US wedding, moving to UK - wedding registry?

Hi! I'm US citizen and my fiancé is UK. Timeline we have planned is:

Jan: File marriage license in US
Feb: Apply for VAF4A and appendix 2
May: Wedding in US with family and friends and move to UK within the next week

My question is how should we handle wedding registry? We will have nothing in our new home in the UK so need household items typically on a registery but do not want to risk shipping or packing fragile, bulky, or heavy items.

Does anyone have advice from experience? Did you ask for money? Did you find a site where things can maybe be bought and shipped to a UK address regardless of who purchases it? I've looked but haven't found something quite right.

Thanks!

I used John Lewis for all our registry stuff. They accept US credit cards so people on both sides of the pond can buy you things.  They hold everything until you tell them you're ready for delivery after the wedding. I believe you can make your list entirely online, though our local branch allows us to do it in store. You can either just have it be gift vouchers or make a proper registry list. Even if you make a list you can always exchange items for vouchers even after a guest has purchased them when you schedule your delivery. That way even if you are unsure about an item there isn't real commitment to it just yet. If I were you I would place some sort of insert in your invite about people not giving you physical gifts at the wedding so no one goes rogue and gets some giant gift you can't take with you. Buying from JL or another UK based company will also solve any issue you might have with American vs UK electrical appliances. If you go with JL do want your American guests to call their credit card company before they purchase as it may look suspicious to their banks.


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Hi! I'm US citizen and my fiancé is UK. Timeline we have planned is:

Jan: File marriage license in US
Feb: Apply for VAF4A and appendix 2
May: Wedding in US with family and friends and move to UK within the next week

Just a note about nomenclature: A marriage licence is only the permission from a jurisdiction to get married in the future. You'll need to use the licence get legally married and obtain a marriage certificate to submit in order to apply for a spousal visa.

I'm assuming you're actually intending to be legally married in January, and have only a non-binding ceremony in May, but just wanted to delineate, to be absolutely sure you don't run into issues. There was someone on this board a few years ago who got rejected for a spousal visa because they'd planned to be married by the time the application was processed -- but because they weren't legally married at the time of application, it was a no-go.

Just a note about nomenclature: A marriage licence is only the permission from a jurisdiction to get married in the future. You'll need to use the licence get legally married and obtain a marriage certificate to submit in order to apply for a spousal visa.

I'm assuming you're actually intending to be legally married in January, and have only a non-binding ceremony in May, but just wanted to delineate, to be absolutely sure you don't run into issues. There was someone on this board a few years ago who got rejected for a spousal visa because they'd planned to be married by the time the application was processed -- but because they weren't legally married at the time of application, it was a no-go.

Yes we are planning on getting the actual certificate in January (legally married). Thank you so much for clarifying! All this visa and planning stuff is turning my brain to mush slightly haha.


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I used John Lewis for all our registry stuff. They accept US credit cards so people on both sides of the pond can buy you things.  They hold everything until you tell them you're ready for delivery after the wedding. I believe you can make your list entirely online, though our local branch allows us to do it in store. You can either just have it be gift vouchers or make a proper registry list. Even if you make a list you can always exchange items for vouchers even after a guest has purchased them when you schedule your delivery. That way even if you are unsure about an item there isn't real commitment to it just yet. If I were you I would place some sort of insert in your invite about people not giving you physical gifts at the wedding so no one goes rogue and gets some giant gift you can't take with you. Buying from JL or another UK based company will also solve any issue you might have with American vs UK electrical appliances. If you go with JL do want your American guests to call their credit card company before they purchase as it may look suspicious to their banks.


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Awesome! I'm going to look into John Lewis. Assuming you can register online?
That's a perfect option!


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I'm fairly certain you can do all of it online. Not even all their physical shops are equipped to do it in store so I think a lot of people do it online only. They have great quality stuff as well. We got their own brand dishes and glasses and silverware.


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I'm jumping on the John Lewis bandwagon. We didn't do a gift registry at all, but John Lewis is great for warranties.

I bought a KitchenAid mixer from them and they offer a warranty in addition to the manufacturer one (so we can go through KitchenAid or John Lewis if we have problems).

A co-worker of DH bought a tablet from John Lewis and where there were problems that couldn't be fixed, they refunded him in full even though it was a year after purchase and it was no longer the newest model.

I'm getting married in less than a month. I've lived in the UK for just about 8 years, but still have close ties to all my American family and friends.   We originally tried to set up a John Lewis's registry, but  it would only let us put stuff on there 6 weeks in advance - we never added things to it it, but they sent us the the registry cards that you put in your paper invites last week.  If I had only sent out invites 1 month in advance, I don't think I'd have anyone actually make it to my wedding due to time of year and overseas guests.   
So we set up on amazon.co.uk one and it's worked out so well. You can also add things from other websites, not just amazon.  Also, amazon uses couriers that will actually deliver to the Highlands, unlike a lot of websites. We don't need anything for our house, but decided that we'd rather let people know that we'd happily accept big bags of chicken poop for our allotment, rather than some useless serving platter thing, etc.   (Not that we wouldn't happily accept this either, just it's harder to 'let go' of).  We've been having gifts trickle in from the American and British sides and it's as easy as can be.  Plus you can just keep an eye on the stock (John Lewis's main reason that things go out of stock and change, so they want you to have the latest and greatest) so if something goes off the site, you can just change it.     

Congratulations PB!!

Congratulations PB!!

Thank you!   

I'm getting married in less than a month.

Congrats!!

Congrats!!

Thanks very much Aquila!