Five Wedding Registry Alternatives and Ideas

It’s a new decade— time to scrap the idea that the biggest item on your wedding gift wish list is a blender or porcelain dining set. As millennials start settling down, wedding gift registries have become a lot more practical and enjoyable. Here are several wedding registry alternatives to explore.

Precious dessert plates and silver spoons? That’s so ‘80s (and not in a good way). These days, engaged couples are looking for things they’ll actually use, not items that they will look at once and then throw into a cupboard. Our generation wants to give and receive practical and enjoyable wedding gifts, and that’s something that everyone can get excited about.

So, how does a wedding registry work with today’s technology? That’s up to you and your partner, but you do have plenty of options. Today we’re shar­ing a few alter­na­tives to the tra­di­tion­al wedding gift reg­istry.

HONEYMOON HONEYPOT

Whether you’re dreaming of a backpacking trip across Southeast Asia, renting a picturesque cottage in the mountains of Vermont, or sipping cocktails on a Caribbean cruise, chances are, you’d like to take a honeymoon. This can be a great wedding gift registry idea — and it’s a dou­ble-wham­my — because honeymoon funds don’t only make for a great gift, they also lighten the load of planning your honeymoon budget.

Come on; what are you going to cher­ish more, a hon­ey­moon or an electric salt grinder?

Hot tip: there are a num­ber of hon­ey­moon fund sites out there, such as Hon­ey­fund, which makes it easy for guests to contribute money for a couple’s big post-wedding vacation.

CREATE A CHARITY GIFT REGISTRY

Can’t think of anything you need? Lots of couples feel this way and want to give back, and that’s why charity gift registries exist.

There are sev­er­al dif­fer­ent char­i­ta­ble reg­istries are out there, such as The Knot, which makes it easy for cou­ples to sim­ply add a char­i­ty to a tra­di­tion­al reg­istry page. Oth­er ways include the I Do Foun­da­tion, which allows cou­ples to cre­ate a char­i­ty fund by select­ing the organization(s) that guests can donate to.

NEW HOME CONTRIBUTION

This is a fantastic, practical wedding gift registry idea. If you and your partner want to own a home together, this is a great way to begin building that foundation. New home registries can help you accom­plish that goal, and they make home ownership slightly less stress­ful by hav­ing some financial help from the begin­ning.

New home sites include Hatch My House, which acts as a gift reg­istry to save for a down pay­ment or ren­o­va­tion of a house. You can also forgo the registry idea altogether and simply tell your guests that you’re going to be using your wedding gifts towards a down pay­ment for a house.

NON-TRADITIONAL WEDDING GIFT REGISTRY

You have no need for a new tablecloth, but you might want a GoPro for the many camping trips you enjoy together. You’ll never use a stainless-steel immersion blender, but you’d both definitely be thrilled to receive season tickets for your favorite football team. Think about hav­ing a reg­istry with items that you really want and will actu­al­ly use. Sev­er­al web­sites allow you to cre­ate a reg­istry for any­thing and every­thing, including Thank­ful, MyReg­istry and Sim­pleReg­istry, which makes it easy for a group of friends to go in togeth­er on big-item gifts.

GIFT CARD REGISTRY

Gift card reg­istries are easy for your guests and give you more free­dom in how and when you use your gifts. Gift card registries include everything from grocery store cards to hotels, travel sites, and everything in between. Most companies have an option to buy a gift card, so have a think about what you really want!

While you can orga­nize this inde­pen­dent­ly, Card Avenue is a web­site that allows you to cre­ate a reg­istry page with info, amounts and stores and allows guests to eas­i­ly send them to you.