registry

anne2530

how long before the wedding should you create your registry?

Brie2010

No more than six months.  We registered about nine months out and had several huge hassles with stuff being discontinued and having to re-register.

carrieoz_76

At least by the time invitations to a shower are sent out if there is one, or the wedding if there's no shower.  The downside to doing it too early is your patterns may be discontinued, but you can register for stuff that's not a pattern (i.e., not dishes, etc.).

squirrly

When your grandmother will not stop fussing at you about creating one every time she sees you.  I gave in just before Christmas, and our wedding was a month ago.

loop0406

A few weeks before your pre-wedding parties invites are sent out

ThePinkSuperhero

I think it's fine to do it as far out as you want.  If nobody's looking, it'll just sit there, but it's nice to have time to think about things you might like or need.  We created ours maybe a year before?

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

usually about a month or two before your shower, or 4-6 months before your wedding would be good.

tenofcups4me

The first time I got married, we registered about 11 months before the wedding. Engagement presents are the norm in my crowd (even though we didn't have a party) and everyone was anxious for us to register quickly so they could get us presents. Nothing was discontinued in the almost year that we had the registry. But we didn't register for anything seasonal or likely to change till just before my shower a couple of months before the wedding.

katiewhompus

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_registry-6?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:4004ec68-b0fd-46d7-850f-3e029c56a2a8Post:e040ac7d-fab7-420d-8bdf-be9e00a48de1">Re: registry</a>:
[QUOTE]<strong>When your grandmother will not stop fussing at you about creating one every time she sees you.</strong>  I gave in just before Christmas, and our wedding was a month ago.
Posted by squirrly[/QUOTE]

This except it was my mil. We made ours in November and were married in May. She also used it as our Christmas present list.

FutureMrsDudley55

We registered about 4 months out.

riverjib

I'll play devil's advocate here. We were engaged in September, but since we're both students, our engagement party was last week. Everyone was looking for a registry! I didn't expect engagement gifts, and I didn't start registering because I thought I'd look like a "gift grabber." We have a home, but we bought cheap stuff to get us by until we could register for our wedding. When our families told us to register, I spend about five minutes after graduation registering for the top three things we could think of: a vacuum, a food processor, and good knives. We didn't even tell anyone...it was four days before the party, so it just seemed rude to me. But we got two of the three items!

Guests seem to be happy to buy registry items...makes it much easier. When people asked what I wanted, I replied (in all seriousness) that their presence on a holiday weekend was more than we could have asked. I felt bad enough that our party was during Memorial Day, but I graduated and he started rotations literally four days later with no set schedule, so it was our only option. We told our families not to worry about gifts for the occasion, and that we were blown away that they were willing to come!

So we ended up with cash/checks. As grateful as we were, we wished we had registered so that everyone could have bought cheap gifts rather than worrying about the dollar amount they gave us. We're not getting married until next year, and I don't want everyone feeling obligated to give generous gifts for the engagement, bridal shower, and wedding!!! So my advice is to register before whatever you anticipate will be the first gift-giving event. I would have done so if I had any idea that an engagement party called for "real" gifts...I thought it was just a small party designed to introduce the in-laws.

***Quick edit: I'm not planning to add to my registry until the bridal shower invites go out.***