Mrs. Jaguar, SydneyAge and Occupation: 27, Primary School TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, IT ConsultantEngagement Date: August 8, 2009Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Curzon HallAbout Me: I'm an Australian girl who is a self-proclaimed nerd, loves all things stationery and would be lost without books, music and the internet. Mr. Jaguar and I have been together for the past eight years and he finally popped the question last August. Hurrah! We currently live in Sydney, Australia with our adorable cat who thinks he's a person. We're a couple who likes to multi-task: we've been planning a wedding abroad, a permanent move from London to Sydney, and preparing to build our own home all at the same time. Travelling makes me giddy...as does Mr. Jaguar, of course!
Mr. Jaguar and I have been struggling with the gifts part of our wedding. I know that talking about presents can sometimes be a bit taboo, but it’s something that we never realised would be so difficult to figure out. I thought it might be beneficial to post about it on the ‘Bee, in case other brides find themselves having similar obstacles, too. (Though of course, this could just be me.)
I always thought gifts were supposed to be the fun side of the wedding. You do all this planning, you spend all this time, energy and money to throw a party that both you and your guests will love, and the gifts are just the icing on top of the proverbial wedding cake. And that’s true, for the most part—it really is. Picking and choosing a wedding gift is one of my favourite parts of going to other people’s big day; it means I get to set them up with something that I’ve chosen for them, even if it is out of a list of items. It’s fun!
Now here’s where I add in a little disclaimer: I am lucky to be marrying into a wonderful family who have always, always been amazing.
Mrs. Eggs Benedict, SeattleAge and Occupation: 29, AttorneyFiance's Age and Occupation: 35, AttorneyEngagement Date: December 5, 2009Wedding Date: February 2011Venue: IslandWoodAbout Me: I'm a Northwest girl who spends my time goofing around with Mr. Eggs Benedict and our dog, hiking, traveling, drinking wine and planning a wedding that will showcase the best of what the Pacific Northwest has to offer. I also love photography, beating Mr. Eggs Bene at Mario Kart, and watching the most ridiculous natural disaster flicks you can think of (seriously, how can you deny the awesomeness that is The Core or 2012?? That's right, you can't). We are planning our weekend wedding adventure at an environmental educational center, and I can't wait for the fun to begin!
We tried really hard to be conscious about our community and environment with this wedding. No, I wouldn’t call our wedding a “green wedding,” as we had a lot of out of town guests fly in for the weekend, my dress was new (though I did purchase a sample instead of ordering a new one), and we purchased plenty of new candles and votive holders. But we did hold our wedding at an environmental center (and supported their mission of environmental education), the food that we served was sourced from local markets as much as possible, we rented live trees to use as our ceremony decor, and even the few flowers that we had were from Washington state tulip farmers.
But there is one area of waste that I didn’t even think about being an issue until it took over our living room: packaging from gifts that have been shipped to us.
Pardon Cody’s glowing eyes in the background—I tried to fix them and they ended up even scarier looking!
Seriously, the amount of boxes, paper, bubble wrap and packing peanuts that have ended up in our living room is mind boggling. Read more…
Mrs. Giraffe, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 23, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Music Student TeacherEngagement Date: October 23, 2008Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Trinity Lutheran Church & Idlewild Country ClubAbout Me: Coming from the suburbs of the Windy City, you'll often find me with my foot in my mouth while laughing for no reason or telling bad knock knock jokes. I've been crafty for as long as I can remember, and will DIY something twice over before I have someone do it for me. I'm a semi-awkward, typeface obsessed, design junkie and have been know to break out my dance moves for no reason as well as try my best to be ridiculous at all times. My love of pop culture, wordplay, and graph paper almost rivals my love of Mr. Giraffe (who is just the bee's knees). After a 2.5 year engagement, we're planning a modern-in-disguise traditional wedding, and cannot wait!
