Should your gift registry be printed on the wedding invitation?

Wedding planners recently have noticed renewed discussion on whether the gift registry information should be printed on the wedding invitation. The simple and easy and right response is: “Definitely not!” One professional stationer who asserts to have dealt with many hundreds of young couples to design customized wedding invitations affirms that “not one has opted to include gift registry details or website to their wedding invitation. It really is cheap, offensive and just poor manners.”

Proposing a wedding gift or financial donation in your wedding invitation takes away from the value of the celebration. Although many believe that it is “economical” to provide bridal registry information on the wedding invitation, efficiency is no substitute for good manners and good taste. Why don’t you just pick-up the phone, call the parents of the groom or even the bridal pair and extend your congratulations then ask where they’re registered. It’s easy, quite personal and it has worked proficiently for many years.

In a good many instances, bridal couples will be sending a save the date announcement which might include things like travel and lodging suggestions. If you plan to establish a wedding website, it is now considered appropriate to add the website address on the save the date card or in the supportive wedding papers.

A few will argue that this protocol or etiquette is dated. Quite the opposite, good manners is rarely out of place. When we continue to emphasize “convenience” and “functionality” in orchestrating our interpersonal relationships, we take away the enjoyment and majesty from these milestone events within our lives.

In short, including gift registry information in your wedding invitation is not recommended and, indeed, many guests are likely to consider this obnoxious and inappropriate. There are lots of of methods to circumvent that small problem with good planning. For instance, use the save the date announcement to list your wedding website which may contain important travel and lodging information. Contact your stationer for other useful information.

Sheila May is a founding member of the Stationers Guild and writes frequently about national and regional wedding invitations and save the date announcements.