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As of today, Mr. Magnolia and I have been engaged for ten months. We registered back in March (gotta love those Crate & Barrel registry events!), and I have to say — every time I come home to see one of those big black and white boxes on the doormat, I let out a little squeal!
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve noticed that several more items have been purchased off our C&B registry (I’m not a stalker…just an…observer!), which is very exciting since my first shower is this weekend. And it seems like our friends and family know us (well, me) pretty well, since the first category to be bought out was our stemware!
It’s pretty funny, actually. We don’t have a single piece of formal or everyday china, and nobody has dared purchase any flatware, but everyone wants to make sure that we don’t go thirsty!
I wonder what that says about our friends and family? 
Has anyone else noticed a pattern in the gifts that are purchased off your registries? Do you think there’s any rhyme or reason to the items that go first?
That’s so funny; we received ZERO of the stemware we registered for. C’est la vie.
In our case, people were buying primarily individual items instead of things for a set. My theory is that they wanted their gifts to be unique (extra memorable?) instead of one of many fungible items.
I think wine glasses are often one of the first things purchased off a registry because they’re affordable and you can give a complete set.
And I think dishes are actually the least purchased because buying even one complete set is kinda pricey.
But I’d love to hear how everyone chooses registry gifts! Interesting topic! 
AS for reason, maybe price? Things like glasses seem to normally be cheaper for a set .. I got ENDLESS amounts of glasses and I remember thinking..who has this many friends drinking this much wine? It was insane. Im going to have to throw drinking parties for the rest of eternity to use all the glasses mugs , wine goblet and beer mugs i got!
The first thing purchased off our tiny registry was the most expensive thing (gifted by a couple of grad students), and the second item was the least expensive thing (gifted by…well, people who make more than grad students do).
You know how “one size fits all” means “either too big or too small?” My cousin’s registry items were all too big or too small. There were about a dozen items in the $750 and up category, and a bazillion things between $5 and $20. Result: anyone who wanted to spend about a hundred ended up giving four picture frames, or three candlesticks and some measuring spoons, or a bunch of kitchen gadgets and a clock, or whatever. And the result of that was the “too small” part of the list got wiped out. I hope they wanted a zillion gift cards, because after all that registering, that’s what they got: all the piddly little things plus gift cards.
I haven’t registered for any items yet, however I certainly have bought registry items for recent weddings I’ve attended. For me, I have two things in mind: price, and utility. Once I have a budget in mind, I usually look at what I am able to buy, and usually this does not add up to a full set of anything. If this is the case then, I tend to buy the remainder of sets that haven’t been purchased instead of buying the first part of an unbought set. I worry that the Bride and Groom will get part of a set, and then won’t be able to afford the rest of the set. This could be why one item goes before other things do.
I was just wondering the same thing! The first of our list are the big ticket cookware(maybe cause I am known to be a good cook?), and small appliance, then stemware, although I didn’t register expensive plate set, we’ve only gotten 4 sets so far, wedding is saturday. However, we have a very small un-publish registry, people only fiind out about it by word of mouth.
Do you know what kind of shower it’s going to be? It may be a cocktail or drinking themed one! 
As for how I choose things off other people’s registry I look at things that I have that I enjoy that are doubled on their registry. If I see something I love, I’ll generally get it with a note about how great the object is and how I use it. Otherwise, I’ll set a budget and find something that works within it that I think was chosen by the part of the couple I know best.
As for how we chose to put things on registry, we knew there was a huge guest list all over the place in price range. So we set up several different ones at the types of stores that we could guess our family/friends liked to and were more willing to shop at. Bed, Bath & Beyond for our friends and Bloomingdales for my parent’s friends. Crate & Barrel and Williams Sonoma somewhere in the middle. Plus registries in the country we were getting married in for people who live there and aren’t internet savvy. We got a ton of things off just about every registry except one in the country (we didn’t really advertise that one). There was very little missing at the end of it all and we got plenty of gift cards/cash/check gifts to cover whatever was that we really wanted (not much).
miss magnolia - how far in advance did you set up your crate & barrel registry? I was reading comments to another post earlier today and it seems discontinued items were a problem.
Amy, we registered about ten months in advance. Early, yes. But we kept that in mind and purposefully chose items that (for the most part) weren’t seasonal.
Over the last couple of months a couple of items have become unavailable, and when that happens, I delete them from the online registry and add something comparable.
When we were at C&B, Mr. Magnolia insisted on registering for small chili bowls, even though we knew they would be seasonal. I said that was fine, and I was not surprised at all when they were discontinued a month or so later. However, I kept in mind that we were getting married in January, and C&B may re-add new chili bowls. Sure enough, last week I stumbled across a modified version of what Mr. Mags loved so much last March.
I added them immediately. Success!
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Miss Magnolia, Atlanta Age and Occupation: 28, Public Affairs and Government Relations Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Lobbyist Engagement Date: December 1, 2006 Wedding Date: January, 2008 Blogging Since: September 6, 2007 Venue: catherdral ceremony/private club reception About Me: Mr. Magnolia and I are thrilled to be planning an evening, winter wedding for 200 people in Atlanta. We both work in politics and share a love of University of Georgia football, pop culture, and good food! I'm a runner who adores wedding magazines, bad reality television, and a good glass of wine. Most of the time I like to think I'm pretty organized, but between wedding planning, house hunting, and a full-time job, I'm being put to the test!
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