Weddingbee
Looking over her registry the other day, a friend of mine asked me for suggestions on things she could add. I came up with a list of things some people don’t think to add, and a couple things Mr Frenchie and I love to use.
1 - Tools - Right now, any tool I want is at my disposal in my parents’ garage. My dad is a contractor, so I pretty much have my pick of screwdrivers, drill bits, hammers, and pliers. Target sell this great 133 piece Home Project set by Black and Decker. I’m really excited at the possibility of having my very own power drill!
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From the get-go, the Dude and I knew we didn’t want a traditional registry. We’ve been living together for over three years at this point. We have everything we need. Not to mention, we just bought a house last October, so we’re pretty settled where we are and with everything we’ve accumulated for ourselves over the years.
I didn’t want to forgo the registry entirely because people like to give gifts at weddings, especially family and close friends.
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Much like The Bear Cubs, we, The Cowboy Boots don’t really need all that much stuff for our house. We’ve lived together for over three years at this point, which means we’ve made numerous trips to Bed, Bath & Beyond, Target, and many other home goods stores throughout the course of our relationship. True, we don’t have much furniture (we rent a partially furnished place) but we don’t expect our guests to buy us expensive things—I mean, they’re traveling all the way to Colorado for our wedding.
So, we put in for a few things on Williams-Sonoma (we’re big into cooking), Pottery Barn, and Sears. You know, a toaster here, a shower head there. Mainly just little things that would make our lives that much better.
And while we never got the luxury of going through the store scanning things (does that sound fun to anyone else? It does to me!) because we registered online, there is one store we got to handpick our items. Mr. CB’s parents’ gallery. That’s right. They own a gallery in Upstate New York called Gallery Three, Two, One. With one-of-a-kind crafts, gorgeous pottery, and other goods, it’s like a treasure trove when I’m in there (not to mention the jewelry). Here are a couple of the items we registered for:
A pottery bird feeder
We got our first wedding gift in the mail last week! It was SO exciting, and made everything feel so much more real!
We got all our new glasses and a tablecloth with matching napkins (don’t worry, we haven’t used them yet!). Thanks, Auntie L!
So, now comes the confession…
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For two foodies, we own surprisingly few kitchen tools.
In the past, the mister and I needed to commandeer a kitchen — his mother’s, or my parents’ — when we wanted to toss together a meal. While this detail often meant we weren’t cooking together — or as often — as we’d have liked, with each workspace, we did have access to a variety of helpful tools and supplies. After we moved into our own apartment several months ago, though, the items in our culinary arsenal took a sizable hit.
Durable knives? Nope. Dependable cookware? Not so much.
Most of the cookware and cutlery we’re currently using require creativity (um, that eggplant’s much bigger than the flimsy plastic cutting board) and finesse (careful of the loose screw on the 30+ year old pot handle!) and although I’m certainly not complaining — we know we’re lucky to have inherited this motley assortment of bargain finds and hand-me-downs for next to nothing — I’m definitely looking forward to refining my techniques with tools that will enable me to improve my efficiency, and add to my culinary confidence.
Mr. Bruschetta echoes these sentiments, and so we’ve agreed to create registries focused exclusively on improving our current kitchen situation — and bearing in mind the future kitchen of our dreams. And while I swoon at the thought of my own KitchenAid, I’m similarly jazzed about many other items waiting patiently on our four wedding registries:
slice and dice by Whisked Away on Polyvore.com
Wusthof knives, and a cutlery block to keep them safe and secure;
Contrary to popular belief, wedding registries are not that much fun to put together. In fact, it’s a lot of work and it loses its novelty very quickly. I believe people get this confused with the actual bridal showers where you RECEIVE the gifts, not REGISTER for them. That was your PSA for the day. You’re welcome. 
Okay okay! I know not all of you feel the same way I do.
In fact, I was really looking forward to the registry fun when I first got engaged. So much so that I started on them about 3 weeks after we became “official”. This was done in part because I was afraid that when the time would come around to do this (according to a suggested wedding time line) I’d be too busy with finals or an internship. Boy, was I right! Our first shower is a little over 2 weeks away and I still haven’t done much more than what I did on that first day of registering. My FMIL had already gotten a couple calls about where we were registered BEFORE the shower invites even went out. Yikes!
The truth is, registries sort of intimidate me because I don’t really know what we’ll need or will really use.
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Okay, so maybe we don’t quite have our marriage license yet - one thing at a time.
We are, however, diligently working on our registry!
There are obviously a million and one ways to make your registry, and even more things to put on the registry. Ever the joker, Mr. Cubbie intro’d our registry as follows:
“Hi! When we’re not out gallivanting around the universe, we have realized that we need a few basic things for our house/life. Things like sea kayaks and industrial grade baking supplies. Here is a short list of things we would really appreciate.”
Like many couples, we really don’t need the basics anymore. We have plates (from college), we have a couch, we have linens (from college)… what else is normal for a bride & groom to get? The only things we don’t have are the things we don’t really need. Like a two person sea kayak. And a sweet KitchenAid stand mixer. Mr. Cubbie wants the KitchenAid almost as much as I do!
The other little snafu is geography. How the hell are we going to get all the crap from the wedding down to Chile? And if we don’t bring it to Chile, where are we going to store it (really!?) for another two years?
When we move back to Oregon in a few years, we both plan on going back to school. It would be such a shame if all the money we diligently saved in Chile was bled into rent!
Realistically, what we need is help buying a house.
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I want a KitchenAid like little kids want to stick their fingers in the wedding cake!
White people like a lot of stuff, and you can check out the rest of the list here - what a great way to get to know another whitey, like me! (I like that it’s a list. As a whitey myself, this helps. We like lists.)
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I was chatting with my friend Jeremy (of the panel) about registries and whether he and his lovely bride Dani got many gifts from it. I’ll admit, I’m a little worried about it. I’ve been stalking our registries; I admit that, too. Anyway, as we were chatting, I realized he must have thought that I was really superficial about presents. I’ve blogged way too much about our registries already, and I’m sure this was the 3rd or 4th conversation we’ve had about them. So, I decided to come clean about why I’m paranoid about gifts.
I’ve gotten some pretty weird gifts over the years. Yes, everyone gets weird gifts, but this has been pretty consistent throughout my life. I once got a can of peaches for Christmas. My Dad had just seen this S & W commercial where people were really happy about getting canned fruit, so he decided to copy it. He was joking, of course, and later gave me a card with some money. That’s kind of cute and funny, but that’s where those types of gifts end.
Some of the funnier gifts I’ve been given:
A few weekends ago we officially started our registry process. I say started, because it seems like we have been continually adding, editing and changing our minds on different items. We originally planned on getting all 4 stores completely done in a weekend, and that definitely did not happen. All the choices are almost overwhelming. We decided to register at Macy’s, Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, and Bed, Bath and Beyond.
Our first store was Macy’s, and we headed straight for the item we have been coveting since we were engaged. The KitchenAid Mixer! We registered for a beautiful silver one that will match everything. I am already crossing my fingers that someone gets us this guy for one of my showers. Is that bad? My roommate in college had one, and I’ve been dying to get my own ever since I moved out.
Here is a picture Mr. Ducky took of me at Macy’s. Excuse the poor picture quality, but it’s the only documentation I have from the marathon registry day.
Now, here’s our dilemma regarding registering.
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