Alternative Registries: Green Your Gift List

Wedding registries can bring up a lot of tough questions. Have you added enough items for your guests to choose from? Have you included a good variety of price points? But, more importantly, do you actually need everything you've added to the list? This is a common dilemma for the modern engaged couple.

Enter the alternative registry. Instead of a registry full of home goods that you may or may not need, give your guests other unique opportunities to do something meaningful for you and your intended. Alternative gift registries can help you start your life together in the way that is most important to you. Here are a few ideas:

Have Guests Contribute Something Besides Money and Gifts

Instead of buying you anything at all, suggest guests contribute by using their talents or lending you wedding-related items. They can help decorate or cleanup your ceremony or reception site. Guests with a green thumb can lend a hand by growing and/or arranging flowers for your wedding, and bakers can contribute dessert or cookie platters. Does someone on your guest list have an elegant cake knife and server? They can lend it to you. You could even ask guests who are good with a camera to capture every moment of your special day.

Photo Credit: Kris Holland Photography

Create a Honeymoon Registry

Try setting up a honeymoon registry so that guests can donate directly to your green honeymoon. Guests can not only contribute to the actual travel costs, but also to activities like spa treatments, show tickets, scuba excursions or horseback-riding packages for your honeymoon.

Register for Anything with a Cash Registry
A cash registry, like the ones offered at Deposit a Gift, allow you to register for any item or experience you wish. If you love to cook, add cooking classes and a produce subscription with a local community-supported agriculture group to your registry. You can even register for guests to contribute to big-ticket purchases like a new car or home.

Image Courtesy of Deposit a Gift

Share Your Values with a Charity Registry

It has become fairly common for couples to encourage guests to donate to charity in lieu of traditional wedding gifts. To communicate this wish to your guests, you can link your wedding website to specific charities you want your guests to support through the I Do Foundation, or you can set up a pledge page or a fund in your name. This is a wonderful way to share your values with your guests. Be sure to provide information for them about each of the charities you’re supporting, and why they are important to you.

And If You Do Need A Colander...

 If you do have a need for traditional wedding gifts like towels, dishes and a set of frying pans, consider creating a registry with a local artisan for one of a kind, handmade household essentials. You could also seek out artists and charity groups who sell their items to raise money to support victims of violence, prisoners, abandoned animals, and other marginalized groups by selling artwork. A final option would be to create a registry full of gorgeous green wedding gifts at the Green Bride Guide’s Gift Shop where we’ve done all the leg work by hand picking every item for its earth friendliness.

Glimmer Glass Dinnerware from the Green Gift Shop

Any of these options allow you to create a registry that is in line with your personal style and values, just like all of your other wedding details.