Wedding Wednesday: Our Wedding Registry

I'm excited to finally share our wedding registry items with you today! This was one part of wedding planning that I didn't want to write any blog posts about last year before the wedding. I wanted to give a good bit of time after getting married to get the chance to use most of our registry items and be able to share what I thought of them once we'd actually used them. (Spoiler alert: all but one registry item have been great! We only had to make one return.) Let's dive into what stores we registered at, and what items we registered for!

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Similarly to my thoughts on wedding dress shopping, I was initially a bit overwhelmed at the thought of making our wedding registry. I think a big part of that is that we were still living in an apartment (and at that time had no immediate plans to buy a house). Because our living space was temporary, I didn't want to register for any larger items like furniture, or even certain splurge-worthy kitchen things! It didn't seem worth it to me to pick any larger (in physical size or monetary value) items that might not work in our future home. I do envy brides-to-be who are already in an owned home at the time that you're making a registry! I probably would've had an easier time starting if that was the case. But once Ryan and I got in a groove with picking things, it got much easier!

Speaking of Ryan, I must confess that I probably did pick 90% of our registry items myself. 😅 But I did very much want Ryan's input, and he did pick out a few registry items that he really liked! I'll share his picks further down in this post.

When I was first brainstorming registry ideas, I did get a lot of inspiration from posts from a few of my favorite bloggers! I enjoyed wedding registry idea posts from Kate of Lonestar Southern, Dorothy from Prep in Her Step and Amy from Amy Littleson. My hope is that this blog post might also be useful to brides-to-be like these other posts were helpful to me. 😊

I ended up deciding to register at three different stores. We linked all three of those registries on our wedding website through The Knot, and I also added a couple other niche items from random retailers to that master registry, as well as a few gift cards as well (the airline gift cards were a hit with our guests!). Here are the three main retailers we registered at:

Amazon - Kind of goes without saying, but Amazon is pretty much top-tier for any sort of registry these days! They have a ginormous selection of household goods, and you cannot beat the free shipping and easy returns. I would recommend every bride do at least one of their registries on Amazon!

My favorite items from our Amazon registry:

Our Wedding China from Lenox! (This pattern is available directly through Lenox and at multiple other retailers, but linking it on Amazon was so convenient for our guests.) I feel like registering for formal wedding china is sadly becoming outdated, but it was a no-brainer for me to pick a china pattern and start collecting! I never used our wedding china in our apartment, but I'm so excited to begin using it for holidays and formal hosting opportunities at our house.
Amazon sells MacKenzie-Childs, and I loved beginning my MC collection with pieces like this paper towel holder and this spoon rest!
We upgraded some of our wine accessories on our wedding registry, which was much overdue. I love using this set of classic red and white wine glasses, and this white marble wine bottle chiller!

Pottery Barn - I found a couple items here early on into registry research that I really liked, so I made a second smaller registry at Pottery Barn. I wouldn't have wanted to register for everything here because they are expensive, but I do really love the pieces we got from here.

My favorite items from our Pottery Barn registry:

(Sadly these have since been discontinued, but I'll still link them for if they ever come back in stock.) I am obsessed with these glass slab coasters. We used to have really ugly wood coasters in our apartment, and I think these are just so chic and such an upgrade. They also match just about any home decor! While the ones we got from Pottery Barn are now discontinued, this style of coaster is similar.
The most darling blue polka dot champagne flutes that perfectly matched our blue and white wedding cake.
This fun golf themed charcuterie board! I used it for the first time at my Masters viewing party last spring, and I can't wait to enjoy it when hosting for years to come.

The Globe - I also wanted a local option for a wedding registry, and I was delighted to have our third registry be at local Virginia Beach fine home goods store The Globe! Locally owned fine home goods stores can be a resource for such unique and high-quality wedding gifts, and I just loved the idea of supporting a local business in my community instead of just national retailers. While local guests could shop our The Globe registry in-store, they also offered online shopping on their website for our out-of-town guests as well.

My favorite items from our Globe registry:

I was introduced at The Globe to a new and unique brand of glass serveware called Annieglass. I loved registering for this gold rimmed glass serving bowl!
Most of the picture frames that I own are from discount brands, but it was fun to register for this high-quality enameled frame for one of our wedding photos.
I was excited about this colorful margarita glass set! Margarita glasses are a barware staple that I didn't previously own.

My first visit to The Globe in Virginia Beach!

As I mentioned above, I did pick out the majority of our wedding registry gifts. But Ryan did pick out a few that he was excited about! Here are his wedding registry picks:

We didn't previously own a drill, and I knew that would come in very handy whenever we bought our first home. Spoiler alert: it's been extremely handy! Ryan picked out this drill set and we've been very happy with it.
Ryan would sometimes have to borrow my girly aprons when helping to cook dinner, so he picked out a simple guy's cooking apron (but really this could be a unisex apron!).
Since we both enjoy golf, he thought of the idea to add a golf range finder to our registry! He's really enjoyed using it the past year.
Thinking ahead to owning a home, Ryan knew he'd want a grill once we had a house. He picked out this grilling accessories kit, and we are excited to finally use it next year in our first home.
Ryan isn't crazy about the old plastic cutting boards I use when I cook, and he wanted us to finally have a nicer wooden cutting board.

I honestly don't have many wedding registry regrets. I would've added a lot more specific items to the registry if we had already had our house at the time that we were engaged, but I think I did the best I could for not knowing what our future house would be. 99% of our wedding registry items ended up being wonderful! But we did have one flop. I had registered for this bedding for our master bedroom... and the quality was horrible! It didn't look much like the pictures online, and it was thin and made of scratchy fabric. Fortunately Amazon is so easy with returns.

We did also get a bedskirt and curtains from this same retailer, and I love both of those! I just wouldn't recommend the full bedding set. We ended up using the credit from returning the bedding to go towards our bar cabinet!

Sharing a few more highlighted registry items below, and then our complete gift registry in a clickable format below that!