As our wedding gets closer, more items are being purchased off of our registry. Don’t get me wrong- presents are great, but there are quite a few things where you can’t help but question, “do we really need this?” Mr. soon-to-be-Heather and I live in a fairly small  place with no storage, so we didn’t register for a lot of items. For example, I don’t have a use for fine china now and I certainly don’t have a place to put it, so it’s not on the list. What is on the list is a lot of “filler” items, to make a decent registry at a few stores, which are cool but not necessary.

That is why the Universal Registry concept is amazing! Through Amazon’s Universal Registry, you can now register for any item at any store. You don’t need to start a full registry at one store just to get a few items you like.  Happy Friday everyone!

I had thought asking for cash was bad etiquette, but here is an article explaining why it might not be.  I don’t think I will go as far as to set-up a cash registry, my hope is that if people want to give cash they will just put it in a card.  In any case, here are three cash registry options:

Deposit a Gift

GoGift

Our Wishing Well

Mr. soon-to-be-Heather and I are huge foodies.  I would love to register here, what a great idea!

A few days ago I wrote a blog post with wedding registry advice. My basic premise was “register at places where you can get cash back, this way you can actually buy things you need — like a house or a car — instead of things you don’t, like new towels to replace ones that are working just fine.” I still think that’s not bad wedding advice (and practical life advice), but I also recognize that this kind of wedding registry practice might be a bit, for lack of a better word, deceitful…

As it turns out, there’s another option that one of you fine readers told me about. She was nice enough to include that wedding registry option in a comment, but I wanted to highlight it on the homepage just so everyone could be sure to see it. Here’s what she wrote:

Jessie- Your article touches on something that I think a lot of engaged couples struggle with. And I think you’re right, that your friends and family would be happier knowing that they helped you buy the house of your dreams — it makes a lot of sense that a wedding gift should be an investment in your future. I guess the part I’m having a hard time with is the sneaky registry part. I know a lot of people do it (ie. register at BBB because they’re the only store that will hand you the cold, hard cash, no questions asked), BUT, if you do it that way, your guests never really get to know what they’ve helped you achieve, plus all the money they’ve spent on shipping has gone completely to waste, as does your time, going back and forth to the store.

Why not just register for the house of your dreams or to remodel your fixer-upper, or anything, for that matter, that would be more meaningful to you than a bunch of stuff? Our site, http://www.depositagift.com is a cash gift registry that’s perfect for this, plus we include a free wedding website, so everything’s in one place. It’s a classy way to ‘register’ for what you really want and avoid the hassle of returns and waste. Plus, our users find that their guests really enjoy being included in the process.

Cheers!

-Dana

Thanks for the wedding advice, Dana! Her note pretty much speaks for itself in terms of what’s probably a better way to register for those bigger gifts that you’d like help paying for, and I agree, it’s probably a more “kosher” wedding registry option. So there you have it… avoid the hassles (and hush-hush-ness) of returning gifts for cash, and register at depositagift.com!

Ooooh... the silver tones in that spatula handle really complemented her dress!

This weekend, I was helping one of my girlfriends with her wedding registry, and it got me thinking about… well… wedding registries. Go figure, huh? Anyway, her philosophy was basically this: “Screw practicality! I’m going to register for all sorts of things I probably wouldn’t buy myself.” Honestly, the “I wouldn’t buy it so someone else can” approach is fine, and it fits pretty well into the one-of-two standard wedding registry advice categories. The other standard piece of wedding registry advice is to register for things you need and only things you need.

As for how wedding registries actually work out, there’s generally a balance between the two ends of the registry advice spectrum. Instead of registering for only the practical necessities or only the “I’ve always wanted to have one of these in my kitchen” items, brides wind up with a nice blend pots and pans they’ll use every day, and Kitchen Aid Mixers that get turned on once every five years or so. It works for most brides, but here’s my little piece of wedding advice for the day. What if you could use your wedding registry to save money on your actual wedding?

The truth is, chances are good you’re not exactly “doing without” right now. Sure, your towels might be a little worn. Or maybe your pots aren’t the best for evenly cooking the perfect filet for your new hubby-to-be. But you’re probably not drying yourself with paper towels. And you’re probably still managing to eat dinner every night. So for all those brides who try to take the “I’m going to only register for practical necessities” approach, I think you’re kidding yourself. You’ve got all the “real” practical necessities because, well, you’re alive and reading this wedding blog right now, right? So what on your wedding list is an absolute need?

On the other side of the spectrum, if you’re registering for the stuf you’d never buy yourself, ask yourself honestly why you’re doing it. If you’re asking for things you’d never buy yourself, that’s a pretty good sign you can’t afford to buy those items for yourself (or, at the least, you’d prefer to spend that money in other ways). So why let someone else “waste” what could have been money for you buying something you wouldn’t spend money on in the first place?

When you actually think about wedding registries, they kind of don’t make a lot of sense, at least from a wedding savings perspective. But what if, instead of getting items you don’t really need or wouldn’t really want to buy, you could just get the cash and help pay for your wedding? I know, I know… you’re thinking, “but Jessie, I can’t just ask people for money… that’d be inappropriate.” And you’re right. It goes against most standard, American wedding traditions to ask for money. But did you know that in lots of places in Asia, couples actually make money on their weddings by taking cash gifts from guests? How awesome would that be? What if, instead of spending thousands of dollars on your wedding, you could actually make at least some of that money back?

Well, with a sneakily created registry, you can. Specifically, there are stores out there where you can return wedding gifts from your registry FOR CASH. That’s right… not just exchanges, and not just store credit. You can actually bring in that $200 mixer and walk out with a pile of cash-o-lah. So imagine you have a 200 person wedding, and you get about 100 returnable gifts averaging somewhere around $100.  Do a little quick math, and that’s $10,000 you can put in your piggy bank to immediately start your new life together. That’s $10,000 toward a new car, or $10,000 toward your down payment on the house you’ll raise your kids in. And while it might seem a little crass and uncouth to return gifts, in the long run, don’t you think your friends and family would be happier knowing they helped you buy the house of your dreams instead of the ice cream maker collecting dust in the cabinets?

Have you heard that Crate and Barrel has a wedding sweepstakes at the moment?  Click here to find more details about the $100,000 Ultimate Wedding Contest, or to waste an afternoon reading and voting for couples to win!