“You currently have 30 open items left on your registry. Update and add more.”
NO!
NO! I live in a 1,100 square foot box. The charm of loft living is that there is tons of space and nowhere to hide. Sure, we float around as if we live in a vast artist’s studio. We’ve got tons of room to host football parties and swanky soirees, but we have a grand total of TWO closets, one that houses our clothing, and the other that is stuffed to the brim with cleaning supplies. If we are lucky enough to receive even the 30 items left on our registry, we don’t really know exactly what we’re going to do with that stuff.
Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE STUFF. It’s taking the willpower of a monk right now for me not to add any more shiny new candlesticks or adorable serving pieces to the list.
Opening up my first round of gifts at my shower and seeing the smiles on peoples faces as I unwrapped their gifts made me certain that I wouldn’t/couldn’t return anything I receive. Since we’ve vowed to keep all our gifts, this now this means that we can’t have items on our registry that we don’t really want. So despite the fact that our combined registries only have about 45 gifts left on them, and I still have another shower and the wedding to go, I think it’s the right choice not to add more gifts. Unfortunately a lot of the “lower ticket” items have already been snapped up for the showers, but gift cards and gifts from the heart are always an option for our guests.
As your registry gets depleted do you find yourself adding more “stuff” to it to give guests more options, or have you decided to leave it as-is?
Oye - we’re in the same boat. I love receiving stuff, but either don’t know what to do with half of it and don’t have places to store the rest. They’re already going to my parents’ houses…Add a move shortly after the honeymoon on top of it. I’ve decided to let it be for now - the registry can be depleted and hopefully our guests will either get creative with off-registry purchases or even better, generous with their wallets.
We also have negative space at the moment - trying to figure out how to fit FI and his two kids into my house is resulting in bags and boxes and truckloads of furniture going away. We have a co-worker whose daughter runs the local battered womens’ shelter, and therefore has the opportunity to set up a family owning practically nothing but the clothes on their backs in a rented house or apartment almost every week - and she is happy to take everything we can give her. I forsee the whole registry adventure being an extended windfall for her anonymous women and children, as we package up and ship out the more gently used of our things to make room for the new. The fact is that for almost every gift we receive we will have to throw away or give away something. But it will be nice to have things that are OURS rather than left over from my previous single life, his first marriage, or his interim weird bachelor period of black sheets and towels.
We added a suggestion that guests donate to charity, and suggested one that we both support. We don’t need the stuff, honestly.
this is why were not putting too many things on the registry either.
we live in a 450 square foot apt.! too small to have too many things. it just wouldn’t work out. right now the place feels perfect and roomy if you can believe it. 
and besides i like having the least amount of stuff possible. its like an obsession.
What about a honeymoon registry? Or something like WishPot where you can add non-material things like gift certs to your favorite restaurant, date ideas (like movie or sporting event tickets), or other things to Do instead of to crowd your house?
My mom’s basement is going to house most of our gifts until we get ourselves a house Luckily she lives nearby and doesn’t mind. Mr. Cupcake argues that we shouldn’t register for some of the stuff if we have nowhere to put it yet, but I argue that once we DO have a place to put it, we’re going to be glad that we don’t have to buy it then and start from scratch!
Our C&B registry had fewer than 20 items on it, like, ever. Every time I logged on it would freak out. I was like, “I convinced the groom’s mother we don’t need more stuff, why can’t I convince Crate & Barrel?”
Mrs. Penguin, Sacramento
Age and Occupation: 26, Video & TV Producer/Director/Editor
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Doctor of Physical Therapy
Engagement Date: January 29, 2007
Wedding Date: June 7, 2008
Blogging Since: September 14, 2007
Venue: Winery in the Gold Country
About Me: I'm a silly mess of a girl who, above all else in this world, LOVES the Spice Girls. I eat sushi at least 3 times a week, and feel guilty about how much it costs the other 4 days a week. I love designer jeans and cheap accessories. I don't like sweets, but I love the UCLA Bruins!
Haha Peng. I feel you. The Mr. and I were organizing our kitchen cabinets and with our existing stuff… we already ran out of space. I even upped the ante with additional shelving accessories from Container Store. Again, no space. We have a small registry and we’re already dreading the questions about it and explaining how we don’t have room. All in all, I don’t want to include more stuff…