Leah will be marrying Zak in a Jewish wedding on 1st June 2018 at Masia Notari in Spain. Click here to read all Leah’s planning posts to date.
THREE FACTS: (1) Leah knew she wanted to convert to Judaism long before she met Zak. She feels that having a Jewish wedding is another milestone in her Jewish identity and is an opportunity for some of her family to experience new traditions. (2) Leah & Zak met on JDate (3) Leah and Zak are planning a beautiful black tie destination wedding in Barcelona, Spain
What do you register for when you’ve lived together before the wedding? We found ourselves asking this very question as we faced the prospect of a registry. To make matters harder, I love home goods (and HomeGoods!) and already have many of the items most people typically add to their list. With more and more couples getting married at an older age, many of us are more likely to have the standard blender or crockpot that end up on a typical registry.
Here’s how we attacked the odd concept of picking items we wanted other people to buy us.
Image: The Wedding Shop
Make a list, check it twice
As we walked through a sea of seemingly useless kitchen utensils, we oohed and aahed at gadgets that solved very basic issues that we didn’t know we “needed” (a strawberry huller? Can’t I just use a straw?).
To keep us focused, I went through the checklist they gave us at Williams Sonoma and crossed out items we already had and didn’t need. Since we merged households, we have two blenders, three crockpots, and seven (yes, seven!) corkscrews. We also have a lot of nicer or higher end items already since I tend to upgrade items when I find a great sale. Looking back, I wish I had came to the store with this list already prepared, as I found myself trying to remember if we actually had some items or if we had just never returned the one we borrowed from Zak’s mom! We decided that we would just add the item and update our registry online once we returned home.
Think about the future
Zak and I love to entertain. We had nine guests over for Rosh Hashanah last year and 15 for Thanksgiving. We know that as our families grow, so will our dinner table. Some people find classic china useless, but for me, it was a necessary addition to our registry and we’d need service for far more than just the recommended 12 in the years to come.
Picking a china pattern was harder than I thought, but ultimately, we settled on a pattern we felt was classic and timeless and that we’d still love at Rosh Hashanah 20 years from now.
Below is our table the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah and the Wedgwood Renaissance Gold pattern we chose. I can’t wait to upgrade our table from mismatched and casual to refined and festive with the new china we chose!
Pick items at different price points
Not all of your guests are your favourite Aunt that wants to buy you china. We thought about all the smaller things we really wanted that could fit everyone’s budgets. I love to bake, so items like this Star of David bundt pan (above – $20 on Amazon) would lovingly be used over and over again in the years to come, and would fit anyone’s budget.
Image: Prezola
Choose a store with a generous completion bonus
We tried to be price conscience when creating our registry but also knew that registering at some stores meant that after our wedding we’d receive a completion discount anything that remained on our registry. We chose Macy’s as one of our stores because they are found in most cities (for our older guests that would rather purchase in store than online) and have a wide selection of items. They also offer a generous completion discount of 20%. Coupled with their perpetual sales, we could purchase items from our registry for 6 months after our wedding and take advantage of this discount!
Click here to read all Leah’s planning posts to date.
Leah & Zak’s Wedding Vendors booked so far:
Photographer – Elise McCreary
Venue – Masia Notari
Wedding planner – Barcelona Brides
Dress — Bridal Boutique Lewisville
