Weddingbee Blog

Soooo setting up your wedding registries is supposed to be fun, right?! Right.

(source)

We were six months out from our wedding date (the supposed golden time for registering), and I was about to leave Baltimore for my rural medicine rotation for an entire month. I started worrying that our registry “experience” was never going to happen, and that I would end up doing the whole thing online - ha, little did I know.

It started off like any other Sunday. When I realized that the Eagles had a bye week, I somehow managed to convince Burger that he had nothing better to do than go pick out our wedding wish list for a few hours.

We started out at Macy’s. Because really, who doesn’t register at Macy’s? (<- notice the preconceived notions about registering? right.) When we arrived, an older woman greeted us and sat us down in the fine china department to set up our registry. It was pretty exciting at this point! After entering all of our information, convincing us to open a Macy’s charge (I know, I know), and giving us a tote bag filled with goodies, we had our scanner and we were on our way. A few other couples showed up right as we were leaving, so we were pretty much on our own, scanning away.

Side Bar: in my family, not only do we own china, but we use it multiple times a year. I know that this isn’t really the norm, but Cheeseburger Mom didn’t complete her china place settings until 5 or 10 years ago, and she always regretted the time she spent without it. So anyway, china - though “unnecessary” - was something that was on our list to register for.

I had done some research regarding china. My family owns Lenox, and while it is beautiful, at over $100 per place setting, I wasn’t comfortable adding it to the list. Most other brands (Kate Spade, Noritake, Vera Wang, etc.) are also this expensive. I found Mikasa place settings to be much more “reasonable” (about $50 per place setting), and noticed that they even sold completer sets (8 place setting mega sets) for about $200 dollars. We loved the Mikasa patterns, decided on one together, and added everything to our list. Victory!

I initially decided against crystal, even though Burger was pushing for it, and I knew we weren’t registering for silver. We added some pretty vases and picture frames and were on our way to bedding. Enter stumbling block number one. Let me preface this by saying that we. love. our. bed. The few hours that we might get to spend in it each night are heavenly. We have always splurged on sheets, and have a soft spot in our heart for really awesome comforters. But, um, bedding is EXPENSIVE. Like, really expensive.

We had decided to get a down comforter and duvet awhile ago (for ease of washing without damaging the integrity of the comforter), but again - EXPENSIVE! We were at Macy’s during some kind of sale, so prices then were less frightening than full price, but when we finally decided on a comforter (there are 6-8 “levels” of down comforters… who knew?) it was very hard to pull the trigger. Sheets were no better. Extra pillow cases (we have 6 pillows and use them all) were the worst. Ugh. I felt this knot in my stomach. What are people going to think of us when they see that our bedding costs multiple hundreds of dollars?! Sigh.

Mr. Burger convinced me that it wasn’t a big deal. We moved on to cookware and added some of the basics - plus Burger got some cool things for himself, like a rice cooker . When it came time to pick some pots and pans, I found myself stumbling yet again over brands I’ve never heard of. All-Clad (complete with subsequent near-syncopal episode from looking at price tag). Calphalon. Cuisinart. Our heads were swimming. Stainless steel? Non stick? We had no guidance. All I knew was that I needed a big pot to cook my sauce in (because anyone that knows me knows I can’t cook spaghetti sauce in small portions). We eventually picked a Simply Calphalon Stainless Steel 10 piece set (for a ridiculous amount of money, without a big pot), and moved on (physically, not emotionally).

At that point I felt truly ill, Burger Man was starving, and I needed a break from this experience. We turned in our scanner, got a print out of our registry stats (that actually had some pretty interesting information on it), and headed to the food court.

To be continued…

Did you experience sticker shock on your initial registry trip?