Bridal Shower: Registry Help!!

Usually a registry consists of things for your home. You can register for upgrades of appliances, dishes, towels, bedding etc. We registered at bed bath and beyond, crate and barrel, and pottery barn. If you don’t want to register I would decline the offer of a shower or see if they can change it to a recipe shower or a bridal tea.

I’m currently creating our registry at Wayfair and I’m going to chose one other place, maybe target, to do one also. I agree, you guys could upgrade on appliances etc. Once you start looking through the registry checklist you’ll see so many things that you might find things you’d like to have that you haven’t even thought about. Or you could even pick some new decor. It’s so fun to make one in my opinion!

Don't worry about traditional showers. Today's brides are often more independent and mature than brides of the past. Many have careers and homes of their own, or homes they share with their fiance'. They may be in their twenties, but are often in their thirties and forties or even older. The average age for women to get married in America is about 28. In the past, it was closer to 18-20, with the bride still living in her parents home and having nothing of her own to furnish a home. Showers don't have to be about household items anymore.

My fiance' and I are registering for items that would enhance our life experiences together. We love to travel, camp, hike, and take road trips. We are registered for items and accessories for those hobbies. Rather than equipping a home, we are enhancing our future as a couple.

Our registry is on Amazon, so people can easily shop and have gifts delivered to us, or have them delivered to themselves if they want to wrap them and bring them in person.

Basically, register for who you are as a couple. That makes every gift meaningful.

I've known some couples to have a honeyfund. Rather than registering for gifts, they ask that a donation be made to their honeymoon.


I declined a shower because I've been in my house for almost nine years now, FH has been on his own for just as long, and we don't really need anything that people usually register for..

I really like the idea of registering for camping/hiking/travel gear!!

I am in your boat as well! Together almost 12 years, although we don’t live together. We are both older and have everything we could ever need for our home. I decided to register for items I had always wanted, but never bought and upgrades. My shower was amazing and we got some great stuff from my incredible friends. We upgraded the following items: towels, sheets, duvet cover, food processor, table cloth, garbage can, etc.

Question: if you register at multiple stores, do you register for the same items at each store?

View Quoted Comment I would say no because then you may end up with several of the same item! Use a site like the knot or I believe Zola does it too where you can combine your registries from multiple stores onto one site!

My FW & I live together & own our home. So we are using our registry to upgrade items or get things we’d love to have and just never bought ourselves (like a Roomba). We registered at Amazon because you can literally register for anything and everything on there! And also Target. We also have a Honeymoon Fund.

We have also been living together for over a year and live in a house that his grandparents owned, so it was fully furnished. We registered for upgrades of what we have. My shower was this weekend and was thankful for new knive, pots & pans, dishes. You can do upgrades, honeymoon funds, gift cards for date nights or home improvement stores. Pretty much anything. We used MyRegistry.com so we could add anything on the Internet to it. One of my favorite gifts was an outdoor movie projector, so they don’t have to be traditional.

I agree with the other posters! Maybe register for updated appliances/homegoods (do you need new towels? Better, softer sheets? Are your kitchen knives getting dull?) as well as things for experiences you could do together! Do you like camping? Maybe a good quality tent and sleeping bags. If you like going to the movies, maybe register for a popcorn maker so you can have movie nights at home! Or even just gift cards to the movies, a massage place, or a spa! Registering through Amazon lets you select gift cards as an option too. Have fun!

I would register for upgrades. If you don't need or want much, don't feel like you have to "over-register". You can always register for 5-10 things and people will either find something to buy you or give you cash and or/checks or gift cards.

We have also lived together for a while and have all the things we need. We registered for entertainment items. Bar tools, accessories, drink dispensers, wine glasses etc. If you don't need any of that, what about hobbies. Do you and your FH like to camp, register for camping supplies. A new tent, portable grill, sleeping bag upgrades etc. I have never seen or done one but I have read a lot about honeyfunds as well so you can get money for your honeymoon although that really isn't a registry. If you have a shower, people will bring gifts. Some may recommend not registering and people will bring cash but that doesn't always work, especially not for a shower. Maybe upgrade some of your current items. Bed sheets, pots and pans, towels, vacuum cleaner etc. Good luck!

View Quoted Comment No! One of the main points of registries is to avoid duplicate gifts. If you register for the same thing multiple places, you may receive multiples of that one item.

As for the original question : we had an established home together, and at first felt “what could we want?” but we were able to quickly piece together a pretty solid registry! I started a list that I kept on our refrigerator where I’d add “wishlist” items every time I was cooking and noticed something I was lacking or that our current version of wasn’t in great shape (ex measuring cup upgrades, a couple baking tools I didn’t have but would’ve benefited from). We combined households so even though we had plenty of stuff, a lot of it was mismatched sets. So we also registered for new complete sets of some things and donated the old stuff, and got some “extras” (ex: we had *a* sheet set but registered for more so we wouldn’t need to run the laundry every time we wanted to change the bed)...haha ALSO every time I broke something (whoops!!) it was great cuz I didn’t get upset, just said “oh! I’ll add it to the registry!” (One sad day I was trying to balance too many things and dropped and broke 2 casserole dishes 😰). I was amazed how much stuff we came up with!
But beyond updates and upgrades, gifts for anything you do together are fair game . Games are a good example. If you have outdoor space, anything for that is good (outdoor entertaining dishware, lawn games, gardening stuff). In, around, and outside of the home is all fair game!

View Quoted Comment

You can if you really don't know which you will like better, but I won't recommend it. It is more likely of you getting double and then potentially having to return things after as most guests won't compare the two lists or even see what has already been purchased.

We've been living together for a while too, so we registered for upgrades. New knife set, nicer pots and pans, new luggage, etc. We also registered for smaller items that we don't need right now, but would be nice to have such as more towels and linens.

You can ask for a honey fund instead of gifts that you don't need. Just set up a honey fund account and tell your guests.

Thank you everyone for the feedback. My family wants me to have the whole "bridal experience". All of your responses have helped a ton!!

We have been living together for 5 years, when we get married it’ll be 6 and a half. I don’t know if anyone is throwing me a bridal shower but I told them if so, we would rather have an engagement shower/party kinda things because we don’t have the money to throw a engagement party. I’ll be putting down things I know I want for the wedding Incase anyone wants to help contribute towards things we need for money, small house hold stuff we can get use of and some things we like as far as hobbies like games and a canvas lyric painting of our first song and stuff. We really prefer not to get household items and for weddings most people give money but for any kinda pre wedding events and stuff and Incase someone would rather buy a gift then give money, there will be a registry with the option to buy things. You just have to look around and also think of things you may want but not need such as hobbies or books and stuff... even music! It doesn’t have to be household items, especially if you feel you have what you need. I usually go by “if it’s not broken don’t fix it” our apartment was remodeled brand new 3 years ago and so was most of the stuff we bought like sofas and stuff. So nothing is really outdated either!

If your venue does not provide alcohol and you want to save money, you can have everyone bring their favorite bottle of booze to the shower and use that the day of the wedding.