Wedding Gift Recap: Amazon and Honeymoon Registries

I thought I’d do a little recap on how our wedding registries worked out, since we had two “controversial” registries (in quotes because I really don’t feel like these are very controversial these days, although I’m sure others feel differently).

**First off, I would like to note that I know registries can sometimes be a heated topic, and I’m not writing this to start a debate. I just wanted to share what happened with our registries, and what worked for us may not be what will work for you. I’m well aware that you are never supposed to ask for gifts for your wedding. However, the fact remains that some guests like to give gifts, and like to know what the couple would like to receive, so I’m in the pro-registry camp. I’ve always used registries for weddings I’ve attended, and I enjoy knowing I’m gifting something the couple will actually use.**

Our first registry was with Amazon.com. Long ago I wrote about how easy it was to register from the comfort of our couch and almost all of the items we selected qualified for free shipping, because that has been an argument I’ve heard against Amazon registries, that people don’t want to pay for shipping. However, I disagree with that argument. 100% of the time I’ve bought gifts for weddings, through Macy’s, Bed Bath, etc, I’ve opted to have the gift sent to the couple’s home, and paid shipping every single time. So unless you’re going to be hauling the wedding gift to the wedding (which isn’t recommended because then the couple or someone has to deal with it and get it home from the venue), shipping is going to just be something you have to pay for.

We had a pretty conservative registry on Amazon, with far under the recommended number of items, because we just didn’t really need that much in the way of traditional wedding gifts. We’ve lived together for 8 years, and I felt there was no need to replace perfectly good kitchen items. However, in the end, we didn’t end up receiving that many gifts off our Amazon registry, although we were very grateful for what we did receive. Maybe 12-15 things, and mainly these were items that were purchased for us well in advance of our wedding date.

And actually, the main thing we wanted from Amazon was our Pfalzgraf set of everyday dishes, platters and bowls. So I ended up spending about $500 after our wedding to complete our whole set, because I was afraid that our pattern would be discontinued at some point and didn’t want to be stuck with only half the number of plates we needed!

{Our pretty everyday dish set}

Then there was our honeymoon registry, which we set up through Paypal on our wedding website. I know some people are still against this kind of registry, but no, we did not use it to “pay for a honeymoon we couldn’t afford” (the argument I've heard against honeymoon registries). You can see my original post about it, but we just gave people the option to gift us excursions or nice dinners. And again, we’ve lived together for almost a decade and just didn’t need that many traditional gifts, so we thought this was a really great way for guests who wanted to give us a gift to do something a little different and fun.

And this registry actually went over really, really well with our friends. It was easy for them because they didn’t have to worry about bringing anything to our wedding, and it was a quick last minute gift. In fact, about 90% of our honeymoon registry gifts came in in the few days before our wedding, and even a few on our wedding day (I got an email every time someone contributed to our honeymoon). So again, this type of registry couldn’t (and really shouldn’t) be used to pay for a honeymoon that was outside our means. We had no idea what people were going to get us until a couple days before our honeymoon, and it wasn’t something we were counting on anyway. But it was a pleasant, much appreciated surprise, and our guests ended up gifting us all our excursions, snorkel and boogie board rentals, all our dining out, and much more!

{Wearing our snorkels we rented as a gift in Kauai}

In addition to gifts from our Amazon and Honeymoon registries, we received many cards filled with well wishes, cash and checks. Definitely not something we were counting on, but we were so grateful for everyone’s lovely gifts, which we put into savings.

So my takeaways on registering:

- Register for what you want and need, but within reason.
- Don’t hesitate to do a non traditional registry if that’s what you want to do, your guests can take it or leave it, and you might be pleasantly surprised at how much they like it.
- If using Amazon, try to find items that qualify for free shipping, and maybe make a note on your wedding website about the free shipping, in case your guests are concerned about that aspect of ordering online. We put a note in small font under the link to our registry, “most items qualify for free shipping.”
- You will most likely receive gifts for which you have zero use for. Just accept that as an unfortunate downside to people not using registries and promptly send the thank you note to the guest.
- Appreciate all your cards and gifts, your guests were thinking of you when they sent them. And don't be offended if you don't receive a gift from someone. Technically they have up to a year to send something, and in this economy, people may just not be able to afford it. At least they spent the time and money getting to your wedding, and you got to celebrate with them!
- And as a wedding guest, unless you know the couple really, really well, my advice would be to just stick to their registry, or give a card. Or at least look at their registry first, to get a feel for what they are in need of. If you don’t see any crystal or fancy knickknacks with no purpose on their registry, chances are they don’t need whatever versions of those items you’ve found off their registry. Just sayin’! ;)

What are your thoughts on buying wedding gifts, do you like to buy from on the registry or off the registry?

