On Not Registering

I can't speak for all couples, but most people in Hawaii don't register for gifts when they get married. The number one gift people give and receive here is cash (dollar dollar bills ya'll)! People here give cash for every occasion. First birthdays, graduations, weddings, and funerals are the largest social events here, and at every event there is a card box. Depending on how generous your family and friends are, you may end up paying off the party and then some! Gatherings here tend to be huge--I mean, invite everyone AND their moms huge. Hundreds of people huge. Everyone you've ever met huge. Not always, of course, there are always smaller and more private events. However, for those four events, people usually go big. A lot of it is because families here are huge! They are intermixed and mingled. It is not uncommon for relatives to all live in the same neighborhood, and sometimes the same street or house! Either way, the most common gift for most events is cash. I haven't even been asked by anyone if we're registering because not registering is the norm here, and I love it!

I personally don't need bakeware or a stand mixer or a vase or anything really. The only thing I really need is money. I need to recoup my wedding expenses. I need to pay off monies towards our home construction. I'd like to go on vacation. While I realize there are registries that are specific towards those things, not registering is so much easier. I hate the idea of telling people what the appropriate amount of money is to give as a gift. I would rather just be surprised.