Your wedding registry
celebrate your union together

For a long time, a wedding registry was there to equip a young couple moving in together: dinnerware, appliances, household linen. Today most couples have lived together for years before getting married and already own the essentials. The registry has not disappeared, though — it has changed its function.

It now exists to guide guests who want to get it right. Without it, they hesitate between an impersonal envelope and something picked at random. With it, they choose something you selected yourselves — and you don't have to answer "what would you like?" thirty times over.

When the invitations go out, which usually means three to four months before the ceremony. Many guests settle the gift question as soon as they confirm they are coming: if the registry doesn't exist yet at that point, they will buy elsewhere.

Leave it open after the wedding. Some guests give their gift on the day, others in the following weeks, and distant relatives much later. A registry still reachable a month after the ceremony avoids catch-up gifts chosen in a rush.

That is the most frequent question, and the answer comes down to one principle: replace basic equipment with the things you never buy for yourselves. A few angles that work well:

• the premium version of everyday things: the good pan, bed linen that lasts ten years, the kitchen knife that changes everything;
• experiences for two: a restaurant, a weekend, a workshop, a show;
• items tied to a shared project: the garden, a trip, renovations, a sport;
• a contribution to the honeymoon, for guests who would rather give than buy.

Your guests don't all have the same means, and custom has it that a couple or a family gives more than someone attending alone. A balanced registry therefore starts at €20 or €30 and climbs gradually, up to a few significant pieces meant to be given by several people together.

It is also a matter of comfort for your guests: nobody enjoys being the only one who cannot match the others. A wide registry removes that awkwardness and lets everyone take part without having to explain themselves.

A wedding is rarely planned alone. On Dokaly you can invite your partner as a co-editor of the list: you both fill it in from your own accounts, without sharing credentials or sending each other screenshots.

Each of you adds what you spot as you go, and the registry genuinely reflects the couple's wishes rather than one person's.

Many couples would rather have a contribution to the honeymoon than one more object. The request lands far better when it is specific: say what you are planning, rather than simply announcing that you would prefer money.

"We're saving up for our trip to Japan" is far more reassuring than an open-ended request. And keep the registry open alongside it: some of your guests, often the older ones, want to give an object, and taking that away puts them in an awkward position.

The link belongs on the invitation, on your wedding website and in the reminder message sent a few weeks before. A simple wording is enough: say the registry exists, that it is there to help, and that what matters most is their presence.

Your guests have nothing to sign up for: they open the link, choose, and reserve by leaving their first name. The gift immediately switches to "reserved" for the next visitor, which prevents duplicates without you having to arbitrate anything.