The Future of Wedding Registries

With time comes changing trends. This is never more evident than in the wedding industry. Colours, textures and food tastes change annually, other wedding-related aspects change too, just more slowly.

Take for example wedding registries. They have been very useful to both the bride and groom (they get what they want) and their guests (they avoid visiting 5 malls to find the perfect gift) for years. But in this day and age, couples are getting married later in life (the average Canadian bride is 29.5 years old when she is engaged according to Wedding Bells magazine) and most likely living together with their partner before getting married (Wedding Bells magazine states that 75% of couples are living together before they are married). Therefore the engaged couple's home is fully furnished from couches down to gravy bowls. So what does today's bride and groom do regarding registering? Registering will most likely cause the couple to select items they don't really need. However, not registering will cause Aunt Edna to buy the couple a salad bowl shaped as a giant lettuce leaf because she thinks giving gift cards or money as a wedding gift is tacky.

Enter Hanna the owner of Wedding Republic, an Ottawa-based company that is revolutionizing the way engaged couples today are registering.

We met with Hanna recently and she explained in detail what her company does for both wedding guests and engaged couples and we just had to share the news with our blog readers.

In short, Wedding Republic is a web-based wedding registry for engaged couples who want to select wedding gifts that reflect who they truly are, with their gifts located all over the city/province/country. It's basically a cash fund; the couple lists gifts they would like to receive and the wedding guests contribute cash towards the gift. This allows the couple to get what they really want no matter where the gift is located and it gives the guests the opportunity to see what they are contributing to in the couples' new life together instead of just writing a cheque and placing it in a wedding card.

The funnest part for everyone involved is that nothing is off limits; from a winery tour during the honeymoon to solar panels for an energy efficient home to a handmade pottery bowl available only at a tucked away niche store that is owned by a husband and wife team.

We think the best part is that Wedding Republic finally caught onto the idea of 'group gifting'. When the couple registers for something a little pricier, a few guests get together and all chip in to buy the gift. But that is only possible if you organize it as a group beforehand. Wedding Republic has created the 'Puzzle Piece' feature which allows any guest to contribute a 'piece' towards the puzzle (the gift) without having to plan anything in advance or even having to know each other. The couple can have Uncle Ed, their coworkers and their BFF all contributing towards a new car or or their big screen TV.

Personalizing your wedding has never been more hot than it right now, so why not carry that over into your wedding registry as well and get the gifts you really want? Wedding guests will appreciate it too since there they can buy the gifts from the comfort of their own home, avoid collecting money for group gifts and avoid bringing the gift or a large amount of cash to the wedding reception.

After the wedding, couples can write thank you cards to their guests while their Roomba vacuums their floors (purchased through Wedding Republic) as they enjoy a chicken sandwich made with tasty Baconnaise (purchased through Wedding Republic) as the hubby heads off to the golf club to enjoy his new membership (purchased through Wedding Republic).

Visit Wedding Republic's website for more details: http://www.weddingrepublic.com/

and view a sample registry here: http://www.weddingrepublic.com/sample#

Keep up the great work Hanna !