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Mrs. Martini, New Jersey Age and Occupation: 30, Telecom by day, Superhero by night Fiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Investments & Finance by day, Hip hop dancer by night Engagement Date: May 24, 2008 Wedding Date: March, 2009 Blogging Since: August 18, 2008 Venue: The Venetian About Me: Things that make me happy: Haribo Happy Cola gummies, TV shows on DVD, buying books although I never read them, 80’s rock ballads, ramen, and of course Mr. Martini! He is the calm, logical and number crunching finance guy. I can’t even multiply double digit numbers in my head and I am so indecisive that trying to choose between light green or slightly lighter green paper stresses me out (Wedding planning is going to be soooo much fun). We both find great joy in nabbing great seats at the movie theater for a blockbuster movie on opening weekend, and we are both absolutely crazy about snowboarding. And he loves to cook, I love to eat!
About Mrs. Martini

Our Registry Experience

September 10th, 2008 @ 1:46 pm by Mrs. Martini

Registering started out being a bit of a pain. We had no idea what we were doing, so we just walked into our favorite store, Williams and Sonoma, and asked to register there. They promptly handed us a scanner, then left us to fend for ourselves. I think the person who helped us out was new, and she didn’t really know what to do with us either. We aimlessly wandered around the store for a bit wondering what to add. Mr. Martini adores cooking so he already had most kitchen appliances, and we really weren’t even sure what we would need at that point so we felt a little lost. We placed only a couple of things on the registry just for the sake of adding something, and then left thinking we would finish our registry online from home.

We registered at our second location, Bed Bath and Beyond, because we had heard that this store gives cash back on returns. I didn’t want to add anything we weren’t going to keep, but you never really know with these things so we didn’t think it would hurt to register there. Again, they handed us a scanner and promptly tossed into the wild.

Then a friend told us that Macy’s Bridal had great stuff, so we wanted to check it out and possibly get our bedroom and bathroom supplies there. Over the weekend, we made the trek into the large Macy’s department store in NYC near Penn Station. I have to tell you guys, we had such an awesome experience at Macy’s! We were also surprised to be handed a cute little red Victorinox tote bag to keep. In the tote was a folder containing any registry related information we would need until our wedding day.

macys-bag.jpg
(source)

I also happened to have an old and empty Macy’s credit card that I never used and pretty much forgot about, and we were pleased to find out that since I was a cardmember we would get cash back on all registry items bought by our guests, and even by ourselves until our wedding day. Definitely an added plus.

Our consultant, Norma, was on top of everything and guided us in the right direction. She also told us she’d come find us and say hello to make sure we weren’t having any issues. I didn’t really think I’d see her, but as if on cue, half an hour into browsing around, there she was to check up on us.

The part I liked most about registering at Macys was that we were asked how many guests would likely attend our wedding. Based on that number, we were given a recommendation of how many items we should add to our registry, divided into different price ranges. When we were done, we received a printout of our items, which also included a section that let us know how much of the recommended list had been fulfilled by the things we added that day. It was a great guide for first timers like us because I never knew what to add, how much to add, and at what the prices to add.

We also discovered that Macy’s had many of the items that we already registered at other stores. We compared the prices of our items between the three registries, and if they were at the same price or cheaper, we moved the item to our Macy’s registry.

What stores did you have a great or horrible registry experience with?

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22 Responses to “Our Registry Experience”

1.
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Guest
MrsDavis

Its strange that we didn’t recieve much help at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. We had a great experience there. It was our last one of the day (after 2 other disappointing stores) and the person there who got us started was so helpful. It was the best of the three for us, for sure.

 
2.
bree72
Member
bree72 (message)  368 posts, Helper bee

We registered at the three same stores; Williams Sonoma we did online. We had a great time at BB&B, and they came to check on us a few times to see if we needed help, but let us decide for ourselves. We had a horrible time at Macy’s, though, as we felt like they were stalking us the whole time and pressuring us to register for things we did not want or need. Glad to hear your Macy’s experience was better, though…it must just depend on the store.

 
3.
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Guest
nyckim

I also had a great experience at BB&B- the UWS location in the city (Lincoln Center). They were super helpful and I received two free gifts in the mail the other day!

 
4.
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Heather

My experience at Crate and Barrel was amazing! I took my mom to their “bridal Party” event. They hold a few for each season I think. Pretty much they open the store early on a Sunday for the event, and brides can sign up, for FREE, and bring a guest. Most people brought their fiances, but I took my mom because I knew she would be way more helpful with the stuff. We were greeted with mimosas and scanners (quite a combination) and they had little stations set up with people making crepes and panini’s to show off some of the merchandise. It was a blast and super helpful. They also give you a free glass heart shaped vase/bowl. I would recommend it to anyone!

