Happy Wedding Wednesday! If y’all checked out our wedding registry etiquette post for the bride and groom last week, you know how exciting, yet overwhelming registering for your own wedding can be!

But what about for the guest?! Buying the perfect gift and navigating the registry can be just as tricky! There are so many unwritten rules, so we are here to help break down some of those concerns. We are answering some of your biggest questions to help with the gift giving process for all your upcoming weddings. Enjoy!

How do I find their registry?

A link to the wedding registry should be included on the wedding website or their save-the-dates. Still can’t find it? Try Googling the full names of the couple and if they used a larger company for their site, it should pop up. Still can’t find it? Ask their parents or a close friend of theirs!

Should we send the gift in advance or bring it to the wedding?

Send the gift in advance. At the end of the wedding, the couple is usually whisked off and vendors are moving a million miles a second. To save any confusion or hassle moving gifts, just send your gift in the mail either before or after the wedding.

How much should I spend?

The traditional rule is to spend as much as the per-plate cost is. Nowadays, with wedding costs rising, this could be up to $300 a person, which is not always reasonable for every guest. Think about how good of friends you are with the couple. If you’re a distant friend or colleague, consider starting at about $50-$75 a person. If you’re family or really close, usually about $150 a person is nice.

Do we have to stick to the registry?

Yes, please do! The bride and groom put an unbelievable amount of time into crafting the perfect registry with what they would like included in their future home and life together. I know as a guest, it may not feel as personal buying off the registry, but I promise they will appreciate it.

If you’re really close to the bride and groom and know there is something they would absolutely love but didn’t include it in their registry, that’s fine. My best friend actually gave me the most incredible monogrammed napkins I have ever seen – not on our registry – but she knows me well and had them designed to match our china, so needless to say, I was obsessed. But don’t go off the registry simply for the sake of being more creative.

I was invited to a shower and the wedding. Do I bring two gifts?

Yes. It is still appreciated when the guests bring a gift to the shower and also send a wedding gift. The shower gift is usually a bit smaller than the wedding gift though!

 Shop some of our favorite registry items!

Creating your wedding registry can be one of the highlights of the wedding planning process. Especially for the groom, who often times has a little more of an opinion on this process than the rest of the planning!

I mean, what’s more fun than picking out all of the beautiful new things with your fiancé that your loved ones will gift you to start your new home and life together as a married couple? So dreamy and exciting to think about! But, in this day and age, with all of the different products and types of registries, the process can be a little overwhelming. And if not done correctly, you might find yourself after your wedding wondering why you once wanted that salad spinner or why you didn’t register for the Vitamix. The last thing you want to deal with after the honeymoon is figuring out how to exchange gifts or return them for what you really want. So, do your homework with your fiancé on the front end and make sure you really think through all those fun items that for which you are registering.

So where do we begin?! There are so many different types of registries: the big box stores, the unique china store in your home town, the universal registry, the online-only registries…the options seem endless. There is no one-size-fits-all, but there are definitely better options than others, so for this Wedding Wednesday, we are answering all your wedding registry questions!

Enjoy and happy shopping (and scanning)!

When should we set up our registry?

Set up your registry as soon as you can after you get engaged. If you’re having an engagement party or showers, definitely make sure your registry is set up in advance of the parties so your guests know where to buy your gifts.

How many registries should we have?

I would recommend having a maximum of three. Much more than three can start to look a little tacky (sorry, guys). If you use an online universal registry like Zola, you really only need one!  However, if you want your guests to be able to have the option of picking your gift out in stores, consider adding just one traditional retail registry with your Zola registry like a Williams-Sonoma or a Pottery Barn.

What’s your favorite registry you used?

Throughout the wedding planning adventure, we tried tons of different registries. We started with three basic ones (or so we thought): Amazon, Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn. We thought between those three we could register for pretty much anything that we wanted. False – after a lot of broken china and crystal from Amazon, we removed this registry and added Neimans. We found the online portal and buying system tricky, so we removed this one and tried Bed Bath and Beyond. Still not totally satisfied, we finally tried Zola which I had heard a ton about but was not sure how I felt about the universal registry concept. GAME CHANGER. This was by far my favorite registry we used! We ended up removing all of our registries except for Zola and Williams-Sonoma (just so our guests had a box store option in case they wanted to see the product and buy in person).