What to Add to Your Wedding Registry When You Have Everything
Nothing to add to your wedding registry? Think again! I’ll share a few ideas for items you might want to consider adding to your wedding registry when you think you have everything.
Wedding Registry Building 101
My fiancé and I recently completed our wedding registry. It was STRESSFUL! We knew having a large wedding, we’d need to create a drawn out list of items for our guests to gift us. Really, we just wanted cash. We have a quaint house with limited space for “stuff”. BUT, my future mother-in-law (god love her!) is perhaps a little more traditional and thought asking for cash only is tacky, calling it a “cash grab”. So, I figured what better time to write a post about what to add to your wedding registry when you have everything. Or so you think…
As I learned from my own experience, there’s a number of different items you can add to your registry even when you think you have everything already.
And to be honest, I was surprised at just how much stuff we ended up adding to our registry once we got to thinking about it. I’ll share some of those with you today to help you get the ideas flowing.
What to Add to Wedding Registry When You Already Have Everything
1. Cash Funds
OK, so I know I said I would give you ideas for things to add to your wedding registry besides just cash (and I will!), but that doesn’t mean you have to go without a cash fund. Many wedding websites, including The Knot, Minted, or Zola allow you to add a cash fund directly to your registry through their platform. Although, they may take a small fee for doing so, it’s totally worth it to emphasize to your guests that you do, in fact, want cash.
Trust me – you’ll have guests that are happy to give cash! It saves them the time and hassle for shopping for a gift, and potentially paying more than they had hoped.
For example, I recently was invited to a friend’s bridal shower and wanted to give a gift of $100. I found a sheet set off the registry for $100, but when I went to checkout, the price was actually closer to $115 with tax and shipping charges. Had I chosen to give cash instead, I could’ve given $100 exactly.
Why I recommend adding it to your wedding registry:
- Wide variety of uses…cash is king, after all!
- Makes it easy for guests to give
- Perfect if you live in a small space and don’t have room for lots of physical objects
2. Donations to Your Favorite Charities
If you have a large heart, consider adding your favorite charity to your registry and ask guests to make a donation in your honor.
This is a great way to give back to your community and expound upon your impact of what you could give alone! Plus, what better way to start your marriage than with that feel-good warm and fuzzies that come from doing good upon others?
I will make note that as a CPA, I do instead recommend you ask guests to give the money to you and for you to give the funds to the charity instead of having your guests give it directly. Any money you give, you can claim as a tax deduction if you choose to itemize. You’re welcome! 😉
Side note: if you’re looking for worthy causes check out my favorite charity, Cure SMA.
Why I recommend adding it to your wedding registry:
- Pay it forward
- Showing kindness towards others is a great way to start off your marriage
- Possible tax benefit
3. Things Needed for Your Wedding Day
One of my favorite items my fiancé and I added to our registry was a cake cutting set, with a cake knife and two forks that say Mr. and Mrs. and our wedding date.
Similarly, you could also think about purchasing customized champagne glasses to toast to your new marriage on your special day!
Other items that we added to our wedding registry for our wedding day included a steamer. After my initial dress fitting, my seamstress recommended using a steamer to get any wrinkles out of my wedding gown, since it’ll be sitting in a garment bag until the big day. And as I know from my experience as a bridesmaid, a steamer is helpful for getting wrinkles out of the bridesmaid dresses as well. This is especially true if you have bridesmaids who are traveling. News flash: shoving a wrinkle-free bridesmaid dress in a suitcase does not mean it will emerge wrinkle-free.
It’s important to be mindful that you can’t add everything you need for your wedding day to your registry. For example, avoid adding a guest book and other personal items. Also realize that if you don’t get these gifts ahead of the wedding (say the bridal shower), you may need to purchase these items yourself and remove them from the registry.
Why I recommend adding it to your wedding registry:
- Perfect for the bridal shower to get you excited about your upcoming nuptials
- Things that could improve your wedding, but may not be necessities you want to spend your own money on
- Potentially obscure items you don’t already own
4. Upgrades!
Another category of items to consider adding to your wedding registry when you think you have everything are upgrades, especially when it comes to sets.
Do you have old, beaten-up, mismatched sets? We certainly do! That’s why we decided to ask for a new set of pots and pans as well as a new set of towels. Again, this is something that does not feel wholly necessary, but something that will be nice to have as we start our new life together.
Plus, a lot of these items are stupidly expensive. Who wants to spend $100 on a towel? Well, it may be easier to justify asking for it as a gift when you’re looking for things to add to your wedding registry versus buying it yourself later on.
Other upgrades you may consider asking for include bedspread and sheet sets, glass wear, formal china, and furniture sets.
Why I recommend adding it to your wedding registry:
- Great for adding gifts in bulk
- Provides great group gifting options for guests
- Upgrades provide enhanced comfort, but may not be necessities you want to spend your own money on
5. Customized Paraphernalia
My last suggestion for items to add to your wedding registry when you think you have everything is customized paraphernalia.
For example, how about a wedding keepsake box with your names engraved on the cover? Or, a wall clock with your names or photos? I guarantee you’ll find endless ideas just by scrolling through Etsy.
Anything customized is sure to feel super special! And what better time for something special than when you’re entering a new phase of life with your partner? Trust me! Customized paraphernalia is the way to go!
Why I recommend adding it to your wedding registry:
- Gift are personal and meaningful
- Easy way to decorate your space
- Unique pieces
Wedding Registry FAQ
Hopefully my idea above gave you some inspiration for items to add to your wedding gift registry! Here are a few other questions you may be asking, as you’re building out your registry.
Where to Set Up A Wedding Registry?
There are numerous sites out there that allow you to create a wedding gift registry. After some trial and error, I can’t recommend Zola enough!! It’s interface is easy to use and you can link to all the big name sites, like Amazon, Crate & Barrel, and Etsy, along with any other site for random one-off products you come across.
Message for Wedding Gift Registry?
Many wedding registry sites ask for a message. As silly as it sounds, you may sit here for half an hour trying to think of something that fits the bill. My advice here is to keep it short and sweet! No need to reinvent the wheel.
The message we used for our gift registry read, “We can’t wait to celebrate with you at our wedding!”.
This gets guests excited about our wedding day, while avoiding the awkwardness that can come with asking for gifts.
Are Wedding Gifts Taxed?
Generally, no! Any one person can give another individual up to $18,000 in 2024 as part of the gift tax exclusion. If a gift exceeds the $18,000 (or $36,000 between the couple) annual exclusion, it may count towards an individuals’ $13.61 million lifetime gift limit.
*Note the information above is based on the U.S. Tax Code. If you live in another jurisdiction, please do your own research to determine any potential tax liability.
Other Wedding Inspiration
Hopefully this article gave you some tangible tips on creating your wedding gfit registry!
If you’re getting married soon or know someone getting married soon, check out my other wedding-related content, including my cash wedding gift calculator, wedding flower calculator, and how to save for a wedding in a year.
Also, sign up for my newsletter below to gain access to TCC Club Exclusive Content, including my wedding budget spreadsheet detailing how much you can expect to spend on a wedding and how you might choose to allocate your costs. Plus, stay connected with me and get notified of the latest TCC content.
Thanks for reading! Until next time, friends.
Mikaela
Hi! I'm Mikaela, a blogger, CPA, soon-to-be bride, dog-mom, and self-proclaimed finance enthusiast. Join me on my journey to uncover some of the best financial practices and investment opportunities.
