Miss Gingerbread, Vancouver
Age and Occupation: 32, Psychologist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Software Engineer
Engagement Date: Sometime in the fall of 2004
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: March 24, 2008
Venue: Rainforest wedding, beachfront restaurant reception
About Me: I recently moved to Canada from Southern California. Trying to plan a wedding in a new city, not to mention a new country, is tough, but the fact that we can get legally married here more than makes up for it! The wedding will be an opportunity for most of our family and friends to see our new city for the first time so it will be both a wedding and a reunion. Besides my future wife, I am also madly in love with a good bargain, Swedish pastries, Tivo, and my two dogs and calico cat (in no particular order).
International Wedding Registry Dramaz
April 9th, 2008 @ 12:21 pm by Miss Gingerbread
Let me tell you a little story about registering in Canada, while trying to keep our American guests in mind. We decided to register at the Bay, a Canadian department store that allows people with U.S. billing addresses to order from their site. It works out since we can pick up gifts in store, cutting out shipping costs.
When we arrived at the store last month, the scanners at the department store were down. How anticlimactic! Even though we scoffed at the suggestion that we’d need a couple of hours on the first visit, and an hour or so for the second and third visits to build our registry, we did spend a couple of hours wandering around. However, we opted not to write things down by hand. That seemed too archaic, time consuming and just not as much fun as zapping our desired items.
In addition to drooling at various small appliances and touching many towels and sets of sheets to assess softness, we also wandered into the shoe department. I made the mistake of trying on some really cute boots that had an abnormal amount of excess leather near the inside of the zipper. Of course, I didn’t notice this as I excitedly zipped them up. It was when I tried to take the boot off that I realized that I was in trouble. Fortunately, Miss GB 2.0 likes to model herself after MacGyver and attached her key ring to the zipper and managed to free me. My hero! Isn’t it fitting that I bought her this shirt a couple of Valentine’s Days ago?
I’m not thrilled with the Bay, and I am not just saying that because I’m bitter about the boot incident. One problem is that we can’t manage our registry online. We have to have a “registry consultant” do stuff like remove items from our registry, change the misspelling of my name from when they entered incorrectly, etc. Another problem is that when guests access our list online, they can’t see pictures of what they are ordering. Instead they get a descriptive title like OVAL PLATTER 14″ CHARLOTT. But sadly, they seem to be our only option.
Yes, Canada has a Pottery Barn , Williams Sonoma, Pier 1, and Linens n Things, but the registry in the U.S. and Canadian stores aren’t linked. So let’s say we register in Canada. To access the list, people have to go to http://www.potterybarn.ca/, for example. That, in itself, is not a big problem. The problem is that if they want to order online, they have to have a credit card with a Canadian billing address. The other option is to register on the U.S. side. The problem with that is that guests will have to pay tremendous shipping fees or else bring the gift by hand. Who is going to want to travel internationally with cookware, or even worse, dishes or glassware? Even Amazon has this problem (there’s amazon.com and amazon.ca).
Does anyone have any brilliant suggestions on how to subvert the system?
23 Responses to “International Wedding Registry Dramaz”
Wow, that seems silly. Here I thought the internet new no boundaries. I was going to suggest they access the Canadian registry and then just buy the item off the US site, but this doesn’t solve shipping problems and may cause duplication. I’m stumped.
We had to face similar stuff because my fiance is German, so we opted for two things: 1) Register at multiple places, and 2) Register at Amazon.com. Now, tragically the Amazon registries are not linked across their different country sites either. But as far as I know, people do not need a US billing address to order from the US site. Or at least, I know that I’ve ordered from the UK site using my US billing address without a problem.
Also, Amazon has everything, ever, plus great prices, plus they give you the option to rate how much you want everything on your list–”love to have,” “like to have,” or “nice to have.” And you manage everything yourself!
Do you have family in the US? You could have your registry items shipped there, and then pick it up on the next (few?) visit(s) to the fam…
A lot of stores will do a “deliver to store” option.. potentially allowing them to order it with a US address, and pick it up in Canada.
Talk to the stores, I am sure they have dealt with this before and probably have a way to handle this that just isn’t well advertised.
Did you check myregistry.com? I think that could be very useful for you.
Push comes to shove, if you have anyone driving up that can haul a lot of stuff for you: have everyone send the gifts to him/her and then load ‘em up and bring them to yall.
@Michelle: Thanks for trying to brainstorm for me! We’ve actually been in touch with all the stores that we can think of and they admit that the system is problematic, but don’t have a solution. The stores don’t want people shopping outside of their countries, which I think is what the billing address thing is all about. I looked into myregistry.com, but it basically just aggregates all the different stores so when you want to order something, it takes you to that stores website. The problem with someone driving it across for us is that visitors are only allowed to bring in goods up to a certain value or else they have to pay duties and taxes. It’s such a drag :p
@Mr. Bee: We do have family in the U.S. They are actually planning on having a shower for us in California. I have no idea how we are going to deal with gifts for that. Oh such a problem to have 
Hi Miss Gingerbread,
The Bay registry system is frustrating, we are registered there too!
just wanted to mention that you CAN remove items from the registry yourself (go to manage registry on hbc.com, put 0 for the item you don’t want..it still shows up in red, but won’t be seen when your guests look at your registry), and you might be able to update personal information on there as well. Good luck!
My neighbor ran into this problem too, except it’s between Brazil and the US. They ended up spreading the word that American Express Gift Cards were the way to go and they used them to buy household things after the wedding. It’s not *as* exciting as opening boxes of gifts but it was a good solution. Hope that helps!