Registering CAN Be Easy!

Or, our unconventional registry that turned conventional....

A while ago I showed you all how I made our own honeymoon registry on our wedding website using PayPal, but I thought I'd touch on the alternate registry we did through Amazon.com as well.

I've read a lot of blog posts about the stress of registering. The guilt, the indecision, the overwhelming fear of the registry gun, the pressure from the store representative to put massively expensive items on your registry....the list goes on and on. But for us (er, I, since Mr. Cola didn't really want to be bothered with this) it was pretty dang easy!

It all started with me sitting on my couch with my laptop, and I thought to myself, "Gee, what can I register us for that we'll actually use? We have a kitchen and home full of stuff already, it's not the newest stuff, but we already have it!"

So I started adding less conventional registry items we could really use, like Kelty 20-Degree Sleeping Bags, camping headlamps, a pool cue holder, Washington State Cougars Billiard Balls, and a Dual-Zone 18-Bottle Ventilated Wine Cooler.



(pictures taken from the Amazon listings)

But then I started thinking, "Well, Mr. C really needs a new suitcase....and oh! I wonder if they have any cool garlic peeling devices....or maybe a cupcake carrier for taking them to work..." and promptly added a new set of luggage, several garlic peeling items, and several cupcake accessories to the registry.



{Sources from left to right, top row: Luggage Set, Garlic Peeler, Garlic Twist, bottom row: Cupcake Courier, Mini Muffin (Cupcake!) Pan, Regular Muffin (Cupcake!) Pan}

And then when I showed Mr. C how our registry was coming along, to see if he wanted to add or delete anything, he insisted that we must register for a new "grilled cheese pan." Grilled cheese sandwiches are his specialty, and our old pan from college was pretty warped, so I added a new one to the registry.
{Source: Revere Polished Aluminum 11-Inch Nonstick Square Frying Pan}

From here it just started going downhill into boring old conventional registry-land. I was in the cookware section now, and in no time a Rachael Ray 10-Piece Cook Set, 6-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker, Magic Bullet Deluxe, and quite a few other random kitchen gadgets were added.

Around this time is when I discovered the Universal Registry, which allows you to add anything from any website to your Amazon registry, so it's all in one place for your guests. It was all over then! I was bit by the registering bug and added new bedding from Linens and Things (click the description link on these for the photo source).


Adirondack bench, coffee table, 2 chairs with ottomans and 2 side tables, from Adirondack Chair Showroom, 'cause I would love some nice outdoor furniture:


And then I had to go and decide that maybe the hand-me-down, not-so-pretty stoneware plates we've had for 10 years needed to be upgraded, so I registered for this lovely set of dishes, along with matching platters and salt and pepper shakers, by Pfaltzgraff:


Which only led to me thinking that since we don't have a dining room table, maybe we needed one to put these pretty new dishes on. So I hit up Ikea and added an expandable table, 6 matching chairs, and a sideboard.

Altogether we have 46 items on our Amazon registry, or a little over $3,000 worth of stuff. That's about $30 per person for our 100 person guest list, so I'm guessing that's about right, combined with our honeymoon registry. But do we really care if we get any, or all of this stuff? Not really! Shopping online for everything was fun for me, and now we have a list of stuff already researched and flagged for whenever we might want to buy this stuff for ourselves.

So all in all, this is one wedding blogger who found the registering process nothing but fun and easy! No guilt because, well, if people don't want to get us something we registered for, they won't, no big deal. It wasn't hard to pick things because I'm an online shopping addict. And we never went to a store, so we didn't have to deal with any of that drama either.

How did registering turn out for you? And do you enjoy adding/deleting/playing with your registry over the months leading up to your wedding as much as I do? :)