Off-Registry Gift Cards

The one gift that I did not mind getting that was off-registry was a gift card. We had gift cards from Pottery Barn, Home Depot, California Pizza Kitchen, Kohl's, Starbucks, and of course Bed Bath and Beyond. One thing that I would suggest to all brides out there is to find an old wallet of yours or your fiance's to keep all of your gift certificates in. This way, they're not making your wallet so huge that you can't close it, but you still have them with you whenever you are out and about. This way, when you return something, you don't have to get a new gift card. Also, you're more likely to wind up somewhere where you have a gift card and have it with you, instead of having to make another trip later.

Crate & Barrel Registry

So, the first of our two furniture orders from Crate & Barrel came yesterday, and I am still not done breaking down the boxes - yargh. We got a dining table and 4 chairs (yes it fits, and now we finally have an eating surface aside from the coffee table), and a bar cabinet. What is even better is the good deal we got on the furniture.

Now, our salesperson told us not to tell everyone about this, but he/she said it with a wink and a smile, so I don't feel so bad. While we were at the store picking out the furniture, I casually asked if we would be able to use our completion coupon on the items. Our friendly salesperson let us know that he/she could add them to the registry and then we could use the coupon. Now, this took a while because the computer system didn't update, so I suggest doing your homework and adding the items, then ordering later that day or the next.

Registry Stalker

I'll admit it, my fiance and I stalk the registry almost religiously, and I am not ashamed about it. It's fun to see what people are getting you. I really don't see the problem with it, for many reasons:

1) if someone gets you something from the registry, the gift is not going to be a surprise anyway
2) none of the guests will watch you open your presents after the wedding, so you don't even have to act surprised
3) if you know someone purchased something, you can watch for it in the mail so your completely unhelpful leasing office doesn't leave it in their mailroom for it to rot
4) if you are moving right after the wedding, it is helpful to know what of your old stuff you can give to Goodwill (maybe this is just specific to us)
5) again if you are moving right after the wedding, you'll be able to tell just how many things have been shipped to your mother's house (after the "cutoff date") that are going to have to get shipped to your new apartment (when you finally figure out where that will be)
6) one morning you will wake up and check the registry and there will be a whole bunch of things "fulfilled" and it will feel like Christmas twice (once when you see that they've been purchased and once when you actually open them)

Organization, Finally

This weekend, my fiance and I finally had a chance to unpack the presents I received at the shower the week before.

Thank goodness. I was so tired of walking into the living room and thinking that I was in a garage. One corner of the room had a pile of boxes, that had been somewhat consolidated before I came back to Houston, but most of the gifts were all packed by Crate and Barrel in boxes that were much too huge (I have no idea why 4 cheese spreaders need to be individually wrapped in a whole issue of the New York times and put into a shoe box).

Saturday we finally unpacked a lot of it, ran it through the dishwasher, and found places in the cabinet for it. Some of the items were replacing old3er things that one or the other of us had bought when we were in college, so we also packed up a couple of boxes to go to Goodwill with.

The living room was looking more or less like a living room again, when UPS, Fedex, and the postal service each delivered a wedding gift to the door. Time for another trip to the dumpster...

Note: I realize that the above post may sound ungrateful. I am not bemoaning the fact that we are receiving generous gifts from our guests, merely the fact that C&B and BBB insist on using giant boxes to ship gifts.

Paring Down the Registry

One of the fun things about having a blog about the wedding is having a fiance that reads random internet articles and is more than happy to pass them on to me. He really loves passing on articles from a decluttering website, as he believes (maybe erroneously) that I am a pack rat.

This article was referenced on www.unclutterer.com, but talks about different uses for common household appliances. In theory, being able to use the appliances for multiple uses means that you don't have to register for as many things. There's recipes for making frozen beverages in ice cream makers, and how to use a waffle iron as a sandwich maker, brownie maker, and goodness knows what else. My favorite was the recipe for a souffle in a slow cooker, which sounds really easy, but maybe you wouldn't need a slow cooker to make a souffle, just a thought.

Anyway, the BEST part about the article (http://www.chow.com/stories/11092?page=1) is in one of the comments. I don't know that "unclutterer" knew about this person, surely they would have filtered it out. "Karykat" asks "I do have a question though. I have a regular waffle maker that just makes small round waffles. But also have a Belgian waffle maker. Think that would work for these recipes? " Hilarious! Surely this woman has a George Foreman. I mean, you can't have two waffle makers and no George Foreman.

Gift Registry Revisited

This weekend, I brought the dog to Houston so we could visit my parents. "We" (yes - the dog and I) had a free weekend, as my fiance is off to Las Vegas for his bachelor party (which I won't even begin to discuss in this post - mostly because I will not find out about the ridiculousness until he calls tonight after he's been drinking).


Since my mother has been diligently working on addressing the invitations this week, I told her that the least I could do while I was home was stuff the invitations. While I was stuffing them, I realized that once they were sent out, people might feel the urge to send us gifts (not a huge realization I know), so I started thinking about the registry.

I really think that stores need to encourage you to come back to review your registry. I was lucky enough to get the chance when I went to the store in preparation for a party we were throwing. We needed some more bowls, so we thought we should just get the ones off the registry. All well and good, but when I got them home, we realized they don't hold that much, certainly not a serving of soup, or more importantly cereal, or anything liquidy that might slosh out.


I was in the store the other day (because all of our spoons had disappeared) and I saw the place mats that my fiance and I had picked out. Ummm, I really don't know what we were thinking. They are REALLY ugly. The pattern looks like a blue and brown couch from the late 1970's. I don't really know what we were thinking - maybe that it would match the bedroom suite. Really, just kind of gross though.

Only problem is, I mentioned it to my mom, so now she wants to make it a group trip to Bed Bath & Beyond - and by group I mean, my mom, my sister, and me (not my fiance, since he's in Vegas). How fun.

The First Wedding Present

Whoo hoo! We got our first official wedding present today. Not from an engagement party, just a real wedding present. How exciting. I felt bad because I opened it without my fiance, thinking that it was a graduation present from his parents.

When I opened it, there was a smorgasbord of presents in the box and one of our friend's names on the tag. Such a good present - right off the registry. I went through the packing list, and I discovered that one of the items was missing. I called up Crate & Barrel right away. The woman on the other end of the line was super helpful and said that they would immediately ship the missing item. Very cool.

Alternative Registries

Recently, one of the Google ads that popped up above my email was for a registry service that didn’t necessitate using actual products in actual stores to register. Writing that, I realize it sounds like I’m about to get into some sort of money laundering scheme. Which I’m not. I don’t think.

My fiancé and I have wanted to include things for the honeymoon in a registry but haven’t been able to find a site that will do it. Until now – this site is actually pretty practical. To create a registry, you just make a list then put an approximate price in for the item. Your guests can login to the registry and make contributions towards different items – which is good because the guests don’t have to contribute the entire amount.

My problem with the site is – you’re basically asking your guests for cash. That’s what they give the company, and the company cuts the couple a check. The kicker is that this company adds a percentage onto the guests’ gifts to cover their costs (the site claims the take is as low as 1%). Really, you’re just asking your guests to pay a premium for the guise of etiquette. Wouldn’t something like a tasteful statement on our webpage such as, “We are planning on going to Greece for our honeymoon. Yada yada. We plan on allocating any monetary gifts towards our honeymoon, with extras such as a really special dinner or a sailing trip.” I’m still undecided as to what we can do. Goodness knows I don’t want to offend any of my guests, and they will be checking everything we do against Emily Post.