You have officially arrived at one of the most fun parts of planning your wedding: registering for gifts.

Now, the choice that remains is where you want to set up a wedding registry.

You kind of have endless choices. Thanks to the internet, you can register across a wide range of platforms and with almost any department store you can think of.

As one of the largest companies in the world, and with their reputation of extremely low prices for a wide range of products, we figured Walmart might be on your “maybe” list for a potential wedding registry.

To help you out a bit, we decided to investigate Walmart’s wedding registry service to see if it’s worth moving from your “maybe” list to your “definitely” list.

All About the Walmart Wedding Registry

The Walmart wedding registry functions pretty much like any other wedding registry out there. You sign up to create a registry, pick the stuff you want, and then share it with your friends and family. It’s a straightforward process.

Creating and Sharing your Registry

With Walmart, you can create your registry either online or using the Walmart app, which is available from the Apple App Store or from Google Play. If you don’t already have an account with Walmart, you will have to first set up a universal store account. Once you’ve done that, you can begin creating a registry.

With either the website or the app, you will be asked to fill out some basic information including the date of your wedding, your home state, your names, and where you will want your gifts delivered. On this same page, you can check a box to decide if you want to make your registry public. That means your registry will be searchable from the wedding registry page. If you uncheck the box to make it private, only people with a link will be able to find your registry. This link can be shared via e-mail or Facebook.

Once you get all of that set up, you can start picking gifts right away. All you have to do is shop like you normally would, but instead of clicking “Add to Cart,” you mark it as a registry item. Easy enough, right?

You can also include the information about your Walmart registry with your wedding invitations. The company automatically generates registry cards once you create an account. The cards can be printed off and tucked in with your invites. They’re business-sized cards that can be printed using most business card stock paper (like from Avery).

Choosing Your Gifts

Because it’s Walmart, your gift choices are pretty much endless. You can register for home décor, kitchen appliances, personalized gifts – you name it. If you need some advice on what to register for, Walmart created a Registry Checklist to help you make sure you have all of your bases covered. If you are shopping in-store and an item catches your eye, you can use the app to scan the barcode with your smartphone and it will automatically add to your registry.

The wedding section of their website also has a number of tips and inspirational posts to help you out with planning not only your registry, but your entire celebration. There is a whole inspiration section that features on-demand items based on what other couples are adding to their registries. Unsurprisingly, Walmart doesn’t allow cash registries and only permits registering for their gift cards for in-store or online use.

You can also continually update your registry very easily. Once you log into your account, you can add or remove items at your leisure, and even see how many items from your registry have already been purchased.

From the Other Point of View…

When you pick your wedding registry platform, it’s a good idea to choose something that is a great service for your guests as well. They’re the ones buying you all these nice presents, so you should be considerate of them.

The process is just as easy for guests as it is for you with the Walmart wedding registry. Your friends or family can order the gift online, and it will be shipped to the address you indicated when you created your account. Otherwise, they can go to their local Walmart, scan the barcode of the item they bought, and upload it to your registry so that others won’t buy that same item.

Walmart’s low prices also mean that the registry will be considerate of your guests’ budgets. Though you can find some higher-end options to add to your registry, the majority of the items you add will be affordable for almost anyone.

How it Compares

Like we said, there are tons of options to choose from when creating a wedding registry. It’s kind of insane what you can do nowadays. So, comparatively, Walmart is kind of underwhelming.

We’re just trying to be completely honest. Walmart’s wedding registry isn’t anything mind-blowing. But that being said, it’s not a bad option.

Walmart’s wedding registry is a simple, straightforward option for the practical-minded couple. If you and your partner would categorize yourselves as no-fuss, down-to-earth people, then Walmart is probably a solid option for you. The design of the website is very simple, easy to use, and their checklist helps you get all of the basics added to your list.

It’s also a good avenue to pursue if you and your future spouse are just now starting a home together. Do you need pots and pans, bath towels, or maybe curtains for you bedroom? Then you might as well go with Walmart. They have a lot of the brands you recognize (like Keurig, Cuisinart, and Better Homes and Gardens) at low prices. And since the prices are so low, then you might receive multiple gifts from just one guest!

But, we’re in the 21st century. We know that there are a lot of couples today that live together for a while before they decide to get married. In which case, you probably don’t need a ton of stuff for your house. If that’s the case, Walmart probably isn’t the best option for you.