I live with the Giraffe parents, and we get a local newspaper a few days a week, and the Chicago Trib on Sunday mornings. Shortly before the holidays, we received our paper and rubber-banded to the outside of it was a half sheet of orange construction paper. Read more…
Mrs. Elephant, Dallas, TXAge and Occupation: 27, Financial Operations AnalystFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, IT Student/Store ManagerEngagement Date: March 29, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: The Tribute Golf ClubAbout Me: I'm a Philly native creating roots deep in the heart of Texas. I might be a little obsessed capturing those Kodak moments of anything and everything (mainly on vacations). I've become more of a gamer thanks to Mr. Elephant, who I met online and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with. We are planning a wedding based on our favorite colors, blue and green, with a travel theme for 150 of our closest friends and family. Hopefully our long (2-year) engagement won't kill me!
There’s nothing like walking back from the gym and running into the FedEx driver (who might as well be on a first name basis with the amount of stuff ordered for this wedding) who asks us if we would like a wedding gift.
I was a little surprised but figured that the large heavy box from Bed, Bath & Beyond was a giveaway. Lucky for her, Mr. E saved her from climbing the stairs to our apartment with the heavy box. Of course, I had to document this milestone!
Is the box heavy or are your arms tired from lifting weights?
Mrs. Eggs Benedict, SeattleAge and Occupation: 29, AttorneyFiance's Age and Occupation: 35, AttorneyEngagement Date: December 5, 2009Wedding Date: February 2011Venue: IslandWoodAbout Me: I'm a Northwest girl who spends my time goofing around with Mr. Eggs Benedict and our dog, hiking, traveling, drinking wine and planning a wedding that will showcase the best of what the Pacific Northwest has to offer. I also love photography, beating Mr. Eggs Bene at Mario Kart, and watching the most ridiculous natural disaster flicks you can think of (seriously, how can you deny the awesomeness that is The Core or 2012?? That's right, you can't). We are planning our weekend wedding adventure at an environmental educational center, and I can't wait for the fun to begin!
One of the things that I had been looking forward to, but also kinda dreading, was creating our registry. I’m pretty sure this is something that you’re supposed to do before you get to the less-than-one-hundred-days mark, but apparently we like to leave things until a little later in the process. (And yeah—I now know how much time we have until the wedding because both of our registries have a huge countdown on the front page. Yikes!)
At first I thought that we’d just create an Amazon registry since they have the universal-registry option and we could add anything that we wanted to it. But then we realized that there are some people who prefer going to an actual store to pick something out. So we created registries at Macy’s and Crate and Barrel along with our Amazon registry.
We started at Macy’s and had entirely too much fun with the scanning gun. Or at least Mr. EB did—he’s a big fan of getting to play with any kind of toy. Of course, since we were having so much fun, this is the only picture I ended up getting of the process:
This is Mr. EB’s way of telling me to put the camera down already.
Mrs. Pretzel, SeattleAge and Occupation: 32 Learning, Training, and Development SpecialistFiance's Age and Occupation: 28 Manufacturing EngineerEngagement Date: September 2, 2009Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Catholic Church & The Engine Room at Georgetown StudiosAbout Me: I’m just a thirty-something girl who never dreamed of weddings, poofy dresses, or ritzy receptions. I am a rabid knitter, except recently, wedding projects have replaced my yarn and needles. I’ve been fiercely independent since the age of 2 and 30 years later I think my family and friends had given up on me settling down and getting married.
Ironically, I had to go all the way to Seattle to find a boy from Purdue. We fell in love over Seattle Beers and cooking together. I love NASCAR, he loves Legos. I can talk like a Muppet and he can fit a whole McDonald’s cheeseburger in his mouth. We are a two reception couple, currently planning a brewery inspired bash.
…or this post could be alternatively titled “How to get a Le Creuset for free!”
Today the UPS man rang the doorbell. I scared the crap out of the kitties as I flew down two flights of stairs to retrieve my packages from the stoop. I lugged the heavy package up to the kitchen and unwrapped my “prize.”
Ohhh…Kitchen Aid Mixer meat grinder attachment and the 5 qt. enamel cast iron Le Creuset Dutch oven… my knees just buckled a little.
