Registries

Dec 2008

As regular readers know, I’ve been struggling with registry ennui. A registry was right for us (it isn’t for everyone!) since it was going to let our family members help us celebrate in a way that made them happy, but I just couldn’t get my arms around it. Getting new and fancy stuff didn’t feel quite right to me.

Then last week, I decided to take a trip to the store we are registered at on my own. I started wandering around, picking things up, thinking about them. And then, of course, I started getting chatty with the salespeople, because that’s just how I roll. Suddenly questions were piling out of my mouth – questions I never expected to ask.

“How sturdy are these plates? Because you know kids, they drop things.”
“I like this toaster, it seems solidly built. Will it last? Does it come in a four slice model, so the whole family isn’t waiting on toast?”
“Tell me about these pots. Will we take them with us to the retirement home?”
“This table cloth – is it big enough for the extended family at the holidays?”

And then I got it. Continue reading How I Tamed The Registry

Posted in: Registries | 40 Comments »

Oct 2008

Registry Idea: The Goat Project

When I sent a email out to request wedding graduate guest posts, Aimee and Minh wrote me a post about one of the coolest wedding ideas I have ever heard in my life. Period. As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve always felt a little strange about having a charity registry, since it feels a little like asking for cash, when I know people want to give us something tangible to help build our home. Enter Aimee and Minh with the tangible charity gift that you can mix in amongst the china. We are planning to participate in this project too. It won’t help build our physical home, but it will help to build someone else’s home, as well as the strong bedrock of values that we bring into our marriage. And, we’ll still get those shiny pots and pans. Take it away, you two….
Registries. Awkward, aren’t they? At no other time in your adult life do you openly ask for gifts, let alone post a comprehensive list on the internet asking for lots of gifts. But as anyone who has been involved in a wedding (as a guest or host) knows, registries are very practical. Luckily for us, one of our registry choices added an unexpected richness and depth to the wedding experience, so when Meg asked us to write a little something for A Practical Wedding, we knew it would have to be about The Goat Project. Continue reading Registry Idea: The Goat Project

Posted in: Registries | 20 Comments »

Oct 2008

Registry Ennui

I have a confession to make. Early this year, when we were not engaged, but boy was I ready to be, I used to wander through the high end cooking store near my office and play the registering game. "Hum," I'd think to myself, "this sure is a nice fancy cheese board. I bet married people have cheese boards like this." Of course, what would follow was me looking at the price of said cheese board and thinking "AH! It's not that nice a cheese board!"

Fast forward to now. We've been engaged long enough that registering is something looming on the horizon. Oddly, I'm much less excited about it than you might expect. I really love shopping for presents for other peoples weddings off registries, mind you. Who doesn't? You get to play house, and get a inside look at peoples tastes. "Cool wine glasses," you think. Or "Ohdeargod, who asks for reindeer Christmas china?" And then you get the delight and satisfaction of foisting shiny wrapped things on newlyweds. But I can't seem to muster any of that excitement for our registry. Here are the issues:

I'm almost thirty. I've lived in apartments of one form or another for the last 10 years, so chances are if I can't live without it, I've probably already bought it. We truly needed a registry a year and a half ago when we moved to San Francisco, and seemed to need a million things for our new apartment. But now? We've got those things.
I don't cook. Period. David does cook, and he's very serious about it, so he has some things he's really excited to register for, like pans that will last a lifetime and serious knives. I'm excited that he's excited, but that's the extent of my emotions.
We have a small apartment, and it's tidy. The rules are, if we don't have a place to keep it, it doesn't come in the door, and most spots are already taken. We have no plans to move to a bigger space soon. Our apartment is 1930's immaculate rent controlled perfection, so our thoughts are more of the "do we have a walk in closet big enough to convert to a nursery?" variety.
I'm not a shopper, so the idea of taking hours and hours to set up a online registry filled with flawless etsy finds makes me feel bored.

Continue reading Registry Ennui

Posted in: Life, Meg's Thoughts, Planning, Registries, Weddings | 54 Comments »