Registry Confusion
December 18th, 2007 @ 4:47 pm by Mrs. Jasmine
Mr. Jasmine and I have yet to register, mostly because the registry process seems so daunting. We both live in small, somewhat unfurnished and unequipped apartments, so there is a lot we need for our new household. But we’re not entirely sure where to start.For one, we don’t know where to register. These are the stores we’re considering: (1) Bloomingdale’s Home, (2) Macy’s, (3) Crate & Barrel, and (4) Williams & Sonoma. I would love to know the pros/cons of registering at each of these stores, from those of you who’ve done this before.
Also, how many stores do couples typically register at? Many of the items we like are available at some or all of the stores we’re interested in. Couldn’t you really just register for everything at one store and be done with it?
Finally, what price range should the majority of the registry items be within? I’ve heard a lot of people comment on how frustrating it is when registry items are priced too low or (especially) too high. I really don’t want to upset our guests, so what’s the sweet spot?
As you can tell, I’m totally befuddled by this process and would love any input anyone has to offer!
all images courtesy of williams-sonoma
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27 Responses to “Registry Confusion”
We registered at three stores: Macy’s, Crate & Barrel and Amazon. We really like C&B, but wanted people to have an option to shop in person. Thus, we added Macy’s, since it is the main dept. store near my family. Amazon was great for misc. things, instead of creating small registries with only one or two items.
We were really worried about registering too. But as we have an engagement party soon, my folks really pushed us to do so. We decided on 3 stores…Dillards, Williams Sonoma and Crate & Barrel. We decided on those three based on what we have in our town in which we live, but also by availability to our guests (who are spread out everywhere). C & B’s stock changes often, so we registered for a lot of seasonal items right now and plan to “refill” the registry later. WS has more of the upscale cooking items we wanted, Dillards has all the household stuff (sheets, towels) we wanted and C& B has a lot of the fillers (gadgets, seasonal stuff).
We may have missed out on some experience, but we did most of our registering online. For some items we did end up going into the store and touching the items to get a sense of quality.
Good luck, and we ended up enjoying this process more than we thought we would!!!
Crate & Barrel is a great place to register as their website is well organized and easy to use. Your family & friends can easily purchase items in-store or online. I initially registered at Bloomingdale’s, but noticed that after a few months many of the items I registered for were no longer available.
I think it’s okay to register at two or three different stores, but anything more is just obnoxious.
If you plan on registering for bedding I suggest you wait until a month or two before the wedding since bedding is seasonal.
I registered at Macys, Crate & Barrel and Amazon. I have always LOVED C&B and that was the first place I knew I HAD to register at. But they didn’t have EVERYTHING I wanted/needed, so we also chose Macy’s, which has a wider selection of bedding, bath items, appliances, etc. Amazon was just for fun, and we picked only 5 or 6 items on there (we did get an awesome Kone vac and a Sonicare toothbrush thingy off our Amazon registry). Most people stuck to the traditional registries.
I think its really easy to pick a whole range of items at different price ranges. Items on our registries ranged from $15 to $500 (All Clad set and a Dyson vac).
I registered at Macy’s and W-S, and overall, the Macy’s experience was good. Easy returns/exchanges and wide selection of goods. All returns/exchanges are provided in credit either to your macy’s account or in the form of a gift card.
Williams-Sonoma was not so good. If you receive a gift that was ordered online and you return it to the store, they will not exchange it for you then & there. You have to wait for them to ship it back to W-S online and then they’ll send you a gift card with the amount of returned item after 2-3 weeks. It’s a big pain in the butt.
The other store we registered at was BB&B. We registered here because any returns will be provided in CASH! This is the only store that does that. Their return policy is great and we really liked getting cash for our returns instead of credit.
We registered at Crate and Barrel, Williams Sonoma, and Linens N Things. I don’t know that I would recommend LNT - their registry was really kind of annoying, and they actually sent gifts without labels or receipts so that we didn’t even know who had sent it! On the other hand, Crate and Barrel was amazing. I totally recommend going to one of their “Registry Sunday mornings” if they do that near you. Their process from start-to-finish is very easy. When there were a few duplicate gifts or we had changed our minds on dishware, the return process was extremely easy. I would recommend C&B in a second! Another plus - their shipping materials are paper-based and not those annoying styrofoam peanuts! This may not seem like a big deal now, but when your house fills up with wonderful presents, those peanuts get all over the place!