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
Today I’m going to talk about something that gets me pretty excited, and I can’t be the only one out there: gift registries! Mr. Oatmeal and I have decided to do this in a pretty traditional way by registering for the things needed to start our home and lives together. Have I mentioned that we just bought a house? More details on that later!
Anyhow, we’ve narrowed down our registries to two places: Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn. I understand that these are fairly common choices, so I want to talk more about Mr. Oatmeal. He says these registries are for me, and me only. I’m the only one who will be happy to receive products from these stores, and he doesn’t think that’s very fair. And guess what? I agree. I know Mr. Oatmeal. I know him so well. And he won’t have the same warm fuzzy feeling inside when opening up, let’s say, this little gem:
Mrs. Jam, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 25, Writer/Associate Wedding CoordinatorFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Structural EngineerEngagement Date: December 23, 2009Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Hunter’s Ridge, Princeton, ILAbout Me: I’m a penny-pinching cat lady getting ready to marry the frugal dog lover of my dreams. Our ideal Saturday morning includes rummaging around people’s junk at garage and estate sales followed by an afternoon date to our favorite café, where we only eat sandwiches that include the word “salad.” We actually love it so much, it’s sort of our unofficial wedding theme: Look at our delicious finds, eat homemade ham salad, and celebrate our love…barndance style. When we’re not obsessing over our love-fest shindig, we’re planning themed parties for our best friends and jamming to '90s music.
Now that our save the dates are out and we’re officially, officially in wedding gear, we decided to grab the scanner gun and start the registry with a bang!
Yeah…it was Sunday morning. Enough said.
You may be surprised that we decided to not register for this: Read more…
Mrs. Waffle, AustinAge and Occupation: 31, Costumer/ArtistFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, AnimatorEngagement Date: July 27, 2010Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Hummingbird HouseAbout Me: My life is pretty much spent in a sea of fabric, paint, sequins and drama. When I’m not working, I play on a trivia team, take Broadway dance classes, read, buy shoes, and occasionally geek out on video games. I am an American girl who loves all things British and Mr. Waffle is a Brit who loves all things American...I guess it was meant to be!
There are a few reasons we had to get a move on with this whole registry deal.
MOH Sweet Pea is hosting the shower and is having a baby in April.
Because of #1, we are having our shower in February. Sweet Pea is a teeny-tiny lady and already the baby belly is HUGE. I will be shocked if she can even walk in March. (You know I love you SP.)
Waffle leaves for LA this weekend so this was our last opportunity to do it together.
We hit up 3 stores on our whirlwind registry tour: Crate & Barrel, Best Buy, and Bed, Bath & Beyond. We didn’t really “register” for anything at Best Buy, it was just a good excuse for Waffle to have a break from linens and flatware.
Mrs. Prairie Dog, Cincinnati
Age and Occupation: 24, Program CoordinatorFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, PhD/Biomedical EngineerEngagement Date: December 18, 2009Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Glendale LyceumAbout Me: I'm a pilgrim soul of a girl with a house full of books and a coffee addiction that could slay Juan Valdez. My life is a whirl of grammar correction, good music, glue-gunning, and two pets named Hazel and Winston Churchill. I'm marrying my high school boyfriend in a formal-ish spring affair, roughly themed: "Elizabeth Bennet crashes a party co-hosted by Jay Gatsby and Cath Kidston, and loves it."
So there is this girl I know. Kind of a friend-of-a-friend type who I see once in a while—a perfectly nice girl who is getting married a month before I am. But realistically, in her mind, she is getting married tomorrow. And, at the rate I’m going, I’m probably getting married never.
This weekend, she was all…”So, where are you guys registered?”
“Um,” I said, glancing sidelong at PDog. “Nowhere. We hadn’t even thought about it yet.”
Guys. She laughed like I was joking. When she realized *I* wasn’t laughing, she slowed her roll.
“Oh,” she said, recovering. “I guess I’m just type-A about planning.”
And then she proceeded to list about 100 things that I have not done yet. I swear, I broke into a cold sweat as she spoke. It was like the Knot’s evil list of a bajillion tasks that scolds you every time you log in took on HUMAN FORM.