 
5.
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Guest
Nicole R.

Is anyone registered at Potterybarn? How is their registry service?

 
6.
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Member
MissTeaberry (message)  120 posts, Blushing bee

We registered at the Macy’s in Cherry Hill, NJ and had a great experience - very similar to yours! Throughout the whole registering and even now, post-wedding, we really gained a lot of respect for Macy’s because of the way they treat their brides! They have almost all of the top brands that Williams-Sonoma offers, but our guests were able to take advantage of sales and coupons through Macy’s. We haven’t been married long enough yet to get our “rewards”, but we had really good experiences with returning items to Macy’s. Also, after the wedding, it is not just the bride and groom that get the 10% off all home stuff for 3 months, but also the parents of the couple!

 
7.
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Kristina

BBB was a wonderful experience for us. I had gotten some info from Kohls at a bridal show but they had no idea what they were doing at the store. I wish we had a Crate & Barrel near us!

 
8.
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Member
LLKFSU (message)  19 posts, Newbee

Sorry W & S wasn’t a good experience for oyu. I had a great time there! The sales associate that helped us was wonderful. I have also registered at Pottery Barn and did so on-line as it was mostly bath and bed linens. They did send me a nice welcome package after.

 
9.
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Guest
alli

Both BB&B and Macy’s irritated me by constantly asking how many guests I will have. I told them I wanted to base it on how many showers we had and the number of invites we were sending out and they kept saying “but how many people?”
That’s not how it works…you invite a couple or a family to your wedding and they buy you one gift (most of the time). I thought it was a very obvious way of trying to get people to overload their registries and make it more expensive to “complete your registry” that they talk about so much.

 
10.
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Guest
Lissy

well, technically I’m not engaged yet *cough* so we haven’t done the registry thing yet. But I went to a bridal show a few months back and I gotta say, the Macy’s people were awesome. They were the only ones who said it was great that I was planning so early. I even won something from them which made me like them even more, lol.

 
11.
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Member
vavineyardbride (message)  2 posts, Wannabee

BBB was so helpful! The guy there in charge of registries walked around with us for almost an hour answering any questions and helping us compare products. He gave us all of the helpful hints like “well, just throw that one on there and return it for cash later” or “put those candlesticks and picture frames on, someone will buy them whether you like it or not, so might as well pick them out yourself”. They offered to buy us lunch as we approached the 4 hour mark and provided drinks and snacks while we were in the store! We were so happy with them that when we went to CB and were just handed a scanner we felt neglected.

 
12.
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Member
jeeyol (message)  119 posts, Blushing bee

We have been registering lately and I was really surprised at some of the stores. Walmart had hard to use scanner and it broke halfway through. Targets scanners weren’t bad but a lot of the stuff we scanned doesn’t show up on the website, just says the product code. JC Penney had the easiest most efficient registry. They had a couple little displays set up. What surprised me most is when when we tried to register at Lowe’s and Home Depot. Lowe’s registry was all online, no scanning and Home Depot said they weren’t accepting registries at the time. It was a bummer because we had a lawn and garden shower and were very limited for our options.

 
13.
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Bee
Miss Martini (message)  245 posts, Helper bee

@Heather: that sounds like an awesome time! we didnt register at crate and barrel because mr. M loves williams and sonoma.

@alli: ugh that would have annoyed me too. we were never asked verbally what the number of our guests were. we just filled out the form and it asked us what our guest number was and she just typed that number in the computer. I always thought that the more you have on your registry, the better so that guests have options?

 
14.
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Guest
Jennifer

Ironically, our horrible experience was at Macy’s! The salewoman (in her 60’s) was wearing a MINI skirt, and didn’t sit in her chair like a lady. My fiance got quite a view, then tried to gouge his eyes out with the cutlery we registered for. (Not really.)

We opened a Macy’s card without realizing it, waited while the miniskirt-clad woman entered our names into her computer with just her pointer fingers, and got yelled at when we tried to leave (after being there over two hours) without actually registering for anything. We grabbed the booklet, scanned something, and said we were all set, and ran out of there!

Thankfully, we visited a different Macy’s a few months later (yes, it took me that long to want to return!) and had a pleasant enough experience.

 
15.
charmedbride
Member
charmedbride (message)  348 posts, Helper bee

I had two in person registry experiences — one was at Crate and Barrel at one of their special registry events. I happened to be back in my hometown to do wedding planning sans fiance and the local C&B was hosting one that same weekend so I took my mom. It was nice being able to walk around the store with food and drink and scan. Very relaxing. My only complaint was I felt like they didn’t have enough staff to help the people on the floor…I would sometimes have questions and wouldn’t be able to find someone free to help me…so mostly my mom and I kept to ourselves.

