Celebrating Wedding Season with the Best Wedding Registry Cookware

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Ah, wedding season. Oh how I love you. From the endless love fest between bride, groom, family and friends, to the flowers to the cake to the pretty paper things to all of the celebrations, fanfare and fun, loved-up traditions leading up to the day, I’m totally unashamed to say that wedding season completely melts my heart and I live for all of it. All of it!

So in celebration of wedding season and the unofficial season of love I thought it would be so much fun to marry (pun totally intended) my love for all things wedding related and my never-ending mission to give you guys the inside info on the best of the best home decor and essentials we love that genuinely enhance our everyday lives, by offering our expert insight into one of those wedding traditions that can be a little tricky to navigate, as guest and bride and groom – the registry! In the almost three years since our own wedding, it’s been such a joy for us to share our insight into the registry process with loved ones taking their own trip down the aisle and gift the pieces that we know, through experience, will be the most impactful in their lives as newlyweds and remain staples in their household for years of wedded bliss to come. And every time we gift or are asked for our advice in shaping a wedding registry, there’s always one thing at the very top of our list – a high quality, durable cookware set that will not only elevate all of their meals, make the cooking process easier and bring their recipes to life in spectacular fashion, but will stand the test of time and fit right into those often tight “newlywed nest” spaces.

And trust us when we say that cookware sets that meet those requirements are not a dime a dozen. So today, not only are we offering our expert insight into wedding registry and wedding gifting greatness, we’re also giving you the inside scoop on one gift that’s become our go-to recommendation when asked for wedding registry or gifting advice and meets all of our high standards – the
Calphalon® Premier™ Space Saving Cookware Set from Bed Bath & Beyond!

Hover over the image below to start shopping for your Calphalon® Premier™ Space Saving Cookware Set.

With your purchase of $299.99 worth of Calphalon® products (excludes kitchen electrics) from bedbathandbeyond.com (during one online transaction) you are entitled to a $50 Bed Bath & Beyond Gift Card! It’s a terrific way to add to, build or complete that cookware set of your dreams! The Gift Cards are redeemable for the merchandise of your choice either online or in any Bed Bath & Beyond stores nationwide. Limit one $50 gift card per person. Valid through 12/31/19. Learn more here!

And this is all such perfect timing because not only do we just plain love talking about this stuff, but in the coming months we’ll be purchasing gifts for and attending the weddings of several close friends we absolutely adore, providing us new opportunities to reflect on our own most-loved registry gifts that have enhanced our lives over the last 3 years, offer our best registry advice and to gift pieces that we know the bride and groom will use and love for a lifetime!

First, let’s just get right the good stuff. The inside info on that all-important most-loved and most-recommended gift mentioned above. If you’re currently crafting your registry, or looking for that wow-worthy gift for the couple that’s thoughtful, intentional, will stand the test of time and find its way into the bride and groom’s hearts and life for years to come, save yourself the stress and just head straight for every registry’s best friend, Bed, Bath & Beyond and check out the Calphalon® Premier™ Space Saving Cookware Set
. You won’t be disappointed! So what make it so perfect? The set saves 30% more space than comparable non-stacking Calphalon® Cookware items when stacked with Premier™ Space Saving items that have the same diameter, you can stock and nest in any order as long as they’re pieces of the same diameter, the set has a limited lifetime warranty, the set features awesome space-saving flat glass lids that you can add to your stacks, the hard anodized aluminum body delivers quick, even heating and the pieces have a metal utensil safe nonstick cooking surface for easy food release and quick cleanup. So basically, all your cookware dreams come true in one compact set you’ll love for a lifetime!

And we’re not the only ones who have fallen in love with Calphalon® Cookware throughout their 50 years of commercial-grade stovetop performance. When we ask our friends and family about the things that have been used and loved in their households for years, not just the months following their trip down the aisle, almost every single couple we know cherishes the Calphalon® Cookware they received as wedding gifts. My mom recommended to my sister that she put a Calphalon® Cookware set on our own registry years ago, and when it came time for my wedding a few years later, my sister recommended I put a set of Calphalon® Cookware on our registry after her set became her most loved and used wedding gift. The love is real!

And listen, it’s not lost on me that in today’s age weddings and the trappings of weddings, especially of the traditional variety, can sometimes get a bad wrap, but that said I actually find that the more I learn about and understand the purpose behind some of these wedding conventions, not only do I fall more in love with the sentiment and their function in a couple’s life together, but the easier they are for me to properly navigate.

The purpose behind wedding registries when they originally made their appearance in the 1920s was so the people that love and support the bride and groom in their life together, especially the married couples that have taken the leap into wedded bliss before them, could offer a helping hand in getting them on their feet and fully functioning in their newly cohabited household together. Now obviously today the marriage game has changed quite a bit and more often than not couples are already living together before they tie the knot, which means that they may already own some household necessities. But in my experience and the experience of so many couples we know, a lot of those things are a mashup of random items collected from college and immediately after when the budget was minimal and things like quality, durability, functionality and versatility were low on the list of priorities. Hey, we’ve all been there and there’s no shame in that game. 