Registering is fun, but also work and a bit of a balancing act - especially if you and your fiance are from different areas of the country, where different stores are common. We chose Bloomingdales and Bed, Bath & Beyond. Bloomingdales has great customer service and has the china we love, but unfortunately they are not everywhere. Bed, Bath & Beyond is everywhere, though the stores are a bit overwhelming and the service is so-so. We initially registered at C&B, but things kept getting discontinued and I didn’t like the small selection, so we deleted it.
Despite choosing stores available in NJ (where I am from) people insist upon buying us stuff from Fortunoff. The Fortunoff in NYC (where we live) sucks, so that’s annoying. Ok, that sounds really greedy, but I hate ending up with stuff I don’t need that I can’t return, which is why I bothered registering in the first place.
I agree with ocicat - 2-3 stores is best. More not only seems greedy, but you’re more likely to end up with incomplete sets of many things, leaving much more for you to buy at the end.
As for selection, I would try to have a range of things so that people can buy you (1) one item at a normal gift price; (2) a combination of smaller items; OR (3) a big gift from a group. And keep up with the registry, so that if it’s running thin or certain price points are losing out, add items to those areas. In a way, it doesn’t matter what the items are, because you can always exchange them for the things you really want.
Macy’s has a tool that tells you how many items in various price ranges you need to buy. You just tell them how many people are invited and it gives you the cheat sheet. Obviously you might skew higher or lower, but I thought it was a good help!
We haven’t decided where to register because I’m still researching china and bedding (my top two items) but we’re going to register at three places: Macy’s/Dillards, CB/Pottery Barn/local Omaha gift shop and BBB (for sure).
I think BBB is a good registry not only for the cash back option, but also because there are so many coupons, which makes it really easy on guests.
We registered at Bloomies and my only warning to you is that a LOT of the items we ordered were no longer available by the time we got married (and we only registered 4 months in advance!). Aside from that, they carry great stuff and amazing customer service.
Just don’t do what a friend did - registered for the same item at 4 different stores! She got so many of the same thing it was a huge pain! Good luck! Just register for things at different price points and you’ll be fine.
A lot of people mentioned where they registered, or not to register at too many stores, but didn’t address your issue of why you had to register at more than one store, if one carries everything that you want.
The reason for this is convenience for your guests. After all, you are basically flat out telling them what to get you — a situation which is generally frowned upon in any other situation (can you imagine handing your 2nd cousin a wish list for your birthday?). As a result, you want to make it as convenient as possible for them. While it’s hard for us to imagine not wanting to do our shopping online, your 85 year old great aunt may not jump to Williams-Sonoma’s website to place your order (I know mine, at least, does not use the internet at all). That said, while it is still possible to phone in the order, I know several people like to actually go to the store and browse.
Living in the city I am sure you have all the options around you, but I’m going to guess that not all of your guests live in major cities as well. It would have been a lot easier for us to pick one place to register as well, but not everyone has the vast store selection that we do living in a major city!
as a guest, i like it when there’s an option between prices so i’d make sure there was something in every price point across the board. i tend to buy a lot of the smaller things instead of blowing my budget on one big pricey item.
i’d also make sure that the stores you choose from have both a physical store front and an online presence. i can’t find anything in the store so i tend to shop online but my mom prefers to hunt in the store so that’ll be something to keep in mind as well.
Don’t register at Williams Sonoma unless you really enjoy cooking or baking fairly seriously. I love it, but for simple everyday meals you don’t necessarily need a ton of gadgets or appliances that you can’t get better priced elsewhere. If you guys really are serious cooks and/or bakers, then go for it-even in a small place.
I don’t recommend Bloomingdales because they ship their breakables packed in styrofoam peanuts!! I know it sounds ridiculous, but those peanuts cling to everything and pulling the gifts out without spilling the peanuts everywhere was a nightmare. You can’t even sweep them up because they float around. Everytime we got a Bloomingdales box we went outside to the garbage to unwrap it. I hated it so much.
We considered C&B, but they don’t have name brand stuff like Le Cruset or Reidal (if you’re into that kind of thing). We ended up at Bed Bath which was perfect because of their price variety.
