Drew and I spent hours researching our gift registry items. Since we’ve already lived together for several years, and we don’t have a massive guest list, we really wanted to keep our registry to the absolute must-haves for us that we really need. For us this meant investing in quality cookware and tableware. We tried to stay away from smaller knick-knacks given we are generally minimalists!
Pots & Pans: Ultimately we registered for All Clad. It ranked on all the “best cookware” lists, and Ina Garden has also mentioned using it. We are looking to move away from non-stick pans as we’ve read a lot about the toxins they release. Stainless steel is going to be an adjustment for us to make sure we learn how to cook with it so the food doesn’t stick. After our research, All Clad seemed to be the best investment. We registered for their 10 piece everyday cookware set and their multi pot with strainer.
Misc Cookware: We stuck with All Clad and added these mixing bowls (that can also be used for serving bowls for things like popcorn and salad) and an 8 piece stainless steel tool set. Again keeping with stainless steel to avoid plastics. Wood would be another good option.
Tableware: We didn’t want to go with plain white plates, as the current ones we have are pretty basic. We both love blue and went with Anfora’s Puebla collection. Pottery Barn has started retiring their Puebla stoneware collection, which made it harder to find all the pieces we needed. Pottery Barn does offer a Puebla outdoor set, but the material is melamine. The melamine can’t go in the dishwasher. If you’re also looking at hand painted or dishware that is patterned, I caution you to double check on the materials used and if it is dishwasher safe – a lot we looked at were not. We really had to look around for other suppliers that offered these pieces from Anfora – they were clearly popular!
Drinkware: We do not have a full set of matching glasses, and we wanted ones that were good for ‘everyday’ use. Given our plateware is so vibrant, we went with glasses that were more simple, these Jax Highball Glasses from Sur La Table.
A few other misc kitchen and home items we registered for:
~ New bath towels from Brooke Linen
~ In our quest to get away from plastic, glass storage containers from Williams Sonoma
That’s all! Like I said, we kept our wedding gift registry very minimalist, to the things we really need for our home.
A note on which site we used for our wedding registry…
I researched the top wedding registry sites (Zola, The Knot, etc) and landed on using Blueprint Registry, which is a newer registry site. You can also make a wedding website through them, however our site was done through The Knot so we only used it for the gift registry.
What sold me on Blueprint is they have a browser extension, and you can add gifts from all different retailers onto your wedding registry page, very easily, with this extension. So we didn’t actually register directly with any one retailer. They also allow you to add cash funds, and do group gifts. The fee for cash gifts was 2.5% processor fee (this was less than or similar to, what the other major sites charged). I liked that our guests could see all the gifts in one place, and didn’t have to hop to the different sites we listed.
I’m looking forward to having some ‘grown up’ place settings, hosting a dinner party after we’re married!