Lisa and I spent all day yesterday walking around stores creating our wedding registry. These stores are Macy’s, Target, and Bed, Bath and Beyond; in that order. We got up pretty early and basically got all of the pre-registry jitters out with coffee and cereal and Sherry, the nice lady in the Macy’s china department, who was, despite being understaffed and slammed all morning, sporting a very good attitude. I learned a lot of things about how registries work. I was really surprised at how easy it was to do; we filled out maybe a sheet of paper or so, they handed us the scanner, and we were released like the masters of homemaking bliss that we really hope we are. More than anything else, I was surprised at how many times I saw something and thought highly of it solely on the basis that my parents had one, or that my mom had recommended it in the past to me. I can’t really imagine having to make a registry without input from parents, whether it’s asked for or not; just having the experience of watching your parents buying things for their home makes all the difference in the world.

Target was alright. I think Lisa and I both looked at Target as our little catch-all safety net, but after Macy’s and before Bed, Bath and Beyond, we found ourselves skipping what we registered for at Macy’s and also skipping things we wanted to save for Bed, Bath. We left with maybe 50 items on our registry, which I’m sure some high-brow Target elitist will probably scoff at later. I didn’t register for any power-tools, cds, dvds, or video games; there aren’t any gag items either. As we were leaving, I told Lisa that I regretted not putting a Polaroid camera on there.

The last stop was Bed, Bath and Beyond, who were really interesting. They spent a lot of time trash talking Macy’s, we had to wait the longest to set up our registry and their scanner was the most complicated. They were really nice though. The lady who set us up was a little more intrusive than either Lisa or I probably would have liked her to be. She followed us around at the beginning, and she kept pushing high dollar crystal gift ideas on us and giving us reasons why our guests would want to get us a crystal vase instead of a toaster or a coffee press or something that we actually wanted. After she wandered away, Lisa and I spent mostly the rest of the day walking around methodically scanning and debating colors and items. We probably walked out of there with the most items registered, but for good reason; Bed, Bath and Beyond had the most of what we’ll probably really come to need when we figure out where to live. Lisa, after walking around most of the day, was basically suffering from low blood sugar, tired of walking around in circles, and both of us were pretty much retail-ed out.

Eating at Logan’s afterward, we sort of marveled at the fact that we accomplished all of that in one day, without fighting at all over colors or wants, and without any real snags or hiccups. We were pretty much totally exhausted, but we made it.

I’m going to go ahead and encourage everyone to start looking at the registries now. There were a lot of things, especially at Macy’s, that are on sale now, and that can be ordered online, so everyone should try to take advantage of that if possible. We tried to keep budgets in mind (both ours and yours). There’s a pretty healthy variety to pick from. I know that we won’t get all of it; at this point I’m just happy that we can move on to the next thing on the list: invitations (which I made earlier this week), flowers, tuxes, and finding a place to live.

Links: Macy’s, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Target.