3 Important Things to Keep In Mind Before You Register for Your Wedding

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We just read a most interesting study on, of all things, wedding registries! Who knew there was someone out there who’d want to study such a thing?

It’s one of those studies where its interesting factor comes not from the earth-shattering information gleaned from its research, but rather because it proves, with numerical evidence, that the things we kinda all realize to be true are actually, in fact, really true. And this study—lead by a Xin Wang, assistant professor of marketing at the Brandeis International Business School, along with a team of researchers from the University of Houston, Purdue University, and Dongduk Women’s University in Korea—boils down the entire registry process into several main points that will have you exclaiming things like “Totally!” “Yes!” and “I know!”

According to the team’s findings, wedding guests’ motivation in selecting what gift they’ll give you off your registry is twofold:

• “a desire for social benefit,” i.e., they want to give you something that you’ll love and think is cool and will really appreciate them giving you. They want to give you something good, in other words.
• “a desire to limit monetary costs,” i.e., they want to give you something that will achieve the above without costing them too much. They already had to book a hotel room and get a new outfit for your nuptials, you know.

And, after pondering the 555 wedding registries they stared at—a total of nearly 33,000 items—they reached this threefold conclusion:

• Choose your stores carefully. Bloomingdale’s has the highest fulfillment rate among department stores, and Crate & Barrel among speciality stores.
• Pay attention to the average price of your registry. Research shows that your guests do, too. Really high-priced items and really low-priced items often languish on registries.
• Pay attention to the types of items you register for. Regardless of the fact that obviously, you registered for all of these things, which would therefore suggest that you want and need them all equally, this is not how guests view the items you’ve zapped with that little barcode gun. For instance, says the study, guests hate tools, because they don’t think they make a nice wedding gift. So do with that knowledge what you will.

See? Kinda interesting. For more details on what all of this rummaging uncovered, go here.

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RELATED: Here’s How to Ask for Cash Instead of Wedding Gifts 

RELATED: Some Thoughts On the Registry Process from a Groom Who Survived It 

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