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| I just had my shower on Saturday and got some great gifts from my registry. On Monday I went through the registries and added/removed certain gifts, so that there is still an assortment of gifts but it also corresponds to what we still need/want
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| I would register like 2 months os so before your shower. Many of the stores flip their stock and that way you get the latest products and avoid any discontinuations on your list. I experienced this with both Target and Macy's.
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JANICESKATES
4/26/06 11:16 A
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It depends on when you expect to start getting gifts.
Are you having an engagement party? If so, you'll want to register for some small things before that.
Otherwise, you probably want to wait until a couple of months before your shower. Before that and the store's inventory could change, getting rid of your items, so you'll have to pick again.
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| My question is when do we need to start to register for gifts. I got engaged back in November but the wedding isn't until Sept 8th, 2007. I don't want to sound greedy by registering too soon but I want to give people enough time. What's a good time frame when I should start looking at that.
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AURORAB345
4/25/06 3:57 P
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As I said earlier, we were in a similar situation. We did not register. And when people would ask my Mom, "What do they want/need for a wedding present?" She would explain the remodeling thing and say we really could use money, or if they wanted to get us a gift, gift cards to placed like Home Depot, Lowes, Restoration Hardware, etc. It worked great.
Also, there are now websites where you can register towards money for a house.
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DANCER1007
4/25/06 12:24 P
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| We aren't exactly sure if we are going to register, I 've heard the ups and downs from it, I know that if you register you will get the gifts you wanted with no fuss...but we are going to be trying to put a down payment on a condo, and would prefer cash gifts so some family suggested not making a registry for the wedding. Did anyone else consider this? any suggestions?
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Just a word of warning:
We registered at Target. They do not keep your registry for very long after the event. We found this out about 3 months after the wedding, when my mom went to get us something as a hostess gift the first time she visited, and the registry was gone. Keep this in mind, especially since we got almost everything left on the registries at Crate & Barrel and Bed, Bath & Beyond for Christmas and birthdays.
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Hi ladies! Just wanted to chime in...We're registered at Macy's and Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I love B,B,&B...they're return policy is AMAZING. You return a half used bottle of something that's 10 yrs old and they'll give you cash back for it. LoL...I don't abuse it, I'm just giving an example. They've also been really helpful and knowledgeable.
We're having a similar problem as one of the other ladies said...(well, a combo really) We've lived in our house for almost 2 years, so we have the stuff we need to survive. Of course, most of it doesn't match, so we'll probably garage-sale it when we get stuff from our registry. But the other thing is that we plan to move within the next year or two, we don't even know what state we're going to...let alone what color bath mat we need. :) So we're just going to leave it simple, so it will go anywhere.
Good luck ladies!
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ZOLA_NATALIE
4/23/06 4:48 P
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Hey I've registered at:
Meier and Frank (changing to Macy's in a few months though)
JCPenney (since Meier and Frank discontinued 1/2 of our stuff)
Bed Bath and Beyond (great experience and lots of stuff)
Crate and Barrel (not our style and to expensive but we are getting our silverware there)
Sears (for the fiance and his tools)
As time goes by, you'll probably remember some things you wanted but didn't register for. What I forgot at first (and added later from Crate and Barrel) were those ice tea spoons. They are great for ice cream and stirring things in tall cups.
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JANICESKATES
4/23/06 2:01 P
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Well, I've been working on it all weekend and I think I'm done.
We ended up with three - Macy's, Target, and Amazon.com
We did Target yesterday and it was the best of the two store experiences. We took the gun around the store and picked out things we liked and wanted. The gun didn't have to check in with every scan like the Macy's scanner (which was so annoying when registering for towels). Because the store is so organized, the whole thing took us an hour. I set out with the express goal that everything on that registry would likely be available in store.
I really hated Macy's. It took forever. There's no rhyme or reason to the layout. Things are in 3 different places. Outside of cookware and silverware, the in-store selection was terrible. And because of the Mays-Federated merger, there's a fair amount of dissarray. The china we picked out isn't in any store. I really wanted to see it. Really, unless you were looking for cookware or silverware, the selections available in-sotre were pretty limited. We left tired, cranky, and frustrated.
Amazon ended up being a collection of things not available elsewhere, or at a significantly better price (like the stand mixer that's $50 more from Macys, and which they won't ship for free - Amazon will). Plus, it has the advantage in that you can rate your desire for items - nice to have, like to have, love to have. Going by the numbers, this was my favorite registry - it has the most on it. Even for things I put on other registries, I checked the reviews on Amazon for feedback on what was good and what just looked like it was good, but leaked/broke/came apart/etc...I'm the sort of person who really weighs the merits of two almost-identical vegetable peelers (which may be why I found this stressful to begin with) for a couple of minutes before choosing.
Speaking of weighing the merits, I used Consumer Reports website, Cooks Illustrated website, and "Alton Brown's Gear For Your Kitchen" for item research. All 3 came in very handy.
Yeah, okay, I may be OCD.
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JENBERRY47
4/23/06 10:55 A
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| We registered at Bed Bath & Beyond and Sears online. We didn't have to go to the store at all. You can add items and everything! Sears website isn't the greatest to work with, but I LOVE BB&B's site...very easy!
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I was very surprised at how long it takes to register! We have spent hours and hours in stores registering! We picked Macys and Target!
