This Couple Registered for 750 Vacuums and Here's Exactly Why

Plus, shop their top vacuum picks.

Courtesy of Meg Hahn

Updated Aug 13, 2020

Meg Hahn knew moments into meeting Brandon Armbruster that there was something splendidly outrageous and special about their burgeoning relationship. Hahn had recently moved to Austin, Texas, from San Francisco, where she worked in the tech space; her future husband, meanwhile, described himself as a tech enthusiast at the time—something Hahn eventually realized applied to one specific prototype: vacuums of all kinds. As a surprise, she created a wedding registry on The Knot comprised solely of 750 different types of the best vacuums on the market. (Roombas, Dysons, Sharks? You name it, they requested it.)

"Brandon is a tech geek: he likes how things work and he likes well-built things (watches, cars and vacuums). He likes well-built technology and appreciates it," Hahn tells The Knot in an interview. "We also have two dogs that are extremely fluffy. When I first came to his house and saw his army of robot vacuums—and he talks about getting more with the new Shark, Roomba, comparing features and prices—I was like, 'Oh my gosh, how many vacuums does one man need?' He has four Dysons in the closet and two pool iRobots that pick up leaves and we jokingly talk about a lawn mower vacuum we can get that mows the lawn for you. We're always talking about vacuums."

Initially, Hahn found the obsession to be cute, until one day she realized its practicality. "I had this moment when two Roombas were passing each other in the hallways and behind them was our mini Australian Shepherd and floof plumes were falling off of him where the two vacuums were cleaning and I was like, 'I see it now,'" she laughs. "And living with two teenage boys [from his previous marriage] who are endearingly so, human tornadoes, who just leave stuff everywhere, there's a film over everything. Having an army of vacuums to help you keep the house not in a state of shambles, I see why he loves vacuums so much… The level of excitement, I find so endearing."

Why a Vacuum Wedding Registry?

With the increase in personalization across the board with wedding planning, The Knot Editors have seen an uptick in all sorts of unique requests when it comes to not only wedding decor, but registries too. In this case, however, the story seemed rather unique as the couple had registered for an astounding 750 vacuums on their wedding website.

Due to COVID, like so many others, the pair had to postpone their Texas nuptials to April 2021; in the interim, they've worked on other details like their wedding website and increased personalization across the board. "As far as the registry goes, we have a fairly small wedding. Our invite list is 85 people and we've worked really hard to keep it as intimate as we can," explains Hahn. "We really wanted to create this opportunity for our most important people because they're all over the country."

"Because we wanted to stress so hard—'Just come and show up and be here for us, we don't want to ask anybody to get us gifts,'—we just want to ask people to come and have a good time," she says. "We have this great page and we had so much fun building our wedding website. I think it offers a lot of customization that makes the site feel unique. It allows us to make it feel like us… And I wanted to use the registry page because I had it. I came up with the idea as a surprise to Brandon. Once I started toying around the site and realized, 'Oh I can add in all these products from the stores, I can create 'Brandon's Vacuum List.'"

Naturally, Armbruster was delighted and enthralled by his fiancée's adorable surprise. From there, the two have since filled out their wedding registry with all the latest and greatest, best vacuum picks. While their guests should in no way feel pressured to purchase off their registry, they left it public because, in a way, this is one great example of their relationship: fun, fresh, quirky at times and utterly tender.

"I'm so excited to marry him," she concludes. "And if we end up getting a vacuum? That's a win."

The Best Vacuum Picks, According to Brandon

"While other men who share my affinity of luxury items may chase Cuban cigars, sports cars and yachts, I am a connoisseur of vacuums," boasts Armbruster. "This love began watching my grandmother push around her Eureka and culminated in my first purchase of a Dyson after grad school. My collection began with upright Dyson vacuums and I have three. However, my current passion is for my robots. In the years since I began my collection, technology has improved and along with it, so has my affinity grown for the unsung heroes that toil away in laboratories to make the world a better place one clean floor and clean pool at a time."

As Armbruster refers to himself as a "botrepreneur," he provides his best vacuum picks on the market in 2020. Interestingly enough, he's named his vacuums after his favorite hip-hop artists of all time too. He concludes, "I hope to own them all someday."

For the Home:

The Vacuum Named After Snoop Dogg

"I've named this one the 'Snoop Botty Bot' after Snoop Doggy Dog," says Armbruster.

Shark IQ robot vacuum with wifi-home mapping, $600, Amazon.com

The "Eminem" of Robot Vacuums

"This is the protege to the S9+," he says of the aforementioned vacuum. "Think of it as the Eminem to his Dr. Dre."

iRobot Roomba i7+ robot vacuum, $800, Amazon.com

For Outdoors

The "Better Than Kelis" Lawn Mower Vacuum

"This is truly the crown jewel of mowing vacuums," explains Armbruster. "It is even better than Kelis, as it doesn't need any milkshakes to bring all the boys to your yard. And if it did make milkshakes? I'm sure they would be better than yours."

Worx 20V power share robotic lawn mower with GPS, $1,500, Amazon.com

The Missy Elliott of Pool Bots

"Though it toils away quietly on the bottom of the pool, this robot vacuum has the same energy and zeal of Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott," says Armbruster.

Dolphin Nautilus CC Plus pool vacuum, $780, Amazon.com

The "L.L. Pool J"

Brandon affectionately refers to this particular device, a pool skimmer, as the "L.L. Pool J" named, of course, after the beloved L.L. Cool J. He's also created a supplemental name for the device known as "Poolio" after Coolio.