Registering When You Already Have (almost) Everything
Getting back to blogging had been on my never ending ‘getting around to it’ list for a few years but as Blake and I got serious and I knew engagement, marriage, and married life were coming my way it seemed like the perfect time to get back to it. I consistently look for blogposts when I have questions that a simple google search can’t answer and one of those was what things should I register for if we already have/had two homes. It was hard to find anyone talking about this even in blog world so now that I’m in the thick of it I thought I’d be the one to share some thoughts.
First off, we need nothing. Before we met all we needed was love (pun intended) but now that we’ve found each other we truly need nothing. We have shelter, food, each other, and I’ll speak for myself (but I’m willing to bet Blake would agree): I have the most fun life of anyone I know. Truly the word need can just be removed from my vocabulary. Regardless, though, I was really touched by people requesting our registry list and wanting to know what we might want (or need). I love being part of other people’s big moments. Truly, I live for writing cards and buying gifts (my love language) for other people and I appreciated that there was anyone who would want to do that for us.
So, I ended up making our registry with Zola because it gave us the most options (unlimited). On their site you can pick a few things from amazon, target, west elm, etc. They even had yeti (our favorite brand as a couple). It was free, easy to use, and even gave us the option to have ‘group gifts’ people could contribute to so that no one had to spend a lot of money.
I tried to focus on 3 main things:
Kitchen upgrades - neither Blake nor I had ever ‘invested’ in nice dishes or silverware so this seemed like a good time to upgrade. I picked things that are simple, timeless, and primarily white that I knew we’d be able to use for many years to come. I was picturing not just our next few years of townhouse life but our forever (we hope) home on the water we’re saving for. Also, all of our things might actually match by the end of this.
Examples: Mercer dish set from West Elm, Bodum coffee grinder, a nice knife set
Travel - Blake and I love to travel together. This summer we had 3 trips in 4 weeks. And for our honeymoon we’re planning to do Paris and then Munich to see the Bucs play. So as I worked on a registry I decided to put things I knew we’d love to have and get a lot of use out of for our future travels. These are items I knew we’d want for many years to come but not things we’d buy ourselves all at once.
Examples: Roller suitcase for Blake (yeti), travel containers for toiletries, a makeup case for me, & even a tech organizer for our one million cords
Major Wishlist - Ok this is my favorite category. This is the things we’ve talked about buying and then talked ourselves out of buying a few times. But we really, really want them. At this point, I figured - why not? Blake’s only real addition to the registry was that he really wanted a hot dog roller for parties. We borrowed one last year for our football watch party and it was AMAZING. Since it’s really far outside of the need category we’ve never pulled the trigger on one of our own but when he asked if that would be registry worthy I said definitely. Also in this category has a pizza oven (for home and camping use) and some really nice chairs for camping, concerts, tailgates, etc.
We picked primarily practical items but honestly, I think it’s good to have some fun with it. Committing your life to someone is serious but engagement/wedding season should also be fun! So if you (or your spouse-to-be) has something they really want I vote add it. This is your time.
