So long, punch bowl. When it comes to registry gifts, couples today are more interested in items they need in their daily lives rather than products they’ll only use occasionally, according to Zola, a wedding-planning site and OXO partner. What’s more, selecting gifts is increasingly a two-person activity. That rings true for Alexandra Cano, OXO’s Senior Manager of Public Relations, and her fiancé, Steven, who are due to be married next year. “A lot of brides will do the registry all by themselves,” Cano says. “But I really wanted my fiancé to be a part of it because all of the items are going to be filling our home. So, every piece on our registry is something we both said yes to.” And what might those be? Cano offered a sneak peek at favorites from their Zola registry list.
POP Container Set
We’re big cooks. We love cooking at home versus going out, so it was important to us to have things for the kitchen, starting with the POP container set. I put all my ingredients in them—I use them to see everything that’s in my kitchen cabinets. Everything from spices, to rice and oatmeal or sweets, I can clearly see them and access them easily. The best part is each piece can fit together (based on size) like a puzzle in your kitchen.
Glass Salad Spinner
I’m completely obsessed with the glass salad spinner. We host a lot at home and I like for everything to look elegant while being useful at the same time. With the glass salad spinner, the spinning basket doubles as a colander, so you can rinse the lettuce, spin to dry, then take out the colander and suddenly you have a beautiful glass bowl. I take it directly from the kitchen counter to the table for serving.
Food Chopper
My fiancée is in love with the food chopper. You know how when you’re usually cutting vegetables, you sometimes have to cut them one by one and it takes forever? Nope. He chops up all his vegetables—onions, tomatoes, avocados, grape tomatoes—all in that one chopper and all at the same time. It cuts prep time in half especially when we’re making breakfast together in the morning.
Honeymoon Fund
There’s nothing wrong with adding a honeymoon fund or house fund to your registry. Whether it's taking a dream trip or buying a house to build more memories, you can’t go wrong with either. We’re going to Italy for our honeymoon so this was important for us to add to our registry.
A Turntable
Random fact: I’m also a DJ! So I put a brand new 3-speed turntable on the registry. We have a slew of records that were handed down to us from our grandparents and great grandparents. We’re old souls so a vintage vinyl set is music to our ears.
French Press Coffee Maker
My fiancé’s all about hiking and being outdoors, and he wants to go camping this summer. I think he’s thinking it’s going to be with me; I don’t know how true that will be—although if I did go, I’d definitely want to bring a quality coffee maker for the trip. The clear Tritan carafe in the OXO Brew Venture French Press is durable and shatter resistant, so it’s perfect for taking on the go for camping or traveling…and I need my coffee.
In filling out their registry, Alex and Steven learned a few things about their tastes—and each other. Some of their lessons for future newlyweds:
Balance Is Good
My fiancé and I balance each other out. He’s very practical. For the registry, he’s like, “Let's put what we’re going to need for our home.” I come in from the other side: I’m very flashy. I’m always shopping. My closet space has taken over his closet space. So for the registry, I’m thinking, Let’s get everything we ever wanted. We met in the middle: Let’s get everything we want that we know we’ll need. Some couples put items on their registry that they’ll never use just because it looks nice, but it ends up taking up space and eventually is thrown out or donated.
Let Your Personalities Shine Through
We’ve been together for 12 years and have been living together for five years, but we never really brought our personalities into our home. Only now am I designing our home—our engagement photos are finally framed and on the wall. So for our registry, whether it’s things we need for the kitchen, more artwork or planters (we love plants), we want it to be built around what makes us feel good and shows our personalities.
Choose Gifts Together
Don’t make the registry a one-person job because it will drive that person insane, which will then make the other person insane because the first person is going to be complaining all the time. Sit down together and remember that you’re just picking out gifts! And since these are gifts that will help you build a home and a life with each other, you want your registry to complement both people.
For more registry advice, check out these tips from the pros at Zola.