I hate styrofoam peanuts too (FeiFei above comment), but my favorite registry was with Bloomingdales. The customer service was really top notch and the biggest perk was you can get a list of the names of who purchased which items. This was really helpful when you need to write thankyou cards and want to be sure of who sent what. Plus you can go online and click next to their name after you’ve sent the thankyou card. I can’t tell you how helpful that is. Plus I keep getting emails of sales they have and I’ve purchased somethings off of our registery (that no one got us) for 30% off, even more than that I think. I also registered at C&B and W&S which were fine.
Bed bath and Beyond has been a great experience for us. The staff at the registry counter has been wonderful and knowledgeable. You can use expired coupons there, don’t pay attention to the exceptions on the coupons and will take expired linens n’ things coupons as well. So we have the whole family saving them. They were able to move items to their registry that we had put on Macys, because BBNB prices are lower. I highly recommend them
We’re registered at Williams Sonoma, Amazon, and Bed Bath and Beyond, and by far, our most pleasant experience was with BBB. Their staff was incredibly helpful, the stores are plentiful in all the cities that our family and friends are at, and, if you don’t end up liking what you register for, you can return the items for cash, not just store credit!
While I like a lot of the cookware offered at Williams Sonoma, I didn’t like the service (the staff was not particularly knowledgeable- this was in Chicago on Michigan), and many of the same items can actually be found at BBB for cheaper! That, and registering for WS leads to piles of Modern Bride magazine being sent to your door. Why, then, did we still register there? Well, FI’s mother INSISTED- and really didn’t shut up about it for a month- that we do so simply because THEIR “friends don’t shop at places like Bed Bath and Beyond.” *rolls eyes* Thankfully, FI and I agree that my family and friends are much more sane- and prefer the red envelope instead!
I’m one for only registering at one store; we only did C&B and were very happy with how it turned out. It was easy for all our guests to either go into the store or buy on the Internet. A few of our older guests just got us unique presents which worked fine with us. We also had a small wedding so didn’t need a huge registry.
I am not engaged so this will be “guest perspective comment”. I personally hate when people register for little 3-7 dollar gadgets ( think pizza slicer and a whisk). I understand that perhaps the idea is that one person buys all of it, BUT there is always someone who buys a few things and you are stuck with 3-4 leftovers. Do I want to be remembered as a guest who gave a slicer and a whisk ? no !
Another sugggetion, update your registry as people buy things, esp as your date draws near. Some people are very organized and buy gifts ahead of time, but your average guest will do so one or two weeks before the wedding. Adding a few items might be a good idea.
Good luck and have fun !
I second (or third, or fourth, or whatever) what a great registry experience I had at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. We planned to register there as well as one other store, but they ended up having pretty much everything we needed so we just stuck with it. We put off registering for a long time (I don’t suggest you wait until the last minute!), but it really wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as I thought it would be. The bonus with registering at only one location was that we didn’t need to worry about duplicates, as a couple of our friends encountered with their registries. Everything mare said is right-on– no problems using old coupons, they let us use a coupon for our air purifier even though the coupon specifically said it couldn’t be used on that brand, AND they take competitors coupons. Overall, a really wonderful experience.
With regards to price ranges… I think a wide range is appreciated. We needed a LOT for our apartment together, and ended up with kitchen utensils under $10 and $300 mixer on our registry. Good luck!!
We have yet to register and wondering if we should just register for a few things and gift cards.
As a guest, I agree with lilpetunia. I will not be remembered as the guest who gave a few kitchen tools, nor will I be able to afford the most expensive item. I usually prefer to buy in the 1 or 2 items in the $50-125 range.
We registered at Bloomingdales, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Amazon. I chose Bloomingdales because they carry the expensive china that I love, but I have to say I find the experience frustrating. They have a surprisingly small selection of items (particularly in any sort of reasonable price range), and more annoyingly, many of the items available in their store are not available on their website. Since they do not have stores everywhere, this makes it difficult for your guests to buy things from the registry, and it also makes it difficult for you to edit it–you cannot delete anything that’s not available on their website without going to the store.
BB&B was fantastic, and if it were not for the china I might have dumped Bloomingdales altogether. Also, judging from the gifts I received at my shower, it was by far the easiest place for my guests to shop. In fact, they bought me so much from BB&B, I’m concerned that there is nothing left!
