Should You Register for Wedding Gifts?

With just a couple of weeks until my and Ben’s first wedding ceremony, everything is kicking into high gear. Recently, the question “where are you registered?” has come up a lot.

For Ben and me, the answer is nowhere!

We didn’t want people to feel like they needed to get us something since we are having such a small ceremony and many are traveling far distances. In addition, it’s been such a low priority for us that we didn’t take the time to really discuss it or go to the places where we would have registered for more investigation.

In the end, though, I think we ended up frustrating some of our guests because we haven’t registered.

I know registering is a common thing at weddings. In our recent discussions of whether we did or even should, we’ve gotten split responses from some of our friends.

One friend argued that couples who have been together a while don’t need to register because they don’t really need anything and people getting them gifts already have a sense of what the couple wants. Another friend argued that people are likely going to get you something anyway, so why not have them give you something you can actual use and want.

The personal finance robot in me says we were stupid not to register. Who doesn’t like free stuff? On the other hand, if nothing else, our recent move has shown us that we already have too much stuff.

I really don’t know the answer to the question, so I got some advice from the Internet.

Most sites I found definitely suggested registering and even presumed you were. They also suggested starting early, some four to six months before the wedding.

Other sites suggested doing a honeymoon or cash registry (for a down payment on a house, for example), if you really don’t want to register for stuff.

Either way, it seems like we missed the boat on this one, which I’m sure will end up just fine for us.

What do you think? Any readers out there in the non-register camp?