While I’m sad that our big day is over and I’m no longer planning that special day, I’m so excited to be able to shop for dresses to wear to our friends’ weddings and shop for wedding gifts for them. I’m a firm believer in sticking to the registry. It always surprises me what people come up with when they get “creative” and go off-registry. We did, however, receive a wonderful gift at one of our showers that wasn’t on any of our registries. It happens to be one of my favorite new items in our house and I’m considering it as a gift for some of our newlywed friends. It was so much fun for me to put my new initial on the entry table!
letter stand from anthropologie
Do you stick to the registry when buying gifts for a wedding? If not, what do you typically give a bride and groom?
I ALWAYS stick to the registry unless I know for sure that they would love something else I found for them. Or maybe a less expensive registry item AND something unique. I buy off the registry because I know it’s something they want and will use, and I’m not wasting my money.
It is typically a case by case situation for me. For my best girlfriends, I’ll use the registry and then occasionally find things that are perfect for them that aren’t on it (monogrammed cocktail shaker for one of them).
Most of the weddings I’ve been to recently were fellow Air Force couples so we gave gift cards or money because they were moving practically the next day.
I hope people don’t worry about that with us because I really want some of the things on our registry and I know if people give us cash or gift cards we will use the cash for bills and the gift cards will sit around forever.
It seems we’re slowing leaving the era of our friends getting married, but in our hay day I tended to do something off the registry and then something symbolic/personal.
On a side note, thanks for keeping the blog. Shortly after y’all got back from the honeymoon I had a vivid dream where we caught up and then I extended my hand to Todd and said, “You must be Todd. Erin and I were in college together. We both like(d) Dave Matthews Band and I suspect that we shared a crush on one Kevin Merritt.” I admire your ability to keep up with all the details – it was neat to follow from the other side of the country.
I definitely stick to the registry, except in 1 instance. My brother Erik is in the Air Force, and when he and his wife got married, we bought them an airline ticket voucher. He was stationed across the country, but she was still in Indiana for school. They didn’t have a lot of money for tickets and thought they wouldn’t see each other for 16 weeks. With the ticket voucher, they were able to reunite 🙂 They REALLY appreciated it!
Now that I am creating my own registry, I will always stick to it. I might buy something inexpensive for my best friend and then get her something personal that isn’t on her registry however. I am realizing how much brides put into creating the registries and how bad you start to want the items you add to them.