Love and Lobster Coastal New England Weddings

Here are a few items you might not expect to pop up on a wedding registry: a remote-controlled drinks cooler, an inflatable beer pong surface, and a personalized poker chip set. Search for these items at Bed Bath & Beyond or Williams Sonoma and you’ll come up empty, but you will find them at a site dedicated solely to gifts for the groom — The Man Registry.

Described as grooms’ answer to the traditional bridal registry, the site features hundreds of gifts for the guys, replacing lemon zesters and Egyptian cotton towels with barbecue tools and PlayStation games. From electronics to bar supplies to outdoor gear, The Man Registry has it all. It’s even put a masculine spin on personalized merchandise – out with monogrammed napkins and in with the NCAA hot dog grill topper, which brands the name of your man’s favorite team right onto his Ball Park frank.

The site also includes how-to articles and expert advice designed to guide grooms through every step of the engagement, wedding and honeymoon planning processes. There’s tips on how to select the perfect engagement ring, bachelor party planning (to strip or not to strip?) and destination honeymoons. Plus subjects you won’t see tackled on most other wedding sites, like “How to plan your fall wedding around football,” “How to be a great groomsman, if you don’t like the bride,” and “10 nasty bachelor party shots.” A few of the topics are sure to crack up the bride-to-be, such as one man’s quest for an answer to the age-old question, “What the hell is a macaroon?”

Founded by two brothers and their future brother-in-law, The Man Registry has taken off since its founding in 2007, though if a recent informal Glamour poll is any indication, the reaction among brides has been mixed. Asked whether they’d let their man sign up for such a registry, the reactions ranged from “Neat website! Totally passing it on to my boy” to “I think this is pretty sexist…You don’t need a separate registry for things like those.” What do you think?