Welcome back to another installment of #MannersMonday! Special thanks once again to Kailyn Clay for doing the extra research to provide some useful information regarding your Big Day registry! Do you have a burning wedding etiquette question? Let us know over on Facebook!
#MannersMonday: Sharing Where You’re Registered | by guest blogger: Kailyn Clay
As you walk out of the Weddings-R-Us super store, you breathe a sigh of relief. You’ve finally completed the massive undertaking of compiling a wedding registry. You and your fiancé
have come to a compromise on the china pattern; you’re confident the color you chose for the KitchenAid mixer will coordinate with your other appliances (should you have gone for the silver one instead?); and you found that happy medium between overpriced bed sheets and the thread count that makes you feel like you’re sleeping between layers of clouds.
It is done.
Now your wedding guests will know exactly what to purchase for you and your fiancé. Your home together will be comfortable and properly stocked with the latest kitchen gadgets (I mean, who doesn’t need a pair of onion goggles?). You make a mental note to add a line to your wedding invitation about “where the couple is registered.”
Actually, just because the friendly folks who helped you build the registry hand you that shiny stack of “The Couple Is Registered at Weddings-R-Us” cards to conveniently slip into your invitations doesn’t mean you should use them. In fact, this sly tactic of giving you little cards that so conveniently slip into your invitations is just a form of free advertising for them, when in fact, the small action of mailing those with your invitation could send your eighty-year-old Aunt Thelma into cardiac arrest.
Did you know it’s a wedding faux pas to include registry information with your formal wedding invitation? Here’s why.
- It alters the purpose of the invitation. Your invitations serve as a formal offer to join in a celebration, not a formal offer to spend money on gifts. The wedding invitation’s focus should be on the guests, not the gifts.
- It makes assumptions about your guests. Though it’s common knowledge that guests should bring wedding gifts, the gift itself is a sign of guests’ love and affection for the couple. It is in good form for a guest to bring one, but it should not be taken for granted.
- There are more appropriate places to share information about your wedding registry. Typically, this is done by word of mouth. Tell your mom, aunts, grandma, cousins, and anyone else who may ask where you’re registered. If you have a wedding website, it’s also appropriate to list the information there and direct guest to it via the invitation.
So while you pat yourself on the back for a job well done at the Wedding Emporium, start your mental list of the family and friends who should know where you’re registered. This is a time when you can be grateful for your girlfriends’ gift of gab.
The importance of invitation etiquette cannot be understated. Feeling anxious about it? Let Jamie of Jamie Lynne Creative take care of the details as she designs your one-of-a-kind wedding invitations.
