If You Don't Want A Traditional Wedding Registry

Continuing with Wednesday's Wedding Registry theme...
I did a lot of googling research for this part of my registry post and found so much good stuff that I had to break it off into its own post.  Also now I want to get remarried and do an "experiences" registry!

If You Don't Want A Registry:
As someone who held off on buying nice kitchen and household stuff and instead used thrift store finds & hand-me-downs from my mom all through college and for four years after, knowing that I'd put that stuff on my wedding registry one day, you have a problem that I don't understand, but I will try to help anyway.

People love you and want to give you presents when you get married.  Either give them a list of stuff you'd love to have, do a nontraditional registry, or get ready to get a bunch of random stuff and hope you like it or hope for gift receipts.

Nontraditional registry ideas:

1-3. Honeymoon- Use a site like buyourhoneymoon.com.  This is from their site: "Instead of bed sheets, have the first night of your stay in a luxury hotel; instead of a toaster, have breakfast watching the sun rise over the ocean."  Also Traveler's Joy is another honeymoon option that is free and so is Wanderable.  

It keeps things more personal so you feel like you're still buying someone a nice present and not just handing over cash.  Plus it makes the Thank Yous easier to write when you can specifically thank them for an experience on your honeymoon and tell them a little story about it.


4. Honeyfund Registry is along the same lines, but you can register for anything, not just a honeymoon.  Do you want a king sized bed or a real couch?  Do you want to save for a house instead?  What do you really want outside of the traditional housewares?

5. Hatch My House Registry- If you want to go the save for a down payment for a house route from above, this site is specifically meant for that.  You can also use it for renovations or big ticket house items.

6. REI Registry- If you're outdoorsy this could be the perfect registry for you!  Get all the gear for your next camping vacation as a married couple.

7. Etsy Wedding Registry- Maybe you don't want the traditional household stuff from Crate & Barrel and Target, but how about the more personal handmade things from Etsy?  You could pick out art for your home or handmade quilts, the options are endless with Etsy.

8. Green Bride Guide- This is a resource for all of your wedding planning and they do registries as well.  Similar to Etsy you can register for really special gifts, but all of these are "green" in one way or another.

9. Zola Registry- This site lets you do a lot of nontraditional registries all in one place, but the one that looks the best to me is the experiences one.  If you live in Chicago, LA, New York, or San Francisco you can get more local experiences.  But they have national ones too, like a meal delivery service, coffee subscription, cleaning service, cheese of the month club, custom art options, handyman services, and more!  You pick the experiences you want to have as a newly married couple and guests pick the ones they want to pay for you to do!  Pretty cool.

10. Newlywish- Like Zola this is a combo registry place: "Create a wedding registry filled with unique and stylish gifts from our 50+ boutiques of vibrant brands and artisans. Register for exciting experiences you can enjoy together, or add honeymoon and cash funds where guests can contribute to your future dreams"

11. Card Avenue-  This place lets you register for all sorts of gift cards!  Amazon, Home Depot, Target, even Visa gift cards.  So you can register for absolutely anything that you might need in the future!  This is so useful and spreads out the giving for a long time.  Anytime you think of something you need, go grab the gift card.

12. I Do Foundation- If you truly don't need or want anything, then use this opportunity to be generous!  Your family can give to your favorite charity in your name to celebrate your wedding.  They have a few different ways to set it up and you can read more on their website.  This way their wedding gift can be tax-deductible :)

Hopefully if you were very BUT I DON'T WANT A REGISTRY before you read this, you're changing your tune now!  Congratulations on your engagement and now please allow your loved ones to give you presents :)