Weddingbee

Well, we finally did it!

We registered! Like Miss Hummingbird, we registered at Canada’s largest department store, the Hudson’s Bay Company. Unfortunately for us, there is no Macy’s, or Williams & Sonoma, or Crate and Barrel in Winnipeg, so we registered at the good ol’ Bay.

This didn’t phase Mr. Shortcake one bit, as he was already off and running with the sku gun:

“piuuu! - piuuuu!” What is it with FIs and scanners? Yeesh!

TIP: Register at the largest location of your chosen department store - they’ll have the biggest selection of goods to choose from!

To keep things organized, we decided to start from one corner of the Gifts and Registry floor. I had my trusty humungo wedding binder in tow, but quickly gave it to our registry agent to put away - klutzy me + big heavy binder + expensive china = disaster waiting to happen!

But don’t I look official?

“Check!”

Our first item was this lovely hurricane vase/candle holder thingie.

Has anyone else noticed, how when items are cheap, the temptation to register for a lot of them increases? Luckily Mr. Shortcake is not so easily swayed:

ME: “ooooh…look, they’re ONLY $25! Let’s register for…hmmm… eight!”
MR. SHORTCAKE: (shakes head, scans and enters ’2″)

But lest you think that Mr. Shortcake is all prunes and gravity, I offer the following evidence:

The world’s largest usable pepper grinder!

Did anyone else love picking china as much as I did? Of the 3 hours that it took us to register, about two of those hours were spent drooling over dishes.

Me likey Wedgwood.

It took over half an hour, as well as outside assistance, to choose between these two Vera Wang for Wedgwood patterns:

Mr. Shortcake was attracted to Vera’s “platinum lace” on the left. Me, on the other hand, was completely smitten by her “Love Knots” pattern. I was about to do back flips to show my admiration for the set, but then thought twice because I was surrounded by expensiv-o place settings.

In the end, Mr. Shortcake let me choose the love knots pattern, sighing and declaring that he “would grow to like it.”

GROW TO LIKE IT?? HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THIS?

I heart ribbons. This pattern and me were meant to BE!

Our uber-helpful agent, Audrey, helped us put together our “feminine and dainty” formal place setting:

Check out the sweet polka dots on our wine goblets:

(Vera Wang “grosgrain”)

Audrey was also instrumental in putting together our more “masculine” everyday place setting:

You can’t really see the rustic hand-made elegance of Sophie Conran’s Portmeirion porcelain dishes in this picture, but you can see more of them here. They come in AMAZING seafoam green and brown polka-dotted boxes which I will completely keep for organizing craft supplies, and are DISH-WASHABLE! Woot! Woot! Shortie does NOT do hand-washing dishes.

(you can see those sweet boxes in this pic, but ignore those random country plates)

We also registered for furniture after discovering that we had up to a year to purchase the remaining items off of our registry - with a substantial discount.

We aren’t expecting anyone to plunk down several grand and bring, say, a hand-wrapped love seat to the reception, but this way we can actually furnish our home when we move back to Vancouver next year. Right now we’re living with basically nothing in Winnipeg, so as to cut down on cross-country moving costs, so I can only dream and drool of eating at this:

How terrific is this table? It’s high, so my feet dangle (love me some danglin’ feet), has super comfy chairs, seats eight, and has a lazy susan for spinning dips and sauces! Sweet! I think square tables are so much friendlier than long rectangles, too.

It took us quite a while to get our collective butts in gear and go register, but boy-o, was it worth it! Even if we don’t receive everything, having our house and interior design “planned out” mentally was worth the trip!

SHORTIE’S TIPS FOR A HEADACHE FREE REGISTRY:

• Go around your house and see what you need and what you already have. This is a good time to replace your college bath towels with some RL goodness
• Multiply your guest list by 3. This way, there’s tons of stuff for your guests to choose from!
• Bring water and wear comfy shoes.
• Bring a camera. That way, if you forget what you registered for, you can look at your pictures (esp. if your store’s website only shows names of items)
• Don’t be afraid to register for big-ticket items. Many stores offer a discount after the wedding for registry items you still wish to purchase.
• Go with an idea of colour schemes/wood colours you eventually want in your house. This way, your gifts will “go”
• Register for items in different price ranges (student friend, parent’s co-worker, wealthy grandparent)
• Don’t hesitate to ask for assistance!
• If you plan on doing a lot of entertaining in the future, it’s a good idea to register for 12 place settings of your formal china. This, however, does not extend to minimal use or uni-tasker items like gravy boats and soup bowls.
• Don’t be afraid to register for unconventional items. If you already have formal china, go ahead and register for camping equipment, if that’s what you really want and need!
• Give your sweetie lots of hugs and kisses for their patience!

Do you have other tips for bees about to register?