Ok all you brides out there, by a show of hands, who added fine art to their wedding gift registry?  I’m hearing crickets.  No one?  No one thought of adding fine art?  I’m not surprised at all.  I was just like you when I made my registry.  I didn’t think of fine art at all.  That was a big mistake on my part and here’s why.

After I got married and went to set up my new home, I found that I had lots of bare walls with nothing to cover them with.  Sure I had a couple of larger pieces which had been given to me before I got married but most of the wall decorations I had were around the size of 8×10 or 8.5×11 inches or smaller.  Those didn’t really do the job of decorating the wall properly.

The walls of my new home were boring and empty for a long time.  Without some wall decoration, yours will be too.  The solution to this boring inconvenience is to ask for fine art on your wedding gift registry.

I can hear the objections starting right now.  Just hear me out on this and you will understand why I’m saying this.  Perhaps you’ll find space on your wedding gift registry for fine art.

You Won’t Want All Wedding Photos Everywhere

There’s probably some of you out there who are saying that you’ll just order large wedding pictures from your wedding photographer and those will do the job.  Well, sure those sizes of prints will do the job of fine art.  The problem is that you won’t want to look at wedding photos EVERYWHERE in your home.  You will want a break to look at something different once in a while and so will your guests.  This is where fine art comes in.

They say that variety is the spice of life for a reason.  Add variety to your wall art to create some style (other than the wedding photographer’s personal style).  Sprinkle in some abstract pieces or some beautiful photographs from where you spent your honeymoon together.  Those will help break up the boring walls and the wedding vibe nicely.  The art will also help set up that this is your home instead of a gallery of your wedding.

Also keep in mind that you’ll probably transition your wall art over time.  Perhaps don’t invest in that giant wedding portrait which might be replaced with something else in a few years.

Fine Art Isn’t Too Expensive With a Group Buying Together

I can hear your next complaint already.  ‘Fine art is expensive.  We can’t afford that right now.’  You’re right.  Fine art, at least the stuff worth having, isn’t cheap.  You know your budget better than I do so I won’t try to challenge that objection but I will point out an alternative.

You have wedding gift registries which you can add fine art to.  If the store doesn’t have fine art there, you can always add an insert into wedding invitations to describe what you want and where to buy it.  Couples do that all the time.  Your family and friends might surprise you with what they will buy.  Sometimes they will go in together to buy you a really nice item off your registry.  If there’s no art on your list, your guests won’t know to buy that for you.

Second Hand Isn’t Always Worth It

I can also hear the frugal and resourceful among you saying that you’ll just go hit up your local thrift stores for wall decorations.  That’s what I did.  While it can work and you can get lucky, what you will find at thrift stores is cast-offs.  The selection is often dismal at best.

There’s cheap posters, hand-made samplers, and lots of small pictures.  If you want something larger and quality, you’ll be out of luck.  Those are not often donated and quickly snatched up when they are.

If you want to go with thrift store specials, then you will be limited to what they have and the condition the piece is in (which may not be good).  You might find you need to replace a frame  or the glass (hope that it’s not a custom dimensions frame in either case).  There might be staining or other damage to think about.  The selection will be slim and faded to boot.

I’m not saying this to dissuade you, I’m speaking from pure experience shopping the art section in thrift stores.

Request a Size Guaranteed to Fit Your New Home on Your Wedding Gift Registry

I can hear it.  You are worried that if you ask for fine art on your wedding registry (yes inserts count), then you’ll receive something which will not fit the walls of your new home.  You may or may not have already selected your home together so I will address this problem as though you have not since it’s easier to order fine art when you have access to actual dimensions.  If you do have the dimensions, you can tailor your fine art gift request appropriately.

If you’re worried about someone giving you something humongous (unlikely), then make sure you set expectations on that before that mistake can be made.  Simply choose a size which is guaranteed to capture attention when on any size wall but not so big it requires an unreasonable amount of space in your new home.  A standard 16×24 (also 16×20) inch or 20×30 inch picture should do the trick nicely.  Those sizes will fit on most focal walls in any house or apartment but still be the center of attention.

Make sure to specify this size choice when you make your wedding registry (or invitation inserts).  It’s just like asking for a specific style and count of dishes or silverware.  Doing so will help prevent something too big from arriving in your wedding gift pile.  If you’re worried about receiving multiples, add a couple of different options to an insert or add the insert to specific invitations only.  That way you will be less likely to worry about duplicate wedding gifts of fine art.

Conclusion

Whether you knew it or not, you and I both learned how important it is to have artwork on your wedding gift registry.  It breaks up the monotony of wedding photos, is cheaper with a group buying, is far better than most second-hand options, and can even be planned for without knowing where it will hang beforehand.

If you still need more convincing, here’s an article about a survey conducted by a popular wedding registry website.  It asked lots of newlywed couples what they wished they had registered for.  If you notice, artwork is listed in the fourth paragraph.

So, now that you find you need to add some fine art to your wedding registry, how about checking out our online store?  We sell gorgeous fine art photo prints of some amazing locations which are great for honeymoon destinations.  We also sell beautiful images which are good for any time and any season.  Any of these photos would be an amazing addition to your wedding registry.  You also won’t find anything quite like them anywhere else.

If you don’t see something you want, please leave a note in the comments section below and we’ll see what we can do to add it for you.