Who Knew?

I mean really, who knew that registering for wedding gifts was going to be such a challenge? I mean, it's AWESOME, but it's hard! Even though we're still in the middle of the process, I feel as if I have a few little nuggets of wisdom to share. Of course I'm in a position to do this, I'm probably the smartest, most awesome, and most wise newly engaged person on the planet.

Objective: Find places to register

Our Approach: Hey! Crate and Barrel will give us free breakfast if we register there!

The Correct Approach: Perhaps decide on two or three locations where you want to get gifts from, based off of their products, not their incentives. Although I'll admit, Crate and Barrel was a winner for us. Not only did we get free breakfast, but we got the store to ourselves (with other engaged couples), lots of time with the scan gun, (the BRIDAL GUN as they call it!), and some free ridiculous heart shaped champagne flutes. If that doesn't say true love, well then, I'm just not sure what does.

Objective: Outfit your kitchen and home with niceties.

Our Approach: Zero thought, discussion, or research into styles, level of quality, etc.

The Correct Approach: The correct approach would probably be anything but what we did. I would recommend at least a little bit of research. Even the tinniest, wee bit of looking up ideas would be helpful. Thankfully, most locations where you register will give you lists, so you're not completely in the dark as you wanted around with the bridal gun. You'd think this would be helpful right? WRONG. Completely overwhelming. An asparagus steamer? Really Crate and Barrel, really? A trifle dish?!? What is that? I was so thankful to be able to at least check of one item. Toasting Flutes. Yes, we're set on that one. We have these lovely, heart shaped flutes....

Objective: Register with speed and thoughtfulness.

Our Approach: Speed? We don't even know where to begin here!

The Correct Approach: You must allot yourself a generous amount of time here. I mean, generous. Tim and I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond (which, by the way, has a completely inordinate amount of items. I mean, Tim and I were staring at a wall of pizza cutters. Seriously, how different can they all be?). Anyway, Tim and I went to Triple B at 7. They close at 9:30. We've got lots of time right? Again, WRONG. Our wedding coordinator, Isaac, took about an hour of our time, showing us pictures of some really ugly dishes and stemware. The only fun part of this was when he demonstrated the strength of a porcelain teacup by SMASHING it against the desk. It did not break for those curious. After we finally straightened out the spelling of Timothy, (yes Isaac, it does have two T's....) we were off with the bridal gun, which weighs in at about 5 lbs. And I was wondering why my arm was sore this morning..... Needless to say, we ended up scanning evereything we could find the last ten minutes, because we had barely made it out of the toaster section of the store; because yes, there is a toaster section. It's these types of decisions that you'd think would be easy to make, but then all of the sudden, you're standing in front of five toasters, and you are suddenly struck with a bout of indecision. Do you make a decision based on price? Toasting ability? Number of toast slots? Stainless Silver or Plastic? Brushed or shiny silver? DO YOU SEE WHAT I'M SAYING? This whole process is stressful.

Whatever.

We still have one place to register...Pottery Barn. I'm hoping that by the time we make it there, we're going to have this whole process down to a tee. I mean, they're classy at that store. The last thing I want is a ten minute deadline with Tim yelling "Scan! Scan! Scan!" while I frantically look for barcodes and SKU's.

I'm thinking about making a bridal gun/taser combo. That way, the taser part can be used to whip people into shape, force out decisions, and stun Isaac into silence...(and if he's lucky, improve his spelling!)