Wedding season is once again upon us and whether it’s your special day or someone you love is getting hitched, there’s a lot to do to ensure it’s a memorable event. To help make things just a little bit easier—and way more personalized—Etsy is launching their first ever Wedding Registry service so that couples can easily create a selection of curated, custom, and meaningful gifts to help celebrate their nuptials. And who better to serve as the face of this service than Queer Eye TV personality, culinary tastemaker (and fellow Canadian) Antoni Porowski, who, along with his own finacé Kevin Harrington, are partnering with Etsy to put together their ultimate wedding gift registry with carefully chosen items from makers and artisans all over the world.

This Registry service, as well as Porowski and Harrington’s list, are launching today—along with Etsy’s Wedding Trend Guide—and there will be a second drop in August featuring wedding decor items and accessories selected by the couple that will help make the celebration even more unique. We recently spoke with Porowski about the new collaboration, inspiring others to think differently about their wedding registry and tips for the best gift-giving.

First of all, congratulations on your engagement! What an exciting time for you.

“Thank you! Yes, it is. Like, who gave me permission to do that? You know, that’s the question that Kevin I asked ourselves. It’s such a weird grown up thing to do—there’s nobody stopping us. We just decided, ‘hey, you want to spend your life together and create a family and our own little existence? It’s so weirdly mature.”

How did this Etsy collaboration come about?

“We decided to just throw a really casual, improvised engagement party and went to the bar where we went on our first date—Ray’s in downtown New York—and all these people brought us gifts, which we weren’t expecting because we had never been married before. And there was this beautiful board that Kevin’s best friend gave us that had both of our names engraved on it and I was like, ‘that’s like such a nice personal gift’. We also got mugs with Housewives taglines on them because [Kevin’s] obsessed with housewives, and a cocktail glass with a stormtrooper etched on it… they were all so interesting, one-of-a-kind and personal. And I’m not kidding you, maybe a week or two later Etsy reached out that they wanted to collaborate on the fact that they’re launching a registry. I started looking at all the options that they had and I was like ‘wait, we have that cutting board, and someone gave us that coffee mug’— they were all from Etsy which was kind of cool.”

What makes giving Etsy gifts more special?

“I love things that are old and things that are handmade. And so this [collaboration] was just kind of perfect—[these gifts] are not cookie cutter. I love going to big chain stores, but you go in and you see the same thing 50 times and that takes away from the special-ness of it. With Etsy you get to support small business owners and artisans from all over the world and pick out original stuff that you want to have. And it’s been fun, because it’s something that [Kevin and I] have gotten to do together. And thankfully, we’re learning that we actually have pretty similar tastes, aesthetically, so [Etsy] is helping us on this journey because this is our first exercise that we’ve really done as a unit. And I’m happy to report that we haven’t ripped each other’s heads off, and that we’re getting along really well. So it’s a good sign. It’s a good start.”

This kind of registry really opens the door for different types of gifts.

“One-hundred percent. And I started speaking to friends who have gone the registry route and those who didn’t. And the ones who didn’t are often surprised with a lot of very meaningful gifts, but they’re often like, ‘what am I supposed to do with this thing?’ I feel like with the Etsy registry, it’s the best of both worlds because it gets to be organized and concise, but you still get to focus on the unique, handmade, distinct aspect of it that I think people want people to have when [gifting or receiving].”

Especially for a wedding, which is a big life moment.

“Totally. And it’s something that you want to look back on, especially with one-of-a-kind gifts. Whenever you look at that item you get to think about the person who gave it to you. And that’s what I love when I’m giving a gift—I want them to remember a nice time that we had or our friendship history. So this is able to tackle all of that, which is really great.”

Do you have any general tips that people should think about when they’re  trying to find the perfect wedding gift?

“Yes, if they don’t already have an Etsy registry, I would actually just think about the person and the actual life that they have. And think about something that they can use if you’ve been to their place. Like do they have their keys and their sunglasses and a bunch of stuff laying around on the counter taking up space? I picked this beautiful wooden box from Etsy that has these appliqué gingko leaves that look super vintage and very custom. If they’d like to write, you can get wonderful journal covers, if they have a dog, you can get them a cute raincoat and a matching human raincoat. And if you’re struggling with that, think about something that’s consumable like some maple syrup—yes, I’m Canadian—from a small purveyor, or a candle which everyone enjoys whether you’re hosting a dinner party or you want to have one by the bath, or like a really nice olive oil or like something that they necessarily wouldn’t want to spend on themselves and ties into the type of life that they have.”

That’s such good advice.

“And if all else fails, just give them money [laughs].”