance.
1. Select two or three stores to register at, and make sure one of them is accessible in most cities and online. This will allow all of your guests to have an option of where to shop.
2. When you register, make sure you select a wide variety of price ranges. You want it to be pretty even in the high, medium and low price ranges. This will allow your guests to select whatever fits with their budget. Sometimes a few people even get together to purchase some of the bigger items, like at wedding showers. You never know what their budgets may be so don’t be afraid to select items in each range.
3. Register for the right amount of items. Have you ever looked at a gift registry and wondered how the person had that many friends or why they didn’t register for enough items for everyone? Register for at least as many items as you have guests. With that said, you also want to make sure every guest has options that fit their price range. In order to do that you need to register for more items than you have guests, not hundreds of extra items, but enough to offer options.
4. Only register for what you need or want. If you won’t use it, don’t register for it. If you don’t like camping, don’t register for a tent. If you don’t cook a lot, focus the registry on the rest of the house and only register for basic kitchen items. If you love playing board games, add a couple to the registry.
Hope this helps you figure out how to register for gifts. So where are you going to register?
Have fun! Next week we’ll look at invitations and wording.
Katelyn is a certified wedding planner. She is available for consultations.
She will even meet with you on Skype to help you work through part of your wedding planning. Click here for more information.