Instead of registering at a large department store like Walmart, Macy’s or Target, more and more people opt to use a universal wedding registry site. With these sites, you can registry for almost anything – not just physical items, but also experiences like special tours, classes, trips, etc. It just depends on which site you use.

Zola is one of the most popular universal wedding registry sites today, though other options include MyRegistry.com and (the e-retailer we all know and love) Amazon. One nice feature of MyRegistry.com is that you can sync all of your previously existing registries here. So, if you registered at Crate & Barrel, Ikea, and Anthropologie, you can merge all of those registries onto one, convenient platform. And, like Walmart, the app allows you to scan barcodes to add them to your list. MyRegistry.com also allows cash gift funds if you want money to save up for something big.

Zola also allows for cash funds, along with typical wedding gifts and unique experiences in a number of locations. They have literally everything (as in over 50,000 gifts to add to your registry). Zola also uses a website and an app, and they offer free shipping for gifts.

Additionally, Zola allows couples to pick when their gifts are shipped so you don’t end up with enough boxes in your house to build a small fortress. Like Walmart, they offer a registry checklist, but they also offer a registry planner feature so you can pick the right amount of gifts at the right price points according to details you provide about your wedding.

Zola also allows you to exchange gifts before they even ship, and they will give you 20% off the remaining gifts on your registry for six months after your wedding date. And once you receive your gifts, they have a free thank you note manager to help you stay organized.

As you probably gathered, Zola is kind of a one-stop shop for your entire wedding. In addition to creating a registry, you can also use the service to create a free wedding website, and guests can buy gifts directly from your website. It’s incredibly convenient for everyone involved. So, you must be thinking that this all comes at a price.

But, it really doesn’t. Zola only collects a small credit card processing fee when someone contributes to your cash fund. That’s it. It’s just as free as Walmart’s wedding registry service.

So, like we said before, Walmart’s wedding registry is pretty bare bones compared to other sites out there. But, if you are taking a minimalist approach to your wedding registry, Walmart is a good option.

Public Opinion of Walmart’s Registry

The general consensus about Walmart’s wedding registry is one of mixed feelings, mostly because (as we mentioned) it’s not a bad service but it’s very basic.

The Walmart registry is more like an added feature to the Walmart website and shopping experience rather than an actual registry service. As a matter of fact, the customer service side of the Walmart registry is the exact same as their general helpline. If you have any issues with your registry or orders, you won’t get specialized help – which is one complaint people tend to have about Walmart’s registry.

But, people like how affordable items are at Walmart. Many of the people who register at Walmart probably do so because they regularly shop there and want gifts that fit their lifestyle. On some Wedding Wire forums, some people commented that they chose a Walmart registry to accommodate friends and family with lower incomes, but they also registered elsewhere for a well-rounded gift selection.

However some wedding guests have reported difficulty using the app and website, and when they shopped for the gifts in-store the process was unnecessarily complicated. So though the price points might be great for your guests, the overall service might not make it worth it. For low-cost registries, people tend to prefer Target to Walmart.

The opinions truly are mixed. If you do a Google search with the keywords “best wedding registry,” Walmart does not show up on many lists. Brides magazine doesn’t even include it in their Top 50 list of the best wedding registry sites and stores. But, there are some Walmart loyalists out there who are very happy to register with the store.

What We Think

Our overall assessment of Walmart’s wedding registry probably won’t come as a surprise to you.

Basically, don’t make it your first option. Don’t even make it your second or third option. Maybe make it your…11th option.

The way we feel about Walmart’s registry is kind of the same way we feel about a lukewarm cup of coffee. It’s not great, but it’s not bad enough that you’ll stop drinking it because, in the end, it’s a cup of coffee and you need the caffeine.

In short, Walmart’s registry isn’t bad, but it also isn’t great.

Alternatively, we would nudge you to use one of the universal wedding registry sites we mentioned before. If you haven’t considered it already, we would take a minute and check out Zola. It’s great for more than just a registry and could really help you out with your pre- and post-wedding to-do lists. And since everyone seems to uses wedding websites now, it’s awesome that you can create a website and a registry on a free single-platform.

If you do really, really want to register at Walmart for your wedding, we definitely don’t recommend exclusively registering there. In fact, what we would do is create a Walmart registry, then create an account with MyRegistry.com and sync the two. That way, you can at least have registries for multiple places on a single platform, making it easy for both you and your guests.

Every aspect of your wedding – including your registry – should be the image of perfection in your mind.

The Walmart wedding registry may fit a part of that image for you, but it shouldn’t constitute the whole picture.