First of all... today's a big day folks. Round two of wedding dress shopping! I wish I could share a little bit more here on the blog but unfortunately I feel like I need to keep it away from non-prying eyes (that would be Mr. RH). Did I ever mention how I told him about this blog but not to look - and he stayed away for over a month. Man's a saint, I tell you.
In more ways than one.
Ok, so according to TheKnot.com's checklist of Shit I NEED To Get Done... I am only like 25 items behind. I felt like I was plodding right along doing so well... and in the last week or two shit's gotten reeally real.
One of the things that keeps jumping out at me is "Start a Bridal Registry."
Now, I know that there are old-school people who think registries are tacky. I am not one of those people. I buy from the registry for almost every single wedding (except when I give straight cash homey (homies?)).
I figure - if I'm going to buy some overpriced soup tureen, why not buy the one the bride wants, eh?
(Note: I'd NEVER buy that shit for a bride. Cookie sheets and my cookie recipe and chocolate chips? Hell yes.)
Anyways, it became quite the gab-fest on twitter yesterday when I asked about where/when/how to register.
I think the consensus is that I need to go in person to at least check a few things out - but that I'm going to do a ton of modifying online. Sounds perfect to me. My real debate is WHERE.
So, I live and die by Target. For reals. However, I've heard a LOT of negative reviews about Club Wedd, Target's registry program. Not to mention - the Target website as of, oh, 2010, is major suck. It's awful and doesn't load half the time and it's really a piece of junk. For such an amazing company, I don't know what they are smoking in that corporate office.
Anyways, I've heard negative things about Club Wedd - and it makes sense because Target's return policy is pretty dang strict. And we ALL know I'm going to return at least one thing, helloooo. In my heart, I'm all yessss Target and in my head I'm all no Target. So I'm stumped. There wasn't anything specific I wanted from there, so I'm not sure why it was on my "list" anyways - besides that it's local to me and convenient.
Next up, I'm fairly set on registering at Bed Bath & Beyond. I mean, does this place ONLY exist because of weddings? Cause I'm 99% sure it does.
Twitter gave it good marks for selection and there's even a local store so I can actually register in store. PLUS.
However, it kinda pains me to register for stuff that seems slightly overpriced in some instances... but then again, everybody had a coupon hanging around the house, right? Maybe?
And then there's my personal MOST EXCITED FAVORITE store I want to register at - Crate & Barrel. Oh how my heart pitter-patters.
I don't think Crate & Barrel is overly luxurious, but I do feel like it's a bit of a luxury place to register at. My family and friends are far from fancy, but I've bought a good chunk of gifts there and I don't feel like I'm buying a $300 vase that they will never take out of the box.
However, early in the wedding process I mentioned to Mr. RH that I probably wouldn't register there but that it was my dream. He, of course, was insistent. I want to go to one of their fun registry events in stores... unfortunately they don't have any listed online at the moment.
I'm considering Macy's for bedding options... but then again, I'm not getting china or anything else that would be there... so maybe that's just too much?
Right now I'm thinking Crate & Barrel and Bed Bath & Beyond only... some say that's too many place and some say it's too few. I give up.
Am I doing it right? Doing it wrong? Do whatever I want and damn what anybody else thinks (I'm personally way on board with this, especially when it involves wine).
Where did you register - and would you register there again?
And if you are unmarried like myself... where's your dream place to register? I vote Container Store. They have some awesome shit in there that I would probably never take out of the box.... but damn it would be pretty!
Happy Friday! Send me good dress vibes!
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29 Classy Comments:
We did BBB and Crate and Barrel and would 100% do it again. C&B even gave us a SUPER cute gift when we went to register and they were amazeballs about returns and their registry completion discount was great. BBB was ok, they also are great about returns (they let me return towels after I washed them!).
I would avoid Target...their return policy gets worse and worse and I've heard nothing good about their registry process.
I think 2 places is good depending on your guestlist. We had 100 people and 2 places was the perfect amount for us.
We registered at Target and JCPenney. At the last minute, I registered at Belk (not sure if you have Belk, but it's similar to JCP, but more overpriced.) I only registered at Belk because my future in-laws kind of demanded it. That, or Wal-Mart. (And I say that I registered there because, really, I registered there. For towels and silver. And it was awful.)