But that fact is exactly why I’m still so in love with the concept of traditional wedding registries as an opportunity to gift the couple with quality pieces they’ll use and love for a lifetime, not just a few years and that will also hold a little bit of sentimental value that reminds them of the people that love and support them, and those precious wedding memories. And if you prefer more experiential gifts, by all means go for it, but if you’re a little of a homebody like us and some of your most memorable moments and experiences, the ones you hold close to your heart, are centered around the home you live in and love, then I say gift and register accordingly!

And with that we give you our tips for mastering the art of crafting the perfect, impactful, meaningful wedding registry and wedding gifting with gusto. Enjoy!

How to Create The Perfect Wedding Registry

Take Stock

The best place to start the registry process is to take stock of and evaluate the things you already own. Then decide what important or useful kitchen essentials or household items you’re missing and what key pieces desperately need to be replaced. Taking stock of what you already own will help you register with thought, intention and care, which will ultimately make your registry more purposeful and meaningful!

Know Yourselves

Just because something is on another couple’s registry or traditional registries from decades past doesn’t mean it should be on yours. Every couple is unique in the way they live their lives and run their household, so if there’s a popular item you just know you won’t use and will only be taking up much-needed kitchen or counter space, leave it off! If there’s something slightly unconventional that you’re certain you’ll use on a regular basis and will significantly enhance your life, we say go for it! 

Ask the Experts

When we’re making any impactful or important purchase, we always get the specs, meaning we make sure we’re asking the sales associate or brand rep for a breakdown of everything we need to know about functionality, fun features, durability and warranty. Which, by the way, the amazing and super knowledgeable registry and product experts at Bed, Bath & Beyond do so well. But beyond that, ask your friends, relatives and co-workers what household items are their most-loved and used items because they might just offer up that A+ inspiration or inside info that you desperately need. The experts aren’t just in the store, they’re all around you living with this stuff every day!

Collaborate

Not only are wedding registries most effective when they include items that both bride and groom agree that they’ll use and love in their household, but the process of crafting a registry you’re both excited about is such a fun activity to tackle together. Take a trip to the store together and soak in the process in person. Enjoy this fun pre-marital right of passage! See and feel the items in the flesh and talk them through together. Cherish in the process and the moment together. Laugh a lot. Don’t take it too seriously. Compromise. This is one of those moments during the wedding process that should be pure fun, so enjoy every second and make a date of it! 

Respect Your Guests

This is one I feel really strongly about and a point that I think deserves a lot of consideration when crafting your registry. In today’s day and age a wedding can be quite the financial commitment for guests – it could involve several gifts, flights, hotel rooms, pre-wedding festivities and more, and that’s already asking a lot all so they can be there to support you on your big day. While most of your loved ones are happy to commit to this because they love you, I think it’s extremely important to respect their financial priorities and know your audience when registering. Some immediate family members will be looking for more significant or substantial items to invest in and gift, so I think a few of those items have a place on a registry, but I’m of the mind that the rest of the registry should be reasonably priced and approachable for any budget. 

Thank As You Go

Ok ok this one doesn’t exactly speak to crafting the perfect registry, but it is one of the most important elements of the registry process as a whole and something that shouldn’t be forgotten. Handwritten thank you notes and expressing your gratitude for your guest’s thought, care, kindness, support and generosity is one of the most important things you do as a couple during the wedding process and should never, ever be overlooked, forgotten or glossed over. Be specific, make it personal, and save yourself a hand cramp and a headache by sending thank yous as the gifts come in, rather than waiting to tackle a huge stack in one sitting after the festivities are over. 

Wedding Gift Tips for Guests

Have Fun With a Theme

When our wedding rolled around it was so much fun to receive creative little themed packages that our loved ones put together using items from our registry. A grilling theme, a kitchen tool theme, a baking theme, a stovetop theme, a linens theme and so on. That’s such a memorable way to mix it up for the bride and groom and put a little extra thought into your gift while working within the bounds of their registry. It also gives you a chance to put a little bit of your personality or your own registry insight into your gift.

Get Personal

If there’s something we spot on the couple’s registry that we’ve owned and absolutely love, we almost always go with that and write a special note about our experience with it and why we know they’ll love it for years to come. There’s nothing better than a gift that’s as thoughtful as it is personal. 

Quality Over Quantity

Price tag absolutely, positively does not matter one bit whatsoever when it comes to wedding gifting. So set a budget for yourself that’s completely comfortable for you, choose a gift from their registry using some of the helpful tips above and just make it meaningful. And if that still doesn’t fall within your financial comfort zone, you should feel absolutely zero guilt about that and know that just showing up for the couple, whether it’s at their wedding to celebrate their love or even just in their life as a pillar of support, matters more than any tangible gift ever could. Also, we received several handmade gifts for our wedding that remain some of our most cherished wedding memories and household items, so the options are endless!

Registry First

As a general rule, I love to go into wedding gifting by first attempting to gift a registry item or items first, and if that’s not possible or nothing included falls comfortably within our budget, I make a more creative move and gift something personal or something tried and true that I know they’ll use and love. And here’s my reasoning – I like to respect the idea that the couple put a lot of time, thought and care into crafting that registry, and no one knows what they need better than them. So I always go registry first, and get creative second if there’s nothing in there that I can work with. 

We’re dying to hear your wedding registry and wedding gifting tips, insight and advice because we know that tons of you are seriously experienced wedding guests or have taken your own trip down the aisle, so make sure you comment below and share!