The Ultimate Wedding Registry Checklist

When To Create Your Registry

The best time to create your registry is when you create your wedding website. When your wedding website is complete, you’ll be eager to share with your friends and family. By including your registry on your website at this time, guests can see all the important details right away – when the wedding is, where the wedding is, and what to give. 

As a general rule, aim to have your registry and wedding website set up by the time you send your save-the-dates, approximately five to nine months before your wedding date. This gives guests plenty of time to browse your registry and choose the perfect gift for each of your wedding celebrations. 

As a reminder, you can (and should) continue adding to your registry until your wedding date. As you progress through wedding planning, it’s normal to think of more ideas. Similarly, as gifts are purchased, you’ll want to add things to ensure there are gift options available for all budgets.

Choosing Your Registry

First things first, make sure you’ve filled out our 1-Page Wedding Plan to figure out what your true budget is for your wedding and honeymoon, and to establish your next big goal as a couple. Once you’ve set your goals, what you want to register for will likely become clear. Want the honeymoon of your dreams? Focus most of your registry on your Honeyfund honeymoon registry. Want to focus on outfitting your newlywed home? Register for housewares from home retailers, a cash fund from Honeyfund to help pay for furniture, and consider Home Depot or Amazon gift cards from the Honeyfund gift card registry.  

Once you’ve narrowed down your goals as a couple, we recommend prioritizing them from most important to least important. This will be the order of your registry page. For example, if you’d like to be gifted honeymoon funds before household items, you’ll want to make your honeymoon fund your main registry or put your honeymoon funds at the top of your registry.  

With Honeyfund, you can fund all of your wedding, honeymoon, and couple goals all in one place. Your guests will see what they are contributing to with your registry items and you’ll receive their gifts in the form of cash or gift cards to use as you’d like. 

Additionally, you can link to your retail store registries from your Honeyfund page. This simplifies the gifting process for your guests, as they will see all your registry items as well as easy online cash gifting  in one convenient location. 

Here are some of our favorite traditional registries we recommend using for housewares and other physical items:

Deciding What To Put On A Wedding Registry

The important thing to remember is registries are not a one-size-fits-all. Every couple has unique needs, wants, and goals. That’s why we created our Ultimate Registry Checklist to act as inspiration to fill your registry. We recommend first using the checklist as a way to cross off what you don’t need to register for  by taking inventory of what you and your partner already have. This will help you think about what’s missing and what could use an upgrade. 

Now, comes the fun part! Once you’ve chosen the registries that you’ll be using, what you’ll be using it for, and what you don’t need, start adding all the registry items that you do want! We recommend having gift contributions that range from $50-200 and allow for group gifting of any high price point items. This allows your guests to find something that’s within their budget and gives you a greater chance of receiving all of the gifts you’ve registered for.

Remember: Make sure your registry items tie back to what your goals are and what you’re hoping to achieve with your registry.

How to Share Your Registry With Your Guests

 Once your registry is all set up, here are the best ways to share your registry with your guests.

1 — Speak To Your Guests

Speaking to your guests is the most successful way to share your registry. We recommend chatting about how excited you are for what your Honeyfund is set up for. When they see your passion and confidence in your choice, they’ll be more likely to use your registry. If there are other points of contact people involved (like your parents or bridal party), make sure to communicate to them about your registry in case anyone asks them what they should get you for a gift.

2 — Add Your Honeyfund URL to Your Invites and Wedding Website

Adding your registry link to your invitations and wedding website (even easier if you create your wedding website using Honeyfund!) can spread the word quickly to all of your guests. Instead of just including the link, try adding a short message explaining what your registry is for. If you don’t have the space on your actual printed invitation, try registry cards.

Suggested Wording:

• “Your presence at our wedding is the greatest gift of all. However, if you wish to honor us with a gift, we have registered with Honeyfund for *what your registry is for*: [insert link]”
• “Your love, laughter and company on our wedding day is the greatest gift of all. However, should you wish to help us celebrate with a gift, we have registered with Honeyfund for *what your registry is for*: [insert link]”
• “Should you wish to honor us with a gift, we hope that our registry with Honeyfund for *what your registry is for* will make it more convenient for you to select something that you know we will love. The list can be viewed here: [insert link]”

3 — Display Your Unique Honeyfund QR Code At The Wedding

It’s no secret that there have been an unfortunate number of card and gift box thefts at weddings. Cash and checks are not easily replaceable and can be awkward for both you and your guests. Instead of a card box, display your QR code on a sign on your gift table with a message that explains you prefer giving towards your Honeyfund instead of leaving cash. (This also is a great reminder for those last-minute gifters who may not have brought a gift to the wedding!) Other ways to share your Honeyfund are via email, text, and social media. We recommend adding context to your message with the link to your Honeyfund if you use these channels.