I wish we had registered at Bed, Bath and Beyond and JCPenney. I really love a lot of things at JCP, and they are reasonably priced. Plus, most of our families were near JCP.
I don't remember Target's return policy being completely awful when it came to registry items. We did a baby registry there, and as long as you have a registry, they take most items back without a hassle.
Good luck - and have fun with the registries! It really should be fun and exciting, and I don't think it's tacky!
We did Williams-Sonoma and Macys, and Macys had a lot of free gifts for registering for different things.
Kudos to not doing China....the hubs insisted we register for some and we've used it all of three times.
xo,
Jaclyn
I had no idea about Target's bad system. Good to know!
Pottery Barn! And I probably wouldn't register at WIlliams Sonoma in real life but it would be fun...
we did BB&B, macys and kohls...BUT we have no crate & barrel nearby, or i'd have been allllll over that biznass. the awesome thing about macy's is that if you sign up for their credit card (which you never have to use), you get a percentage of what people spend there on your registry BACK on a gift card after your wedding. it's pretty sweet.
i registered for china, because i wanted it. we got exactly ZERO pieces of it...and three years later, i've never missed it.
If we had a Crate and Barrel or a Pottery Barn in town, I would have done that. We ended up registering at BBB and Pier One. It was hard because we had both both lived alone before we were together, so we already had two of everything. We didn't want china or crystal, so it was difficult finding things we wanted.
It was A LOT more fun when I was was pregnant! We registered at Babies R Us and Target! Loved it!
We registered at Dillards for dishes (hooray, Fiesta!) and WalMart for everything else. I didn't really want to register at Walmart, but all of our family is located in rural Missouri. The only store they have access to is Walmart. Gift cards from there were fantastic. We used them to buy groceries. The one good thing about Walmart? You can return anything! I returned a lot.
I think BB&B and C&B are great places to register. I registered at BB&B only- and I was really happy with the gifts we received, but I now wish I would have given people more options. Have you thought about Pier 1 Imports? I'm not sure if you have one near you, but I absolutely L-O-V-E that store. Such cute stuff for the home! My advice... don't bother with the fine china or kitchen gadgets you'll only use once a year. Get the stuff you'll use regularly and really enjoy. My favorites: stainless steel cookware, mini wine bar, fun wine glasses, cute throw pillows and blankets, a nice set of every-day dishes.. Good luck! Enjoy this time!!
We registered at BBB, Crate and Barrel, and Williams-Sonoma. I think the key to a perfect registry is to have several options at several price points. We went with W-S as our higher end option (as opposed to Pottery Barn, for example) because I love to cook and bake and get off on expensive kitchen stuff. :). I think that three registries are totally tasteful and normal. Alternatively, several of my friends have done a honeymoon registry at somewhere like Honeyfund, which is a great idea if you are planning and saving for a big trip!
We did Target and BB&B. We didn't have any problems with them. I liked it because it gave people some cheap and expensive options. Although not a lot of people bought from Target and we got almost everything from BB&B. I hear Crate & Barrel is good too. I don't normally shop there, but we did get some stuff that I returned there and saved the credit for some clearance items. My advice? Go in with a plan. It gets a little overwhelming. I at first, started thinking I was such a creep for asking for presents, and then got over it and had a blast!!! Have fun!!!
We registered at Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn and Belk. W&S has by far been THE BEST at returns. They are awesome. And they do free gift wrap in store so guests love the easyness of it.
You're only going to register once so you may as well get nice things! :)
We did Macy's, Bed Bath & Beyond, Target and Crate & Barrel.
Loved BBB - no complaints about that.
I personally didn't have any issues with the Target registry, but I also tried really hard to keep up with all of mine and if I registered for a food processor at 2 places and it was purchased at one place, I would go online and take it off of the other registry. That may sound tacky to check it all the time, but it helped soooo much!
If I had to choose places again, I would definitely NOT choose Macy's. They were just not helpful and it's so overpriced.
We only received a few gifts from the Crate & Barrel registry, but I was pleased with our experience there.
We also did not register for china...at some point in the future we will inherit china from one of our family members, which will be much more meaningful to me than registering for my own that we A) don't have room for and B) will probably never use anyway.
