Welcome to the New World of 21st century bridal registries! Today’s bride and groom are completely unique compared to wedding couples from 10, 20, or 30 years ago. Unlike them, you might not be furnishing your first home, wishing for blenders, toasters, coffee makers, and just the right kind of china and crystal to make a ‘proper’ home after your wedding. If you’re like most couples in the here and now, you already have a fully stocked kitchen, you own your home already (perhaps you even live with your intended) and you’re more interested in registering for backyard deck furniture than bagel cutters and butter spreaders.

In the world of wedding registries, we’ve seen some interesting new trends emerge, and we’d like to share them with you now so that you can register like a forward-moving 21st century couple…not like your parents! We invite you to register for the life you’ve been dreaming of…

•Wedding couples watch home redecoration shows, and they can’t get enough of making over their new homes…from paint to new furniture to slipcovers to décor. Nesting is the 21st-century wedding couples’ second favorite pastime.

•Wedding couples are combining TWO fully stocked homes. If you have your own fully-stocked place, and your intended has his or her own fully- stocked place, then moving in together as husband and wife means combining and coordinating all of your stuff. So registering for you might be finding just the right items to coordinate both of your styles in every room of the house, plus organizing systems and even security systems to safeguard all of your stuff!

•Wedding couples are taking it outside. The backyard, patio, terrace, and pool areas are now extensions of the home. Couples entertain in the great outdoors now more than ever, and home designers are even installing fully working kitchens and stoves on backyard terraces. So patio furniture, hammocks, lighting, and everything outdoor entertainment is a new hot focus for bridal registries. Add in ponds and fountains, landscaping and trellises, and you have a backyard oasis. The new wedding couple wants to bring some of that breezy honeymoon scenery home with them, so they’re registering for the outside environment.

•Wedding couples can cook. At no other time in history have wedding couples shared more of an interest and expertise in the culinary arts. As a whole, we’re more traveled, we’ve been exposed to a wider variety of cultures, and since we’re marrying later in age, we know how to do more than just microwave and toast. So the emphasis on high-quality cooking appliances and accessories is stronger than ever. It’s only going to be the top-rated pots and pans, plus specialty items to make their kitchens five-star. Upgrading to ‘the good stuff’ is tops on today’s wedding couple’s list.

•Wedding couples call their homes their havens.  Couples want their homes to be a welcome oasis in a harried world, a place where they can celebrate their top priorities: family and health. So creating a wedding registry now centers on the oasis aspects of a home: a spa-worthy bathroom, a family room that holds a fireplace as its focal point, comfy couches for family movie night, and a bedroom that’s almost too comfortable to leave.

•Wedding couples register for their travels. Along with honeymoon registries, where they can get their hotel suites, swims with dolphins, spa treatments and helicopter tours given to them as wedding gifts by their guests, there’s a big, big focus on registering for new luggage and other travel essentials like carryon bags and toiletry organizers. The couple that plans to explore the world together sees now as the perfect time and opportunity to get all they’ll need.

•Wedding couples want casual dinnerware in several colors. It’s not all about the china and crystal. Now, couples want seasonal sets of casual dinnerware for those dinner parties in every month.

•Wedding couples want great linens. The good stuff. Egyptian cotton sheets and towels, comfy flannels for winter. Smooth table linens, cashmere blankets for snuggle time on the couch. Linens are a top registry priority, so don’t forget yours, and look outside of the current linens on display in stores to make sure that you get sets for every season.

•Wedding couples register for toys. Entertainment centers, game sets, movies…if it can be scanned into a registry, couples want it on their lists.

•Wedding couples love to give back. From charitable registries like www.idofoundation.org where your guests can give money to your chosen charities instead of to you, to registries that give a percentage of each guest’s purchase to your chosen charity, today’s benevolent brides and grooms actively seek out ways to make their incoming gifts give a little back to the world.

•Wedding couples register for a lot. With completion programs, they’ll get a big percentage discount on any essentials or items left on their registries after the wedding. So they do update their registries often to make sure they have a lot of options on there.

•Wedding couples register for the life they imagine. The key trend in the new world of wedding registries is painting your image of the home you’d both like to share together: how it’s going to look, feel, and smell. Instead of thinking, “How can this lemon zester save me time?” you’re thinking, “Imagine us cooking a wonderful, exotic meal together in our sage-green kitchen, drinking a glass of Merlot, and entertaining friends on the back terrace…” “Imagine us ending our day in a bubbling, hot Jacuzzi whirlpool tub.” “Imagine us re-doing the living room together.” “Imagine us swinging in a hammock under a shade tree in the backyard, sipping iced tea and reading the Sunday newspaper together.”

Best of luck to you in your future together. May all of your selections bring you great happiness.