You should aim to have items in a wide price range on your wedding registry throughout your engagement. 

 
Why should you have a wide price range of items?

You need to have low cost items on your registry because:

• Many of your guests may have a limited budget to spend on their gift.  Simply put - be considerate and make sure there are plenty of affordable options for everyone.
• Some guests enjoy purchasing multiple smaller items.
• There are lots of household items that you will most likely need that will be under $25 even if you get the highest quality available.

You need to have more expensive items on your registry because:

• Some guests will want to spend a considerable amount on your wedding gift and may not want to hassle with purchasing multiple items.  Be considerate of these guests by having some more expensive options.
• Some people may want to go in together to get you a larger, more expensive gift. 

So what prices should your registry items be?

The common price categories for wedding registry items are:

• Under $25
• Between $25 - $50
• Between $50 - $100
• Between $100 - $200 
• Over $200

The percentage of items you register for in each category will vary depending on the goal you have in mind for your wedding registry and also on your guests' budgets.  Since you don't know what your guests are going to spend, we suggest starting with the following percentages and adjusting your registry as items get purchased.

• 30-50% of the total items on your registry: Under $25
• 20-40% of the total items on your registry: Between $25 - $50
• 10-20% of the total items on your registry: Between $50 - $100
• 5-15% of the total items on your registry: Between $100 - $200 
• 5-15% of the total items on your registry: Over $200

Notice that the percentages are based off the number of items, not the total cost.  The dollar amount of the items is fairly even across the price ranges even though the number of items on your registry will be more skewed towards the low-end.

Remember that your wedding registry should have a wide mix of price options throughout your engagement.  If you notice that a lot of the items in a certain category are being purchased, make sure to replace them with new items.  This task will most likely be the hardest part of being well registered, but the reward of keeping your friends and family happy and unoffended will be well worth your time.