Registered

Javier and I are finally all registered up :)  We went to Macy's the other Saturday, armed with one scanner, one Matron of Honor and the determination that we would find wine glasses that I thought were pretty and delicate and  Javs found to be sturdy enough to with stand his hand washing (that's right, my man washes dishes - he does it all!)!  I think we ended up spending something ridiculous like 3 hours in Macy's and true to form, Kels was a trooper through it all (remember her dress marathon?).  She even remembered to snap a few pictures so you dedicated blog readers could be in on the fun.  Here we are picking out some China :)  (Your may remember we picked out China in Crate and Barrel too, but wanted to see if we liked anything better here.) 

We also decided to pick out some crystal to go with it.  This became our 'big debate' item of the day (we seem to have had one at each store).  Thank goodness for Kels' patience, we must have stood in front of the crystal for a full 30 minutes of our time in Macy's.  We would take each piece we considered out, placing it next to the China we liked best.  Then there were the different pieces within each crystal pattern to consider: iced beverage, wine, goblet, champagne flute.  My goodness.  But decisions were made through smiles and some mockery and in the end Javs and I were both excited about the prospect of serving a fancy dinner on our newly selected china and crystal :)

**Advice Alert** (cause I haven't given any advice on here in a while)

Stop when you hit the wall. (And you will hit the wall.)

Most people who know me well (and I think most of you do) know that I do not like to shop.  I do not like to shop for myself, I do not like to shop for others.  Its not just clothes shopping - its the stores, its the crowds, its the decisions - its just not my thing.  (although I oddly kind of love grocery shopping? but that's it)  And I'm almost always the first one to hit my wall if I'm shopping in a group.  Anyway, despite my strong dislike for shopping - I truly enjoyed registering.  It was really fun.  Maybe it was my company or that this was the closest thing to a shopping spree experience I'll get (although we were selective in our items).  Either way, it was very fun.  But I still hit my wall.  (At Macy's it was when we started looking at luggage...I couldn't compare Samsonite (I was way off!) and TravelPro for another second.)

We had heard it from everyone (even employees at the stores where we were registering) 'Stop when its not fun anymore.'  Great advice (not even mine).  Please follow it.  We definitely hit that point during each scanner session where one (or both of us) fell into the 'I don't care.'  When you start discussing what beautiful and awesome items you're considering bringing into your home via loving and generous wedding guests and your response is 'I don't care' (or 'I just don't care anymore') then I think its best to walk away.  You're not in a good state to be picking the china your grandchildren will be eating off of 45 years from now.  (And the beauty of registry technology today - is that you can take a break, grab a beer, heck, even wait a few days and then come back to it online to review or make some final decisions!)

**Advice Alert**  Go back and check your registry.

For a couple of reasons.  First, we went back originally to make sure we didn't have duplicate items from one store to the other.  I mean we had purposefully registered for some of the same items at more than one store so that we could go back (online) and see which one we liked more and/or what was cheaper.  I've definitely seen others make the mistake of having that garlic press on their Macy's and Crate and Barrel registries.  Now, maybe they wanted two garlic presses, but Javs and I didn't - so we wanted to check that, in the whirlwind of picking all this awesome stuff out, we hadn't duplicated.

While reviewing for duplication, we learned about another reason to review - stuff goes out of stock.  We registered for some everyday dishes at William Sonoma that we loved!  But when we went back and looked at the registry online they were covered with all this red text: Item no longer available.  OUT OF STOCK! Tragedy.  But, glad we saw it so we could remove those ugly words from our gorgeous registry and pick something else out somewhere else :)

Not advice, just some words from me.

The best gift we could receive from each of our guests would be their presence at our wedding.  Its what all the brides on my blogs talk about in their recaps.  That there is a moment when you look around at your wedding and realize you're surrounded by the people you love and who love you most in the world.  Its one of (if not the only) times in your life that it will happen.  Gift enough.

However, if our guests extend their generosity to include a gift selected from our registry, I. am. so. excited. I am tickled pink at the idea of receiving any of the items we included on our wish lists.  When reviewing our Crate and Barrel registry the other day, I saw a feature they offer that allows you mark your '5 favorite' items on the registry to help guests prioritize items to purchase.  For a second, I thought 'I should mark our favorites!'  But then I started to look at our registry.  Where would I start?  Did even have a favorite?  An item I would be more excited to receive than the next?  No.  I'll be equally excited to receive the spatulas as I am to receive the All Clad saute pan!  So, if you want advice on what to get Javs and I for the wedding, I'd suggest doing what we do when perusing others' registries in search for the perfect gift:  Find an item from which with you can create the punniest message for the card. 

Examples:

     Purchased:     Clothes Hamper & Garlic Press
     Punny Card:   Don't let disagreements hamper your love or press your buttons!  Congratulations!

     Purchased:     Rooster Dish Towels & Cake Pans
     Punny Card:   So you can bake up some lovin' in your new chicken coop!  Congratulations!

see :)  They're punny!  And fun :)  If nothing else, maybe it'll make you laugh when you look at our registries!

oh!  and we did finally find those wine glasses at Macy's :)