Mrs. Jaguar, SydneyAge and Occupation: 27, Primary School TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, IT ConsultantEngagement Date: August 8, 2009Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Curzon HallAbout Me: I'm an Australian girl who is a self-proclaimed nerd, loves all things stationery and would be lost without books, music and the internet. Mr. Jaguar and I have been together for the past eight years and he finally popped the question last August. Hurrah! We currently live in Sydney, Australia with our adorable cat who thinks he's a person. We're a couple who likes to multi-task: we've been planning a wedding abroad, a permanent move from London to Sydney, and preparing to build our own home all at the same time. Travelling makes me giddy...as does Mr. Jaguar, of course!
Gift registries: they may seem innocent, but in actual fact, they are more like a minefield cleverly disguised beneath a bazillion gift-wrapped gadgets and gizmo’s.
Making the final decision as to where we’re going to create registries has been harder than we anticipated, particularly because our options are a little limited down under. All the traditional big name registries that most of my North American friends frequent don’t apply here—but we do have one fairly big department store called Myer where the majority of couples are content to go zap-happy with the scanner. I feel like they have a monopoly on wedding registries and don’t really shop there on a regular basis, so we’re considering shopping around and creating our registry somewhere a little bit different.
If I’m being completely honest, we don’t even really know what we want to put on our registry.
Mrs. Cardigan, AustinAge and Occupation: 21, Student/Soon-to-be Special Education TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 20, Student/Soon-to-be Accounting Systems AnalystEngagement Date: August 16, 2009Wedding Date: January 2011Venue: Vintage VillasAbout Me: I'm a native Austinite who was raised as a die-hard Aggie. Luckily, I'm a pretty persuasive girl because I managed to convince my high school boyfriend (now fiance!), Mr. Cardigan, to ditch his hardcore Longhorn ways and join me up at A&M, where we currently reside with our adorable dogs, Cullen & Ranger. We're currently planning a bright, cheery wedding with a ridiculous amount of DIY projects that I can't wait to tackle! I love crafting in any form, reading, and margaritas (I think I love them the most!). Organization is what keeps me sane and I love helping others, which is probably why I ended up as an education major. It gets a little chaotic sometimes when you're planning a wedding among all of the papers, projects, finals, and certification exams, but we're having the time of our lives and we can't wait to get started on our journey as husband and wife - and we're so excited to share our wedding with the hive!
Before Mr. Cardigan and I had even thought about registering, I heard a few warnings against registering at certain places. One of those places was Target. From things being unavailable, to trouble returning items, to mysterious items being added, Target’s registry doesn’t really have the best reputation.
However, I love me some Target. It’s one of my favorite stores ever, and when it comes to a nice big chain store, I prefer it to Bed, Bath and Beyond or Macy’s. So, ignoring the warnings, we registered at Target.
Now, I’m not saying that I regret that choice. I love, love, love the items we’ve received off of our Target registry, and I love every item we have left on there. But let’s just say our Target registry hasn’t been the easiest thing to maintain.
Mrs. Lioness, AtlantaAge and Occupation: 25, Physical TherapistFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, AttorneyEngagement Date: August 29, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: Anthony’s Fine DiningAbout Me: I’m a Southern girl with New England roots. I say "wicked" and "y’all" in the same sentence and I like to drink sweet tea with my lobster. Mr. Lion and I are both former Floridians now living in Atlanta, which fortunately is still SEC country...Go Gators! We both love baseball, coffee, traveling, cooking, and playing Words with Friends with each other on our iPhones all day long. I’m very passionate about the things and the people I love, and I tend to plan things with all of my heart...our wedding, of course, is no different! Oh, and also Mr. Lion is a first generation American of Cuban descent. I may look more like Lucy than Ricky, but I’m doing my best to incorporate some Latin elements into our vintage-garden-Southern wedding!
If y’all are anything like me, you’ve been busy attending holiday parties, baking cupcakes and cookies, and wrapping presents. It’s just that time of year! The holiday season has got me thinking about presents. When I was little, I was that horrible child who climbed up into my parents’ closet (which they thought was a good hiding place) and shook each wrapped Christmas and Hanukkah present to try to guess what was inside. Well, apparently I’m no different with wedding presents. Yes, I’m aware that I’m an adult now.