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Just an FYI, BB&B will give you CASH back if you return something...
We are just registering at BB&B and asking for gift cards to Target and Best Buy because we are having an out of town wedding.
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| I think registering is all about getting things you wouldn't normally buy yourself. I debating back and forth about the whole "china" thing and I decided to do it. This is probably the only time that I would buy it ( or someone else buy it!) and although I know I won't use it every day, I will have it when I need it. And just because you might have things already, think how nice it would be to have something updated or new? Not everyone likes giving money so make sure you have enough gift options for people of all price ranges
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JENNIBALYEAT
4/20/06 2:08 P
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When my husband and I registered, we had just started building a new home, so everything was going to be white and new. We picked 5 stores to register at (some stores were not available to my family). Since I had 3 showers we got almost everything we needed for the kitchen and bathrooms. At our wedding most people just gave money. So it doesn't really matter what you register for. Another option is having a gift card shower. My friend did that and they got some pretty cool gift cards from places they never would have thought of registrying at.
We did register for a few things that I would not have bought for myself, but thought they were really nice (for example: a Kate Spade vase for $180, china, and a Waterford crystal candle holder). And we got all of them. I thought they would be nice for special occations and for the future. Most of my friends thought the china was too over priced. We didn't get it for a shower gift or wedding present, but at Christmas my husband's aunt remembered where we had registered for the wedding and bought us 8 sets of our china. We've only used it a few times, but it is wonderful! Sure, we may not use it too many times a year, but I always loved when my Mom pulled out the china for special events. I want my children to feel the same way, without waiting for a family member to pass it down.
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| We did something similar. I registered at Home Outfitters (a store in Canada) similar to Bed Bath and Beyond for my shower and then at Macys. We currently live in a furnished (very small apartment) in Boston with limited storage, so I only registered for the items we really need now. Through word of mouth we have requested monetary gifts since we cannot buy furniture etc. at this time. So far, people are very happy with that and don't seem to have a problem with us requesting money
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AURORAB345
4/20/06 1:04 P
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My husband and I were planning on moving into the home he grew up in and inherited - it was/is in need of major, major renovation in every area. We couldn't even begin to think about decorating. We'd both had our own places before this so the last thing we needed was yet another set of glasses or placemats. It may sound terrible, but we were trying to weed out from the things we already had. We tried to register, but were hopelessly lost. How do I know what color duvet to get when we have NO clue what color our bedroom will be or what our room will even look like? So we let the word get out explaining some of this, and suggesting that if people wanted to give us something, gift cards at stores like Home Depot, Restoration Hardware, Linens N' Things, etc., would be wonderful. And it worked out well for us. As far as I know, no one was even slighhtly bothered by it - most gave us money. Those who wanted to give more personal items did so, and that was great.
Bridal registry resources can be a great tool, but think hard about you and your fiance - What do you want? How do you imagine your life together? And its ok not to know yet. But just because a registry resource says you should have 4 hand towels doesn't mean that is what you have to register for. Its ok to really think about what you and your fiance would really like, what would fit your lifestyle, and indicate that to people, even if it is outside of the "traditional" way of registering. Since wherever you register shouldn't be on any printed material sent to your guests(invitations, etc.) people will find out about your registry by word of mouth. So you really do have some freedom in choosing what and how you "register", or if you even choose to "register" for specific items with specific stores.
Good Luck and enjoy it, whatever you decide.
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JANICESKATES
4/20/06 11:25 A
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We're big online-internet people, so we're registered at Amazon.com for a bunch of stuff.
Last night I started the Macy's registry. We were going to do Target too, by he thinks that's too many, so we're going to move the stuff we were thinking of saving for Target to Amazon. I may shift some of the kitchen stuff to Macy's so I can touch and pick it up first.
We're going to go to Macy's to do things in person tomorrow.
The part I find overwhelming is just deciding what to get. We've owned our home for nearly two years, and we've had to eat and sleep and bathe during that time, so we have everything we need to exist - it's about what we need to replace.
For example, we have a ragtag bunch of pots - mostly the set my parents got when they married in '74. We saved a couple of his pots as well for the things we always use. And we have 3 (yes, 3!) large non-stick fry pans (or skillets if you prefer).
So getting another set doesn't make sense. We'd only use half of it, and we need to double up on the things we use most. It's just figuring out what those are...for the pots, towels, and everything else in the house.
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| My fiance was really overwhelmed, until he got into it!!! I've been having fun with it :) We registered at Target and Bed Bath and Beyond.
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Registering has been my favorite part so far - minus the dress!
One suggestion is to make sure you think about your showers and include smaller, more fun items that people may like to get you for that. For example, my fiance and I registered for 3 or 4 board games that we wanted. At 9.99, it's a cheap and easy gift for someone but it's still something we wanted and will enjoy for a long time!
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The Knot has a great section on registering for gifts. They have an article about what things you should generally register for.
My fiancee and I registered at Crate and Barrel and we love it. There's just about everything you'd need there. They recommend registering in at least two stores, though, which is something we're still working on.
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JANICESKATES
4/19/06 11:01 P
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Oooooh...my head hurts...so many choices! How do I really know what I need and don't need? This is crazy! So much stuff....agh...
Anyone else totally overwhelmed by this?
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