How to get more out of your wedding registry

I just came across this posting on facebook:

“So my boyfriend and I will be getting married either this year or next and we were discussing what we need to register for. We already have just about everything we need so I was thinking it might be a good idea to ask for items for our future homestead. Any suggestions?”

Well, I did not think of a certain item that they could use. I don’t even know this couple. But I had this epiphany about how you could get more out of your registry. All big box stores and their online competition offer you your personal wedding registry. Bad Bath and Beyond, Williams Sonoma and many more have this feature.

I still remember being at 3B before my own wedding. They gave us a hand scanner and we could walk around, scanning and adding items to our wedding registry.

After a while I just sat down and my wife did the rest. Because I had the same feeling as the OP on facebook: “I don’t need anything”.

In China people bring red envelops with money, in Germany people will politely ask people in their invitation for money as gifts, usually with some awkward rhyme. “Let’s hope our wedding is sunny, and do not bring gifts, bring money.”

It is nice to get unique gifts for your wedding, that go beyond a monetary value. But on the bottom line most couples could use money the best. For example if your car breaks down, your water tank stops working or to get a washer and dryer.

Register as Amazon Affiliate and get a commission for your gifts.

Have you heard about affiliate marketing yet? Companies will pay you a commission for your sales lead. And the biggest online shop amazon has it’s own program of that sort. Register at https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ and within minutes you are able to create your own affiliate links.

It is basically a link that leads to your desired product but with your unique affiliate ID attached to it. If somebody makes the purchase, you will receive a commission. I admit, it is not as convenient as walking through the store with a scanner – but other than that “registry list” from bad bath and beyond – you will actually get something out of if.

The sales commission will go up with quantity, so you will get more if you need a lot of a certain item. Amazon will pay you between 1% and 10% depending on the product. Most commonly you will receive 4%. I took a screenshots from the amazon affiliate operating policies.

Amazon Affiliate Commissions

What about double purchases?

Your standard wedding registry keeps track of the items that have already been purchased and takes them off the list, once one of your guests has bought it. You can even see that before your wedding (Which I found most awkward).

But you can come up with a clever work around for that as well.

Here is one way: Let’s pretend you have created a facebook event for your wedding. Make a posting with the list and ask your friends and family to comment with the name of the item that they have bought. If your guests go through the comments, they will know if somebody has bought an item already. Problem solved.

Mh, you don’t do facebook. How about a private wordpress blog? You could set up a free wordpress account on wordpress.com and publish your list in an article. Turn on private mode and protect your list with a password. Now enable comments on that article and ask your guests to comment with purchased items. Problem solved.

Enjoy your wedding and have a great celebration.

 

 

 

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