Hello everyone,

My husband and I are moving into our first home in 3.5 weeks! We're very excited for this new journey, but I don't know what to do about announcing our new home and housewarming. I'm getting all sorts of different advice from my Mom, MIL, aunt, sister, and friends. The varying advice has me confused on what to do, so thought I'd come here to ask for help!

We moved to a new state right before the pandemic, this is the state where we've purchased our new home. Since we moved here before the pandemic, we haven't had much opportunity to make new friends and our existing friends and family all live out of state, so having an actual in-person housewarming seems inappropriate to me since it would require everyone to travel quite a distance. Not to mention it seems a bit irresponsible to have a big party with the continuation of the Coronavirus. Because of this...

My mom and sister suggested we mail out "new home" announcements to our family and close friends. This, I am completely okay with! On the announcement, I'd like to make a point of letting everyone know they're welcome to visit us and we'd love to host them.

However, other family members have suggested including a "housewarming registry" on our announcements since we can't have an actual in-person housewarming party. I don't know how to feel about this. Housewarming gifts would obviously be nice since we're stretched a bit thin, but I also don't want to make family and friends feel obligated or awkward about sending us a gift. Not to mention the pandemic has taken a financial toll on everyone, so to ask for gifts during this time seems wrong. But I don't know... maybe it's common to include a registry? I'm the first of my close friends to purchase a home, so I've not received a new home announcement from someone else, so not sure how appropriate these even are or what to put on them.

Thanks for any advice you may have! Would love not to stress about this anymore, we have enough to stress about with moving into our first home haha