Hive, I am guilty of registry stalking. You know, your online registry shows what you want and what you have. As guests start buying gifts, that little “fulfilled” column starts to fill up. Well, occasionally I like to check out that little fulfilled column to see what’s new.
The sad part is that we received our first registry gift before I acquired this stalking habit…and that surprise made the gift that much more special! We had just sent out our save the dates, so we were a little confused when we received a wedding gift in the mail 10 months before our wedding.
Mrs. Brooch, Arlington, VAAge and Occupation: 25, Writer/EditorFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Front Desk ManagerEngagement Date: October 3, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: Oxon Hill ManorAbout Me: I’m an indecisive girlie-girl with a motor mouth, can-do attitude, and knack for making others laugh. I dream of becoming a best selling novelist like Elizabeth Gilbert or Julie Powell (a girl can dream, right?), and love long road trips, a beautiful countryside, music, blogs, books, and all things vintage/thrift/antique/or homemade. I’m a Virgo, i.e. overly sensitive, emotional, and critical, and there’s no such thing as short and sweet in my world. I want to say and do it all. Mr. Brooch grounds me. I point where to go and he figures out the way. He’s a pragmatic fancy-pants who enjoys video games and movies. We both adore our mutt, Rocky, and spending time with our amazingly supportive family and friends. We’re planning a garden wedding with a formal reception with lots of whimsy and unique, Southern-inspired details.
When we registered at Bed Bath and Beyond, they told us about their online tools. They host wedding websites, provide a budget, guest list manager, seating chart application, and a lot of other things.
Well, I’m one of those people who loves spreadsheets, but I love them so much that I have too many of them. I probably had three spreadsheets for our guest list alone in Google Docs until it was time to send our save the dates and get them organized. I actually ended up erasing them all and starting again. Figures.
Mr. B joking said to me, “You’re so organized, you’re unorganized!” Well, thanks. That’s no new news here. He’s right though, I am pretty unorganized, and as much as I appreciate all the tools out there that are supposed to help me get everything done, all that stuff is more harmful than helpful for a person like me.
When I got an email from our planner introducing us to the awesome wedding window organizer, I was so excited. This is it, I thought! I’ll finally get organized, ditch all my other spreadsheets and checklists, and just use this one. But, um, it didn’t quite go down like that. Now I have two of everything again. Read more…
Mrs. Pancakes, New York/Costa RicaAge and Occupation: 26, Law School StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Latin American Policy AnalystEngagement Date: March 12, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Casa Punto de VistaAbout Me: I’m a perfectionist with a big heart. I love a good laugh and firmly believe no one has ever regretted being prepared! My motto is “go big or go home.” I am incapable of doing anything in moderation, especially when it comes to shopping, TV, food and travel, and some would say wedding planning! The other half of this nearlywed team is a laid-back, adventure-loving, accident prone, sweetie from LA. He makes me laugh, is always down for an impromptu dance party, and totally indulges most of my hare-brained schemes. Now, in my final year of law school, we’ll be spending the spring abroad in Amsterdam and planning a DIY, whimsical, detail-filled destination wedding in Costa Rica!
I am not sure when you are “supposed” to register, but people keep asking us where we are registered. Through a process of faulty logic, I have decided that meant I should register ASAP!
If only it were that simple.
Unfortunately, we are planning on moving four or more times in the next year, so the prospect of starting a large collection of “things” isn’t that appealing, even though I LOVE household items. I could spend hours at Crate & Barrel or Ikea. Additionally, Mr. Pancakes and I have lived together for over three years, so we don’t need that many things. So, despite my love for gourmet goodies, I decided to start looking for nontraditional registry ideas.
The first website I found was Traveler’s Joy, and I thought it was a great place to start. If only I knew I had opened Pandora’s box. Shortly after that I found:
According to CNN, the main difference between one of these registries and a hotel-chain registry is that the couple can register for more items and usually has more control over the way the money is spent. Sounds good to me!
so this was our last opportunity to do it together.
