What should be on a wedding registry?
A wedding registry usually runs to somewhere between a hundred and a hundred and fifty items across four areas: the kitchen, dining and entertaining, bed and bath, and home tech. The useful rule is roughly two items for every guest invited, spread across price points, so the last person to shop still has something to choose from. This page is a checklist; it carries no prices.
A bar for each of the 4 areas of the checklist below, sized by how many items it lists, so where the registry's weight sits is visible before you scroll.
Kitchen
The part of the registry that gets used daily, which is the argument for spending the gift budget on durability here rather than elsewhere.
- Cookware set, stainless steel or non-stick, including frying pans, saucepans and a sauté pan
- Dutch oven, enamelled cast iron, around five and a half quarts
- Cast iron skillet for searing and oven-to-table cooking
- Half-sheet baking pans and cooling racks, at least two of each
- Bakeware set: rectangular baker, square brownie pan, muffin tin
- Chef's knife and knife block, high-carbon stainless steel
- Nested mixing bowls, a set of three or five, stainless steel or glass
- Measuring cups and spoons, both dry and liquid sets
- Silicone spatulas and wooden spoons, heat resistant and kind to pans
- Digital food scale for baking and portioning
Dining and entertaining
A matching set is the thing most couples never buy for themselves and the thing that makes a table look coordinated.
- Daily dinnerware, eight to twelve place settings: dinner plates, salad plates, bowls
- Flatware, eight to twelve settings in good stainless steel
- Serving platters, at least one large oval and one rectangular
- Serving bowls, a mix of large salad bowls and smaller side dishes
- All-purpose wine glasses, a set of eight to twelve
- Highball and rocks glasses for water, juice and cocktails
- Decanter for aerating wine or displaying spirits
- Bar tool set: shaker, jigger, strainer, muddler
Bed and bath
Linens and towels are the gifts that change something every single day, which is why they are the ones people report being gladdest to have asked for.
- Sheet sets, at least two complete sets so one can be in the wash
- Duvet cover and insert, in a weight that suits your climate
- Sleeping pillows, two per person, in varying firmness
- Mattress protector, the practical one couples forget
- Bath towels, six to eight oversized, high-gsm cotton
- Hand towels and washcloths, eight to ten of each
- Bath mat, memory foam or absorbent cotton
- Shower curtain and liner to match the towels
Home tech and cleaning
The best place to put group-gift items, because guests are happy to club together for one thing they know will be used for a decade.
- Cordless stick vacuum
- Air purifier, worth it for city flats and homes with pets
- Smart home hub for lights, music and security
- Steam mop for hard floors
Five things worth knowing before you build a wedding registry
- Register early, before the engagement party or shower, so there is something to buy from.
- Turn on group gifting for the big items, so several guests can put in whatever they want toward one thing.
- Think past the season you are marrying in. A June wedding still wants the winter blankets.
- Check the return policy of whichever registry you use, because changing your mind afterwards is common.
- Register in two or three places so guests can choose between shopping online and shopping in person.
Questions
Is it okay to ask for cash?
Yes. Most registries now offer a honeymoon fund or a house deposit fund, and plenty of guests prefer contributing to something specific over choosing an object.
When should we close the registry?
Keep it open for a year after the wedding. Guests do use the traditional grace period, and a closed registry sends them shopping blind.
Should we register if we already live together?
Most couples in that position do, and treat it as the upgrade round: replacing the mismatched plates and the towels that came from a supermarket.
How many items should we list?
Roughly two per guest invited, spread across price points. It sounds like a lot until the last people to shop find three things left.
Should we register at more than one store?
Two or three is normal. It gives guests a choice between browsing in person and ordering online.
Where these figures come from
The previous version of this page attached price bands to registry items and offered a printable PDF. The price bands had no source, so they are gone. The PDF was not in the archive we were given, so the download link is gone too rather than pointing nowhere.
This page publishes no figures, so it cites none. That is deliberate rather than an omission.