Weddingbee Blog

Love the title of this post! Everything we read told us not to register until we got closer to our July date. I guess there are sales and discontinued items and then Christmas. So we waited until after the new year. We had fun too, but then hit a wall and said…enough shopping…time for sugar!

We registered with Macy’s and REI. We loaded up on camping gear. But after Macy’s, we didn’t have a whole lot of oomph left.

We received two fancy platinum place settings that we’ve used all of three times in the last two years. If we had to do it over again, we probably wouldn’t put those on there. But everything else was really cool.

And I know what you mean about expecting something to be cool and fun and then finding out it was so much of the former or the latter. I had a bridal bubble burst on me when I went dress shopping. Being engaged is like a ticket into this whole wedding subculture that is geared toward making you feel really good. So when something goes the other way, it’s a much bigger deal than it would be otherwise.

Good luck with the rest of your registering!

My fiance and I were just at Williams Sonoma and Crate and Barrel this weekend in Union Square. He loves the Shun knives but they are so dang expensive!!!! He wants us to register at Crate & Barrel.

Also, how do you sign up for that Sunday morning registry?

We registered online first, then went into the stores to finish the registries. By doing things in this sequence, we got VIP treatment when we walked in the door, and we collected our registration goodies without having to listen to the long sales pitches.

Le Creuset rocks!

MWAHAHAHAHA I dare you to come to Australia! I’m American, so of course I expected that when we registered, we’d get the cool scan gun. Nope. Not how things work here. They give you a folder full of forms and a pen. And you walk around writing stuff down.

For every item, you have to record:
* department code
* store’s item reference number
* barcode number
* item brand
* item style or name
* item color or pattern
* item size
* item description
* number of items desired
* item price

For every…single…item.

My hand cramped up. We only registered for 43 items (small destination wedding with an AHR, so we’re not having a major event), and it took us 5 hours to traipse all over the store and record everything.

We registered at a major department store, so it’s not like this is because we were at some little podunk store, either. When we were given the forms, I asked why they didn’t use the scanners, and the consultant just shrugged and said that no department stores here want to have to set up the computer systems.

We came across another couple who were registering. As they were having a much bigger wedding than us, they had several hundred items on their list. The guy told me they’d been working on their registry at that store for 3 days. THREE FREAKIN’ DAYS.

I love this country with all my heart. But seriously - they need to get some scanners, LOL!

Does this bother anyone else?

I registered at Crate and Barrel (and William Sonoma has this problem also) because they had the everyday dishes I wanted. But then you end up registering for other stuff that you could get the exact same product much cheaper elsewhere. Which makes me feel like people are going to look at my registry and think - a $6 spoon! I could get this at BB&B for a buck!

But then, do you have a BB&B registry filled with $1 spoons? That’s adding a whole ‘nother registry to the mix.

What did you guys do?

We registered at Crate & Barrel and BB&B. It was exhausting. (We went to C&B one week on a Saturday, and followed up at BB&B later that week on a weeknight.) But I have to say that the Crate & Barrel folks were exact opposite of most people you met at your W&S store, Miss Penguin. They were OVERLY helpful, to the point where I almost wanted to tell one of them to just go away already. She was slowing us down!

Our W&S here in KC (on the Plaza) isn’t that pleasant of a place to shop, so it didn’t even enter my mind as an option for registering.

And I agree with cs who mentioned above that we were able to find comparable items at BB&B that were more reasonably priced than they were at C&B, and I was fine with having those things on the registry there. C&B is for the big stuff: the pots and pans, the really nice towels, certain pieces of furniture, and all of our china. BB&B was for more practical items, including mixers, knives (we’re Global users), and the sheets we love.

We only registered at BB&B. I love shopping so I thought it was going to be fun, but honestly it really wasn’t fun. We both were overwhelmed by the amount of items they had. We were also nervous about adding big ticket items, so yeah, the whole experience was stressful for us.

I love to COOK too and I am amazed that you prepared meals without the proper cooking tools!!! No matter what store I go to - I head for the kitchen/dining area first! I think my registry will be made up of “upgrades” to what I have already and like you it’ll be a mix of pieces that we like best rather than a whole set.