My second experience was with the FI at Macy’s. I have to say that Macy’s registry customer service is excellent. We had a very friendly and chatty consultant who walked us through the process, highlighted the sections and items that were popular, and even gave us tips on what brands to avoid. We also loved the tote bag :). I had only a minor complaint after the fact…while the experience in store was friendly, I did feel like Macys/our consultant kept checking in on me way too much. I changed a setting online after we set up our registry and promptly got a phone call asking me if I meant to do that…kind of weirded me out that they know exactly what I’m doing, but other than that, it was pretty positive.

After both experiences I did go online to edit and update my registries…I think it’s a good combination. You go into the store and have fun with the scanner as well as see products in person, and then do the important editing afterwards online.

 
16.
Bee Icon
Bee
Mrs. Emerald (message)  901 posts, Busy bee

I had a good experience at both C&B and Macys. However, I did alot of exchanging and returning at Macys. Keep in mind that if you exchange/return items from your registry, they take away the 5% “cash back”. I kinda understand why they would do that for a return (but you get store credit, not cash back)… but why an exchange?? I am still giving them money, why do they take away the bonus? So we should have gotten our bonus gift card of over $150, but ended up with a measly $37. Booo.

 
17.
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Jackie

FYI : Crate and Barrel is having registry events the weekend of the 21st!

 
18.
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roberta

Macy’s was such a horrible experience I almost skipped the whole thing. Our red tote was left on a chair and after most refused to answer questions, we left and hoped to finish the rest of it online. When we went back to another Macy’s to finish in person, we were told that they “don’t do in-store registries anymmore.” We were told that they couldn’t help us. I asked to speak to the manager, did so, was promised a return call that afternoon, and a month later was still waiting. In attempts to reach the manager, I was told that they were not available. I was so disgruntled, we walked directly to Dillard’s (a department store found only in the South) and registered for lovely items with the nicest young lady. We are now an anti-Macy’s household!

 
19.
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Guest
Marj

I had so much fun at Crate and Barrel. We just attended the wedding event this past weekend. It was great because there was not a lot of people there. We decided since we were on a roll we headed across the street to Macys. Unfortunately we ended up with a consultant who would not stop talking and was kinda bossy. She later criticized some of our choices. She was also some what controlling by telling me that I can only make changes to our registry through her.

 
20.
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Bee
Miss Espresso (message)  1,064 posts, Bumble bee

I love the Macy’s bag too! I use it to keep all my stray wedding related info organized… if that makes sense ;)

 
21.
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Guest
Jen

We also heard Bed, Bath and Beyond accepts gift returns and gives you back CASH. However, when we returned 2 sets of dishes worth $80 each, the employee said we could only get STORE CREDIT for the items. I had brought the packing invoice and everything. We wanted to return the dishes because we got duplicates. The employee explained the policy had changed and you only get store credit for gift registry returns. Since we were unsure of what we were told about the return policy when we first registered, a supervisor agreed to refund us in cash. I assured him we had $300 in gift cards to spend at B,B,B, and that seemed to make him feel better.

Brides be warned. Double check your return policy at B,B,B.

 
22.
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Guest
Tara

We had a very bad experience with Pottery Barn. Unfortunately we received several multiples of many items. These seemed to be many of the items that were purchased online. I also had trouble returning the merchandise when we received the duplicates. They stated that it had been over 90 days and refused to return our merchandise. I had over $300 worth of dish ware to return. I wouldnt recommend registering at Pottery Barn.

 


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Mrs. Martini Mrs. Martini, New Jersey Age and Occupation: 30, Telecom by day, Superhero by night Fiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Investments & Finance by day, Hip hop dancer by night Engagement Date: May 24, 2008 Wedding Date: March, 2009 Blogging Since: August 18, 2008 Venue: The Venetian About Me: Things that make me happy: Haribo Happy Cola gummies, TV shows on DVD, buying books although I never read them, 80’s rock ballads, ramen, and of course Mr. Martini! He is the calm, logical and number crunching finance guy. I can’t even multiply double digit numbers in my head and I am so indecisive that trying to choose between light green or slightly lighter green paper stresses me out (Wedding planning is going to be soooo much fun). We both find great joy in nabbing great seats at the movie theater for a blockbuster movie on opening weekend, and we are both absolutely crazy about snowboarding. And he loves to cook, I love to eat!
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