Hi Miss GB, I just wanted to let you know to be careful with having gifts shipped to a family member in the US and then try to bring them back to Canada. Unfortunately, there are rules about wedding gifts coming back across the border. You will need receipts for every single package AND you will have to pay tax and duty on each package that you bring across. It could cost you a small fortune if your guests got you pricey items.
See this link: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/pub/rc4151-eng.html#P003, and scroll down to the wedding gifts category.
If you don’t actually need a lot for your place, it might seem tacky but you could always explain the situation to your guests and in a nice way receive money in lieu of gifts? I know people would cringe at the thought but you’re kind of stuck otherwise.
Although! Crate and Barrel is opening a Canadian store in the Toronto and I know that they were going to have Canadian online ordering so you could check into that option and see if they have the same credit card issues.
Good luck, I’ll keep brainstorming for you.
this sucks much….aside from explaining the situation on your wedsite (do you have one?) and getting money and giftcards in lieu of gifts….i am not sure what you could do…
Would it be too elaborate of a ruse to “move” your gifts? I’m assuming you moved to Canada with a moving truck of some sort…….could you fill up a small trailer and then get to the border and explain that you are “moving” to Canada? I dont think it would be too far fetched as your gifts would be predominantly household items……
but then i assume they would search the trailor before letting you cross……
stumped.
And here I thought we were friendly with Canada. I think this is a great opportunity (for me, primarily, as there are many things I want from the Roots Canada site that they won’t sell to me). I am confidant that you, Miss GB, can negotiate some kind of NAFTA Addendum that will allow/require Canadian stores to sell cookware and dishes (and sweatshirts with maple leaves and beavers) to eager buyers south of the 49th parallel.
I too registered with The Bay and calaveritas is right, you can do most things online yourself. I had to change my registry several times because they kept discontinuing the bedding I chose so I know that you can delete things yourself it just looks funny that it is still listed in red. But if you were to go to the store and print out your registry those items would no longer be listed.
I feel your pain Miss GB! I am not nearly as far along in the whole process as you, so TIA for your posts that will help me in the near future. I don’t know what kind of work permit you and Miss GB 2.0 are on, but we just moved here too and are on a one year work permit to start. This means that we’re not “settlers” to Canada and can bring in as much stuff as we want without paying taxes on them because we’re supposedly only here for a year. So if you guys are the same, you can get your stuff shipped to a US address, then when you reach the border you can say that you are here on a one year work permit and are bringing your stuff over and you won’t have to pay. At the border, you might be asked to present a manifest of what you’re bringing, but apparently they only ask for it sometimes.
Oh, how about registering at sears.ca? I think that you can pay there with an American credit card and billing address.
I had this problem as well in trying to buy presents for Canadian friends getting married. The solution I had was to buy a gift at the Bay when I arrived in Canada, or to bring a check and give cash.
Good brainstorming, guys! Thanks for the suggestions, laughs, advice, warnings, etc.!
@BabySmudge: We are actually becoming permanent residents so we don’t fit under that clause. I am glad that it will work in your favor though!
I think you may have hit on something with Sears! It appears that you can shop off the Canadian site with a U.S. billing address This was not the case with Linens n Things, Williams Sonoma, and Pottery Barn 
@calaveritas: and @Mrs. Pumpkin: Oh, you are right, you can delete stuff. Can you add stuff too?
stop the canada trashing already….every post…sheesh… :p
Why not just ask for gift cards to stores that are in both the US and Canada (Sears, amazon, Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, etc.) That way people can go to the stores at their leisure and just pick up a gift card. They won’t have to declare it when crossing the border, and you won’t have to worry about a registry! I know gift cards aren’t the way people like to go for weddings (it takes all the excitement out of unwrapping something and some people don’t like to give gift cards at all) but it may be your best option. People will definitely understand why you went that route if you explain the trouble you are having with registries and the shipping/duty fees. This way they won’t waste $25+ shipping something to you and can up the gift card amount.
Hi again!
No, you can’t add stuff on The Bay’s online site. You can on items on the Sears site but you have to enter in the product number on a list, it’s not as simple as just adding it to a cart or something like you would with regular online shopping. We got frustrated with the slowness and always ended up going back to the store to add stuff anyway. Good luck!
Megan - I am not sure that plan will work with all stores because you are buying the card in the US with US funds and then using it in Canada with CDN funds. Even though they are close to the same these days the systems might not always be compatible. I think you’d need to check with each store to make sure that the card would be accepted in Canada first.
Just sayin’ - I don’t think anyone here is trashing Canada, I think we are all just pointing out some of the difficulties of planning a wedding in Canada when most of your guests are coming from the US. These are legitamite concerns for Miss GB in her wedding planning process…
On Myregistry.com, you can set up an online registry and link to the specific thing at whatever store you want. The guest has the option of buying online or at the store, marking the item as bought, and then taking care of shipping themselves. It’s an extra step for them, because they have to ship, but then it can be shipped anywhere ahead of time.
I just found myregistry.com a little while ago. While we are US-based and don’t have nearly as much cross-border craziness, we do have a handful of guests from other countries.
One of the best bits of myregistry.com is that you can add items from any site or even offline gifts. There is a way to set up a cash gift pool, though I’ve not tried that yet.
Best of luck!
Imagine you’re getting married in France where all sites are in French and Euros, so it’s fine for your fiancé’s side of the family, but your family doesn’t understand a thing and doesn’t want to pay extra due to the weak US dollar!! uggh! I still haven’t figured out a solution to this one yet!
[…] department store that allows people with U.S. billing addresses to order from their site. It workshttp://www.weddingbee.com/2008/04/09/international-wedding-registry-dramaz/Linens ‘n Things looking to sell Canada stores: report Reuters via Yahoo! Canada NewsLinens ‘n […]
You could register at William Ashley - they take credit cards from anywhere!
