Do we have too much on our registry?

wittykitty14

Hi everyone,

I'm pretty sure my MOH will be sending out invites for my shower within the next few weeks, and I wanted to make sure my registry was all set before she did that.

We registered only a BB&B.  In my circle, it's not uncommon to only register at one place, and that was great for us.  They had everything we needed and didn't feel the need to look elsewhere.  Plus, everyone has easy access to one.  FI and I did a really good job with our registry.  It is very well balanced, in terms of what we put on and covering the price points.  Our registry consultant actually told us she wished more couples had a registry as balanced as ours!

However, I'm worried we have too much stuff on there.  Here's the scoop: We're inviting 180 guests.  But if you group them by families, that gives us just under 100 parties.  Our registry says we have 251 items on there, but there are multiple quantities of some things.  We actually have 180 different items on the list, with multiples of some.  What do you think?  Too much?   Thanks for your input!

emeejeeayen

I always prefer more items on registires because I like to give physical gifts. As a guest, I would actually prefer you register at more places so I have some options. Personally, I'm just not a huge fan of shopping at BBB - can't say for sure why, just not my favorite. But no, i don't think you have too many gifts on your registry. Just because you register for a bunch of stuff doesn't mean, to me at least, that you actually expect to receive all of those things.

JoanE2012

I think it depends.  Do people normally bring gifts to the wedding?  If so, then it's probably fine.  If not, how many people are you inviting to the shower?  Around here, the registry is primarily used for the shower.  We invited 25 people to the shower.  250 items would look ridiculous.   The wedding most people give a monetary gift.

wittykitty14

I think the shower list is between 35-40 people.  But I'm not sure that that's necessarily relevant.  Shower guests know that they're not the only ones invited to the wedding.  Without knowing the size of my guest list, I don't think they'll think twice about how much is on the registry.  In my family, people tend to bring gifts to the wedding rather than have them mailed.  I'd rather err on the side of caution and have the registry a little larger versus not having enough items.  Having been a guest multiple times, I know how frustrating it is when there aren't many choices or there's nothing left in your price range.  I guess I just want to make sure that the number of my items falls within the "norm".  Sounds like I should be ok.  Thanks for the feedback!

gymbugmj2k

personally i like having more options. i hate seeing a tiny registry and thinking "if i buy this then nobody after me will have something to buy"... or worse, NOT seeing anything I want to give as a gift, and then having to be a cash-giver.

Don't forget - people may purchase off your registery for showers, birthdays, holidays, etc. as well.  My family actually asked us to keep our registry up for Christmas (we got married in August) so that they could continue to buy us things we needed. 


Put what you want on the registry.  don't worry about what people think - you'd never please everyone anyway!

wittykitty14

Thanks for the continued advice!

We've weeded through the registry a few times just to get it down to this number.  We took out anything that we didn't think was necessary.  We definetely want and would use everything on that list, with the exception of maybe 5 things that are wants.  My FI and I don't have much of anything, so we truly need everything.  I've never full been on my own before, and he and previous roommates have shared appliances and whatnot.  I don't have much to my name, and the only stuff he has needs some SERIOUS updating.  The bulk of our items definitely fit the "need" category

I'll probably look through it some more the next couple of weeks in case I see anything else that we could do away with.  But we should be ok.  Thanks so much!

french_mani

I would keep it on there at this point, because if you don't get it you can at least get a discount on it down the road at a registry completion event. 

sparkles776

I dont think it is too large of a registry at all. As a guest, I would rather have too much to choose from than not enough.

[Deleted User]

Don't worry about having too much. This gives people plenty of options to fit their bugets. As long as you don't excpet everything from your list, you're good. I would say in addition to registering for things that you need, that you have a few wants/dream items. You may be surprised at what you get. We got our needs stuff covered but also got a lot of our dream items too (wine fridge, soda maker, kitchen aid mixer, bocce ball set and a few other things that we loved but wouldn't treat ourselves too & our guests knew that too.

wittykitty14

Thank you very much!

xoEmilyRose

We're registered at 3 places and 45 people are attending my shower, and there's about 270ish invited to the wedding. So we registered double in gifts (I think I was told that before) just so everyone could have options. I'm not expecting to get a ton of gifts off the registry either, there are always some people who like to branch out and get a gift that the bride and groom didn't put on there. I think the more you registered for, the better it is for your guests to choose from.

RebekahSnyder

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_registering-gifts_do-we-have-too-much-on-our-registry?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:34Discussion:b64b2136-7a54-4e3f-9522-5a95987667bePost:2220336e-b203-4cee-81c8-004e65f07748">Do we have too much on our registry?</a>:
[QUOTE]Hi everyone, I'm pretty sure my MOH will be sending out invites for my shower within the next few weeks, and I wanted to make sure my registry was all set before she did that. We registered only a BB&B.  In my circle, it's not uncommon to only register at one place, and that was great for us.  They had everything we needed and didn't feel the need to look elsewhere.  Plus, everyone has easy access to one.  FI and I did a really good job with our registry.  It is very well balanced, in terms of what we put on and covering the price points.  Our registry consultant actually told us she wished more couples had a registry as balanced as ours! However, I'm worried we have too much stuff on there.  Here's the scoop: We're inviting 180 guests.  But if you group them by families, that gives us just under 100 parties.  Our registry says we have 251 items on there, but there are multiple quantities of some things.  We actually have 180 different items on the list, with multiples of some.  What do you think?  Too much?   Thanks for your input!
Posted by wittykitty14[/QUOTE]

Macy's Wedding Registry recommends you have 3X as many gifts on your registry as invited people. So 180 guests= 540 gifts. As a guest, I would think 540 gifts would be way too many, and the same as a bride, register what you feel comfortable with, and as long as you aren't registering for extreme things (Like a $2,000 plate or something), and you have a range of items in prices (under $50, Under $100, Under $200, $200+), you should be fine.

wittykitty14

That's pretty much what BBB told me.  They said 2-3 per guest invited.  In my mind though, I feel like we should be registering 2-3X the number of parties/families we've invited.  I went though the list again and probably got rid of 7 things.  I just wanted to make sure that everything on the list is something we REALLY need and/or want.  A couple things weren't too necessary, so my FI and I took them off.  I'll probably just leave it alone now.  All of our price points are still pretty good.  Thanks everyone!