How to Create the Perfect Wedding Registry without Stepping Foot in a Store

When Jordan and I finally got around to building our wedding registry, we were both excited and slightly intimidated. We heard the stories of how couples had gotten trigger happy in the store or pressured by a sales-associate to add things that they didn’t necessarily need in their home. I had made it pretty clear that I didn’t want to fill our registry with a bunch of nick-nacks that we would never use, or didn’t need. This resolution made me averse setting up our registry in-store. Instead, we took the quintessential millennial route: we set up our registry completely online.

We took a few steps before jumping into adding things to building our registry. Here’s a breakdown of how we approached building our online wedding registry and a few things to consider if you are recently engaged and wondering how to create the best wedding registry.

Define the look and feel of your home

Photo via The Knot

Jordan and I really wanted to make sure that our new home was just that, ours. We didn’t want to lug in too many items from our bachelor and bachelorette days. We wanted to create a space that was not just representative of each of us individually, but more so representative of us as a couple.

We spent an entire evening talking about the colors and textures that we envisioned in our home along with how we wanted to make people feel when they visited us. It might sound like overkill but this step really helped us once we started adding things to the registry because we had communicated the desired look and landed on a mutual goal.

Decide where to register

This one is pretty obvious, but there are a few things that you’ll want to make sure you consider when deciding where to register.

Select 2-3 stores to provide a variety in both products and price point.

Make sure at least one of your options has a brick and mortar in most of your guests locations. I’m all for online shopping, but I can think of a few guests who might not feel the same way (I’m looking at you Nana).

We landed on Crate & Barrel, Target and Amazon. Crate & Barrel offered a good amount of quality items but the platform is not conducive to the online registration experience. Target provided a thorough checklist that helped guide our search not only on the Target website, but also Amazon and Crate & Barrel. Amazon was great for finding alternatives or similar products when an item was discontinued or sold-out on another website. I recommend Amazon Wedding Registry and Target Wedding Registry if you are going 100% digital.

Prioritize your wants

This point stems from my initial intention to ensure that we were adding necessary and useful items to our registry. It’s easy to get distracted even when you are not in a store with a sales associate. Those items that are added in a moment where you’re click happy or getting carried away with a scanner gun will also distract your guests from the items that you really want. If you stay focused and prioritize you can effectively guide the gifting and avoid ending up with a surplus of unnecessary items.

In hindsight, I would definitely have done a few things differently. For starters, I would have registered more than 6 months before our wedding (we waited until we were just 5 months from the big day). Registering further in advance would have allowed us to communicate our registry information on our save the dates and give our guests more time to plan for giving a gift. It also opens the door for guests invited to pre-wedding events to bring a gift if they are interested in blessing you and your fiancé We ultimately leaned on word of mouth and our wedding website to communicate and it worked out.

I also think that despite my initial hesitation to the in-store registry, we would have benefited from the inspiration. Getting started was tough, but we broke through our block by taking it room by room (luckily, most websites have corresponding categories to help us out). We started with the kitchen. The major pieces like dinnerware, flatware, dish towels and more helped us to really hone in on the visual aesthetic we had discussed. Next, we moved to the living room, bathroom and bedroom. Taking our wedding registry room by room really helped us to visualize the flow of our home and envision how guests would feel when they visited our space.

For me, this task was one of the only wedding planning to-do’s, aside from pre-marital counseling, that pushed us into thinking more about the marriage and building a life together than just the wedding day. I enjoyed envisioning our space together. Where we would put our things, what our routines would look like and what home truly meant to us. This was the first step in fostering our home environment. It was important to us to add items to our wedding registry that would help us to create a calm, peaceful space that serves as a retreat for us and a safe space for our friends and loved ones.

Ultimately, the way you approach building your wedding registry should be fun and personal. You’re helping to pull together your space as a couple. It is a unique, one-time experience so be sure to savor it. It is a great opportunity to create vision and intention for your space, not only as a couple but as a family.

If you’re looking to set-up your registry 100% online, check out Amazon and Target and set up your registry by clicking the links below.

Set up my Amazon Wedding Registry

Set up my Target Wedding Registry