by Elizabeth

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I recently met the founders, Erin and Rieve MacEwen, and also had a chance to interview them about their cool startup.

How did you come up with the idea for Hatch My House? 

We developed the idea for Hatch My House (HMH) in the winter of 2008, just months after becoming engaged. Living together, before getting married, as more than 50% of couples now do,* we realized we did not necessarily need the things listed on a typical wedding registry. We already owned everyday plates and glasses, a set of towels and bedding. The thing we really wanted was help with a down payment on a home. Living in San Francisco, a down payment seemed to be an unobtainable goal. However, we thought that with a small start from friends and family, that goal might actually be reached.

We launched Hatch My House for personal use just days before our wedding in April 2009 and were able to save a few thousand dollars towards our future home. In December of 2009, we launched Hatch My House for the general public.

*The State of Our Unions 2007, The Social Health of Marriage In America, The National Marriage Project, Rutgers, 2007.

Typically, what do people request on the Hatch My House online wedding registry?

Typically brides- and grooms-to-be use the site to start building their home savings nest egg. However, we've also seen couples who recently bought a home and want to fix it up as well as couples who purchased land and are building their homes from the ground up.

Can you share with us how many transactions you've done to date? What is the average gift size?

We've had more than $55,000 in gifts given on our site to-date, with an approximate gift size of $130.

Editor's disclosure: Shiny Orb, a shopping site for wedding apparel, receives no form of compensation from this vendor.

By Elizabeth

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So, we asked our friends at Koutali, an online store for all your kitchen and dining needs, to recommend a few items.  I'll bet our brides who are wracking their brains to think of registry items don't have these!

Stylish Swedish Herb Pots by Sagaform ($19.95 - $49.95)
I love this one.  The most economical way to cook with herbs is to grow them in one's own kitchen.  Having the convenience of fresh herbs combined with the contemporary design of this herb pot will brighten any kitchen and any dish.  I'll bet none of you thought to register for this one :)

Bamboo Serving Collection ($12.99-$34.99)
A tricky concern for many couples is to ensure an online wedding registry has a variety of items across the price spectrum so that all guests can participate.  I thought this collection was inexpensive, yet elegant, impressive, and utilitarian at the same time.  You cannot have enough serving bowls, and these have a natural look at great prices. 

Cuisinart Convection Toaster Oven/Broiler ($325)
This convection toaster is multi-faceted.  I love how it can be a microwave and a toaster, making it easy to warm up  leftovers and toast bread.  It can even bake desserts.  Most importantly, it can do all of these things while saving counter space.

Joslyn from Koutali has a number of other recommendations for wedding registry gifts on their blog.  Koutali also offers wedding registry services, so you can easily sign up for all of these items. 

Editor's disclosure: Shiny Orb, a shopping site for wedding apparel, receives no form of compensation from this vendor.

by Amy

Amy got married in late 2009 and was a runner up in Dancing with the Brides. She offers these tips on choosing wedding vendors and getting registered.

Editor's disclosure: Shiny Orb is an Amazon Associate.

Wedding vendors:

When you first get engaged, you are beyond excited and giddy. But once that excitement comes down a notch, you are instantly overwhelmed with the number of things that must get done before the big day. Without a wedding planner, one of the toughest things in the planning process is picking your vendors because good vendors can make your day absolutely wonderful while bad vendors can ruin a wedding. Sometimes, you may hear about vendors by word of mouth from trusted friends or family members. That makes things easy. But if you don't have that option, you can always use the internet to help you make your decisions.

For us, we were getting married on Long Island and as it turns out, there's a fantastic wedding board out there called LIWeddings.com where brides can give other brides advice and recommendations. We used this site heavily to get an initial list of vendors to visit and consider. Then we visited and talked to those selected vendors and made our decisions that way. Another site that is helpful is WeddingBee - there you'll also find reviews and advice from other brides.

Wedding registries:
 
Wedding registries are a really fun part of the wedding process. This is the time for you and your fiance(e) to start imagining what your new home will be like and what you'd like to have in it. We started with one registry at Bed Bath and Beyond because we were mostly looking for kitchen items and BBB had fairly reasonable prices and a very wide assortment of options for each item. They also have a great return policy in case a certain item ended up not fitting into our new home. The key to putting together a good registry is to add items with a wide range of prices and to add a lot of items. That way, your guests can have more options. For us, we thought we had added a ton of things but in the end, as the registry started getting filled, we realized that our friends and families wanted us to put more items on it. We started to go beyond the typical kitchen items to other items that we would like and ended up signing up for a registry with Amazon.com. They often have free shipping for items over $25, which is an added bonus for our guests.

Editor's note: It is also common practice for many stores to offer you a 10% discount on items that remain unpurchased from wedding registry.  So, don't be shy in adding more items!