I registered at Target for my baby shower this past year and didn't have any issues returning things. (And I returned a lot!) They just ask you to print your registry cover page from the kiosk before you get to the counter. It didn't matter if you were returning things that weren't on there. I think they just wanted to verify that you had registered there.
I registered at several different places for our wedding. I wanted to accommodate local stores for different parts of our state. For instance, for back home I registered at Wal-Mart & Dillard's. Slim pickings around that part of the state. Then, closer to my college town I registered at Linens 'N Things (think BBB) and Target. I ended up registering for some of the same stuff at multiple stores, and would just remove it online from the other stores once it was bought somewhere else. Yes, I checked my registries. It is impossible not to! :) Good luck!
I recently got married in October 2012, and my husband and I were registered at Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Macy's. I definitely recommend BB&B - they pretty much have anything...and we got quite a few gift cards there, so when we moved in together and suddenly realized we needed a kitchen tool or appliance, we could head to BB&B and quickly find it!
As for Target, I was overall pleased with their registry - returns were no problem. You could print out a wedding gift log from their system and easily return things. And they even took items back that people didn't get from our registry. My only complaint about Target is, for some reason, when people purchased items from our registry, it often didn't show up as "already purchased" in their system - so we got quite a few duplicates. I liked their selection overall, though, so I don't regret registering there!
Best of luck!
So I have never commented, but have been reading for awhile and just got married in May, so hey! We registered at BBB and it was great with returns/for kitchen necessities. The oxo brand kitchen stuff really is very good and holds up well so that is worth the extra money.
We did not register at Target because my brother and his wife had a terrible time with returns. (Especially with people buying at different targets because the system is bad at updating registry so you can get a lot of repeat gifts). We however got several several Target gift cards so that satisfied my need for Target love.
Good Luck with registering!
Register at two or three places and make sure to put lots of things on the lists. People will use these lists for showers and wedding gifts. I hate going to buy a gift only to find the bride only registered for a few things at only one store (and all that's left on the list is a $75 veggie bowl or a $30 toilet plunger!).
Way back in 2007, we registered at Target, BBB, and Kohls.
I know all of our items didn't come off of our Kohls registry when purchased. I'm not sure if that was user error on the purchaser or cashier, or a system error.
BBB gives you a 10% discount on items on your registry that weren't purchased. That's always helpful if you're missing anything after your wedding festivities are said and done. http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/regFAQ.asp
We didn't have issues with Target, but it was five years ago.
We did BBB, Pottery Barn, and Williams Sonoma. I'm a big baker - so WS was perfect for the baking items. We got all of our dishes from PB and general stuff from BBB. I think 3 stores gives the gift giver options on what they give you, that way it feels more personal to them. We had great service with each store.
We registered at 5 places for ease for our wedding guests and location (we had 400 guests invited and quite a few were international). Anyway, we registered at Macys, BBB, Crate & Barrel, William Sonoma and Pampered Chef. Target is horrible to register/return with (we tried and ended up unregistering) and Macy's was a pain with returns and exchanges as well but we stuck with them specifically for the china and free stuff that came with that and the credit card. All the others were fantastic. BBB is the best, they'll give you cash if you have the gift receipt or a giftcard if you don't have the receipt. If I did it all over again, I would scratch Macy's and go with Amazon instead. You don't even have to go to a store to return their stuff, they'll give you the shipping labels for free.
Popular topic! We had a big wedding with guests that were really geographically diverse so we ended up with registries at BBB, Crate & Barrel, Williams Sonoma & Bloomingdales Home. My thoughts on those (and Target, which is where we have a baby registry currently).
- Super unimpressed with my Target baby registry experience. Their website is awful, their return policy is mediocre and their shipping is expensive. However, there is one REALLY close to us, so they are convienent, hence the registry. That said, I've found people LOVE to give Target gift cards, which is something to consider.
BBB- this was our store that we knew most people lived near and could shop "in person" if they desired. The majority of things on here were repeats from our Williams Sonoma/Bloomingdales registry (with a few exceptions) and we'd just mark the item off the 2nd registry if we got it, so we didn't have a duplicate problem. People love to use their coupons, since most stores will let people use them to buy your china/crystal/big ticket items even though they are supposed to be excluded.
