Registry madness!

First off: I apologize for not posting for almost two weeks. Though I doubt any of you were losing sleep, or anything...but one never knows. :)


I had a friend ask me last night if I felt like I was "pretty much done" planning all the wedding stuff. My answer was that I felt like that at the beginning- but somehow, the more I do, the more I realize there is to do! Take this weekend, for instance. Travis and I decided it might be good to start figuring out what we want to register for. Awesome. Go scan things in a store and people buy them for you! Best Christmas ever...in May.

Enter theknot.com, which I highly recommend to any bride-to-be. It has all the pictures you could ever want for inspiration, community posting boards, tips and advice, and all kinds of lovely tools to help you plan. Including this giant registry list to give you ideas of where to start! It was super helpful, but also made me realize how complicated registering is.

First off, there's the whole problem of "Ooh, that's so cool! Let's get it!" not realizing that you will never. ever. use that appliance. Fortunately, Travis and I are fairly realistic, so we didn't have a whole lot of trouble with that. The only instance that approached this particular situation was my desire for a shower radio. And a full-length mirror.

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Why would my fiancé ever say that this was not completely necessary...

I did, however, win out on a few things, like an ice bucket. Mwahaha. ;)

There is also the problem of "I already have one of those- should we really get a new one?" For some things, like the vacuum cleaner Travis bought just this year, this makes sense- especially if the items in question are fairly new and still nice. For other things, like my parents' Tupperware mixing bowls from their own wedding shower more than 25 years ago, now bequeathed to my apartment...it makes more sense to get new ones. We had a bit more conflict over this. For example: I want a new set of towels, even though T's parents have several sets of (not worn out) towels that we could use. I am not at all snobbish toward their towels or their desire to let us have them! I just really want some that we picked out together, that are ours, in the new life we're starting together. Anyway, the towel issue is still in question. However, I did win out on new measuring cups and spoons, so we can get magnetic ones.

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Goodbye, annoying little plastic ring. Hello, handy magnets.

Once you have passed these obstacles, you still have to deal with "Do we really want to lug that around the country?" We had to consider the fact that we'll only be living in CS for one year after we're married, then probably moving out of state. Then, after three years, we'll probably be moving back to Texas. So we don't want to lug a bunch of cool but unnecessary things around or have them taking up lots of space in a small apartment- some things can wait until we have an actual house. This applied to a lot of large decorative stuff (e.g., the full-length mirror, mentioned above).

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Also, we really want a hammock. But an apartment may not be the best place for this.

Lastly, you must consider "What do we not trust other people to buy for us?" For my kitchen-guru father, who was advising us the entire time, there are certain items you just want to buy yourself, to make absolutely sure they are right. For him, this means the very specific kind of pots and pans. For me, this means the comforter set.

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Otherwise we might end up with something like this beauty...

So. You get through all these questions and finally get a list semi-done! Congratulations. Now you must figure out the brands you want. THEN you have to figure out what stores carry those brands! Not to mention going to the stores to scan them.

Needless to say, we have not performed those last few steps, as of yet. Just the list is daunting enough for one weekend. Don't get me wrong, though- I enjoyed making it! We are sooo looking forward to making our home together. :) Stay tuned for more developments in our registry adventure!