Couple's Wedding Registry Seeks Money For Home Repairs

BOSTON (CBS) -- Lauren Capriotti and Nick Guerin are not only planning a wedding, but they are also working on renovating the house they'll be calling home.

"We decided to buy the foreclose house because it needed a little work, but it's in a phenomenal area," Nick says.

With a kitchen and bathroom in need of updates, the couple decided to take a different approach to their gift registry.

"We requested cash because we had so much work to do on our home, and we realized that a log of our finances over the next two-to-six months after the wedding are all going to go into these renovations," says Lauren.

For the bridal shower, they asked for Home Depot gift cards. For the wedding, they signed up with Tender, an online registry where guests can use a credit card to add to their renovation fund.

Anne Chertoff of Yahoo Style says couples today are living together well before they get married so they already have dishes and glassware and linens and towels. So, they don't need to register for more of those items.

Chertoff admits some relatives may be turned off by the bridal couple's requesting cash.

"You don't want to come off as greedy or crass," she says. "And so it's a fine line that you make sure you find a registry site that's reputable and also something that looks appealing an secure."

About a dozen registries now work this way, but they aren't free. Heather George, a financial planner, says there are fees associated with those services, so it isn't necessarily that you shouldn't use them, but you should be aware of the fee associated with using the online registration.