How to Set Up a Wedding Registry (The Complete Guide)
Setting up a wedding registry sounds straightforward — until you realise you have no idea how many gifts to add, which stores to use, or how to tell your guests about it without seeming grabby. This guide covers everything: when to start, what to include, how to share it without awkwardness, and how to make sure every gift is still a surprise on the day.
In this guide
1. When to set up your registry
The sweet spot is 6 to 12 months before your wedding date. Early enough that guests have plenty of time to shop; late enough that you actually know what you need.
If you're having an engagement party, your registry should be live by then — it's common for guests to bring gifts, and they'll want something to go off. For the wedding itself, most couples include the registry link on their wedding website, which typically goes live 6 to 12 months out.
⏰ Don't leave it too late. Setting up a registry a few weeks before the wedding means guests who want to ship directly to your home don't have enough lead time. Some popular items also sell out — a few months' runway helps.
2. How many gifts to include
A common rule of thumb: aim for 1.5 to 2 gifts per guest. For a wedding of 80 people, that's 120 to 160 items on your list. This sounds like a lot, but it ensures guests can find something available at any budget, and that higher-priced items don't get left over.
Start with more gifts than you think you need. You can always remove items that feel wrong, and having extras means guests who shop late still have plenty to choose from.
3. What to put on your registry
The most useful registries think about real life after the wedding, not just the house you have now. Common categories:
- Kitchen — cookware, knives, a good cutting board, mixing bowls, a stand mixer, coffee or espresso equipment
- Bedroom & bathroom — quality sheet sets, towels, a duvet, pillows
- Entertaining — serving platters, a cheese board, wine glasses, a good set of everyday plates
- Home — artwork, candles, a nice vase, throws for the couch
- Experiences — a restaurant voucher, a cooking class, a weekend away, concert tickets
- Tech — a smart speaker, a robot vacuum, a good blender
Don't limit yourself to a single department store's stock. A universal wedding registry lets you add gifts from any store — so if the perfect set of linen sheets is from one place and the ideal Dutch oven is from another, they can both live on the same list.
💡 Include a honeymoon fund. Many couples add a "honeymoon fund" as a gift — a lump sum contribution toward flights, accommodation, or experiences. It's one of the most popular registry items and something no store can provide.
4. Balancing price ranges
A good registry has something for everyone. A rough split that works well:
| Price range | Proportion | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Under $50 | ~35% | Tea towels, candles, a nice wine glass set, small plants |
| $50 – $150 | ~40% | Sheet sets, serving bowls, a cast iron pan, a good knife |
| $150 – $300 | ~15% | A stand mixer attachment, a quality blender, artwork |
| Over $300 | ~10% | A KitchenAid, a robot vacuum, a honeymoon fund contribution |
The under-$50 tier matters more than people think. Work colleagues, distant relatives, and last-minute shoppers all gravitate toward accessible price points — having plenty of options there means nobody feels stuck.
5. Which stores to register at
Traditionally, couples registered at one or two department stores and were limited to whatever those stores sold. The modern approach is a universal registry — one list that pulls in gifts from anywhere on the web.
With a universal registry like Gift Registry, you paste a product URL from any store and the gift details (name, price, image) fill in automatically. Your guests see one clean list regardless of which shop each gift comes from — they don't have to hunt across multiple registries.
If you do want to register at a physical store (some guests prefer to shop in person), you can still do that alongside your universal registry. Many couples maintain a physical store registry for in-person shoppers and a universal registry for everything else.
6. How to share your registry with guests
There's an etiquette question here that trips up a lot of couples: don't put the registry link on the wedding invitation itself. It's considered presumptuous. Instead, include it:
- On your wedding website — the standard place; guests expect to find it there
- On a separate enclosure card inside the invitation envelope — acceptable, especially for destination weddings where guests need extra planning time
- Via word of mouth — parents and members of the wedding party can spread the word naturally
- In a group chat — for close friends and family who ask, just send the link directly
For guests who aren't online, a printed QR code on an enclosure card works well — they can scan it on their phone or hand it to a family member who can shop for them.
7. Keeping every gift a surprise
The traditional problem with registries: the couple can see exactly who bought what. By the time the wedding day arrives, there are no surprises left to unwrap.
Gift Registry is built around anonymous claiming. When a guest claims a gift, it's marked as taken so nobody doubles up — but the couple never sees who claimed what. You just see your list with some items marked as claimed. Who bought the stand mixer? You'll find out at the reception.
This also removes any awkwardness around thank-you note writing. Since you don't know who gave you what until the day, there's no chance of accidentally thanking the wrong person for the wrong gift.
8. After the wedding: marking received and thank-you notes
Once the gifts start arriving, use the post-event view to mark each one as received and send thank-you notes directly from the registry. This keeps everything in one place — you're not managing a separate spreadsheet alongside your registry.
The convention for thank-you notes is to send them within three months of the wedding. For gifts received before the wedding, try to send the note within two weeks of receiving the gift.
📝 Pro tip: Write thank-you notes as gifts arrive rather than leaving them all until after the honeymoon. A stack of 80 notes written in one sitting is a miserable afternoon. Twenty notes a week over a month is fine.
Ready to set up your registry?
Free, works with any store, and guests claim gifts anonymously — so every gift is still a surprise on the day.
Create your free registry 🎁