Bloomingdales Home- we only registered for bedding, fine china and crystal here. I was worried that since there are pretty much only 2 BH locations in the US it would turn people off, but we got a TON of stuff of it and I couldn't beat their customer service. The Medina store in downtown Chicago is wonderful to registrants- they have this big white table in the back and they'll let you pull china/crystal/silver/linens and make up table settings to decide what you want. INVALUABLE.
Williams Sonoma- my husband and I both love to cook so this was a no-brainer. They had great customer service.
Crate & Barrel- definitely the registry our friends bought the most off of. Mostly registered for inexpensive to mid-priced entertaining pieces here- lots of little appetizer plates, measuring cups, etc. About 2 weeks before our wedding we added some furniture on to our registry so we could purchase it post-wedding with the discount- so awesome.
As a guest I hate shopping off of the Macy's registry sytem. I don't know why but I don't like it/find it user friendly.
Obviously we registered for china & crystal. I love it and we make a point to use it (anniversary dinners, when we are feeling fancy, etc) and I'm so glad we have it and use it. I loved it when my Mom got out the "good" china growing up and I hope one day our kids feel the same. That said...lots of my friends didn't register for china and have no issues with not having it.
I love your choices! We did BB&B because, um, everyone registers there and we also did C&B, just last weekend! Just FYI, they both have great iPhone apps so when you see or think of something on the go, you can scan, search, add, change quantities, etc. Sometimes I add things while I am cooking as I think of them and it's very convenient :)
We registered at Macy's (some appliances, Fiestaware, kitchen gadgets, etc.), Crate & Barrel (silverware, home accents), and Target (sheets, towels, cheap home things). When it came down to it, we ended up deciding it wasn't worth it to "compromise" by finding different silverware somewhere else. We really liked the Target sheets, C&B silverware, and Macy's Fiestaware. The rest just fit into place. Macy's has great online sales where I think a lot of our gifts came from. Plus, there isn't a C&B everywhere, but Target and Macy's are easy to get to. I returned a few things to Target (wrong colored towels, incomplete sets of cups) and had NO problems. As long as your guests put it onto the registry you don't need the gift reciept. We had about 150 people on the guest list, so 3 places was great! I think Macy's is very comprable to BBB.
So happy to see this post today! I was just talking with my fiance about what/where to register, and we were totally clueless. Thanks to your post and other lovely commenters' thoughts, sounds like it's Bed, Bath & Beyond and Kohl's for the win!
We did BBB, Crate & Barrel, and Pottery Barn - no complaints about any of them. I personally love buying wedding gifts for others at C& B. they have nice stuff, great customer service and most of it ships for $4.95. Sold.
I heard the same problems about Target so we skipped it.
Oh, and I definitely did 90% of the registering online. I had to delete all the random crap Brian put on there! I deleted some stupid $10 hourglass from PB thinking he'd never know (like he didn't with everything else). I heard about that hourglass for AGES! I eventually tracked one down for him and gave it to him as a gift. Oops. :)
You register wherever you want!!!! I registered at Macy's, Crate & Barrel, Kohl's, and Pottery Barn! As a gift giver, I like to have lots of options so I wanted the same for my guests. I also picked a few different price points to make everyone happy.
I did BBB and Pottery Barn. Highly, suggest you do BBB. Fun thing about BBB is that they will give you cash for items you want to return..holler!! Have fun!!
http://ourlifebeyondthegame.blogspot.com/
Registering isn't tacky at all! It's a longstanding wedding tradition- even my parents did it back in the day! We are registered at two small local shops that carry china and linens and gifts, and we registered at Belk as an "all-in-one" option. The most important thing my mom and sisters have told me is to do what we want! What is right for one couple isn't right for another! Some people register at many places, others only register at one or two! There is no right or wrong!
I had a love/hate relationship with registering...my mom is all like "YOU MUST REGISTER FOR CHINA" I'm all like...my fiance would be fine with a paper plate...anyway, we registered at Williams-Sonoma, for many reasons. First, I knew I wanted to kick off our marriage by cooking a lot together. They have so many different items that just seem to make cooking together more fun! We also registered at Belk and Pottery Barn! Good Luck along the way:)
-Katie
www.latiblogk.blogspot.com
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