So far, Amazon is very easy, but since no one has yet bought us anything from there, I don’t know how well it works from a guest perspective. Though a lot of people here have said they registered there, I don’t know if it’s somewhere people feel comfortable going for wedding presents yet.
Nothing wrong with registering at more than one store, and can be quite useful for guests. I find that many guests want to shop at the type of store they feel most comfortable at. So the fact that they sell kitchenaid mixers at 3 different stores (all for the same price) doesn’t matter because one friend will feel more comfortable buying it at Bed Bath and Beyond while another friend may want to shop at Bloomingdales - it’s all about their perspective, even when it’s the same price. So a wide variety is good - we did Crate and Barrel, Bloomingdales, and BBB.
As for the sweet spot on prices - again a wide range. You want a few top dollar pieces that are good group gifts. Somewhere in the 200-400 dollar range. The majority of gifts I’d put somewhere in the 60-150 dollar range. Most people think that 100 bucks is a good wedding gift. And then of course, include items on the lower end of 20-60 bucks. I even included lots of small 5-20 dollar things that some people put together into packages for one big gift. Also, the lower price ones will go for your shower, so after your shower, you may want to refresh with some of those lower priced items. I’d say on average that a shower gift people like to pay 20-60 and for a wedding gift somewhere around 100.
I’m planning to write about exactly this on my blog this week — they all have little, irritating cons and sometimes-significant pros, and I need to do something with all the data I’ve been collecting in my head! For now I’ll just say: Bed Bath & Beyond has a really bad and glitchy website for registries (and for online shopping in general). A few times, people have bought us something we didn’t register for, thinking it was on our registry — the wrong color coffeemaker, for example. So weird. I’ve been doing a lot of registry-tweaking online, and if I’d known this earlier, I probably wouldn’t have made it our main store. Also, they do a terrible job packing stuff to be shipped — very wasteful, lots of peanuts.
Macy’s website is also annoying for online shopping, and I really hate that it’s tied in to WeddingChannel.com. I hate those “guides” that tell you to register for more/more expensive stuff. I have had good experiences with Crate & Barrel (although their stuff goes out of stock FAST), and Target’s “Club Wedd” is great! I just wish they had a broader selection.
I love Bloomie’s dearly, so it was only natural that my registry would be there. Then they shipped the bought gifts to someone else’s address..all of them except one. They also discontinued more than half of the items I had scanned in the store. Then I got duplicates of the gifts because the registry wouldn’t automatically update to reflect online/ store purchases. After doing some damage control, I packed up and moved it over to Williams Sonoma. So far, it’s been working out well….*knock on wood*. Macy’s, I never ventured over to it, because it’s owned by Federated - the same company that owns Bloomie’s, so I think they’re both “Wedding Channel.” I’ve heard great things about Crate & Barrel. This is all just my experience with the registries - I hadn’t heard anything negative beforehand (in case I was a rare moment).
[...] Registry Confusion by Miss Jasmine [...]
Mrs. Jasmine, Chicago/LA
Age and Occupation: 25, Attorney
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Attorney
Engagement Date: March 24, 2007
Wedding Date: June 7, 2008
Blogging Since: September 20, 2007
Venue: Hotel on the westside of Los Angeles
About Me: I'm a happy-go-lucky, imaginative spirit trapped in the body of a lawyer. I love reading, shopping, dining out, and exploring my beloved adopted city of Chicago with my fiance. We're planning the wedding of our dreams in my hometown of Los Angeles and we're excited to incorporate our cherished Indian/Pakistani customs and traditions.
We registered at 3 places: Macys, Target and Amazon.com. Macy’s is especially great because they have stores nationwide, and their registry customer service (IMO) was top notch. It is good to have a range in prices for gifts — $25 - 50 range for shower gifts, $100 and up for wedding gifts. Only register for a few lust-worthy items (i.e. the $500 espresso machine, the All Clad set) and you won’t seem greedy. I recently picked up a friends Pottery Barn registry to find that they only registered for furniture ($4000 sofa, anyone?) and a handful of knick-knacky things. To me, that was an annoying and not well-planned registry.
As far as being overwhelmed, I totally hear you. I say start at Macys, where things are well organized, and they even give you an exhaustive list of ideas. And remember, you don’t have to do it all in one day. You can always go home and add things online. Good luck!