The Registry Games

Ah, registering for wedding gifts. What could possibly be more than going to your favorite store with your soon-to-be-spouse, carrying a badass-looking laser gun, and picking out stuff for your soon-to-be-dwelling?

Well...a lot of things, it turned out. Registering for our wedding gifts was one of those "Wedding To-Do's" that I just couldn't wait to cross off the list. Like all those that have gone before me, I was excited to shop for our future house. The thought of choosing our very own blender, microwave, coffeemaker, and crockpot seemed like the mostfunthingever. I also may have been way too excited to use the scanner. #noshame

Since Mr. C and I are still undergrad college students, we don't have a collection of household items of which to combine once we get married. That basically means we need to start building our kitchen and household collection from the ground up. In theory, it sounds awesome. In reality...it's a bit overwhelming.

Before beginning the process of registering, we checked in with friends and family members that have gone before us. More than anything we wanted experienced register-ers (it's not a word, just go with it) to give us the honest low-down on what we need, what we don't need, and what's good to include just in case. I also hit up my good friend Google and asked him such pertinent questions as "best place to register wedding" and "must haves wedding registry". Deciding where to register wasn't a hard decision - Target and Bed Bath & Beyond were obvious choices. Little did I know the when and how of registering would require a bit more effort.

Non-chalant selfie with the Target scanner. Also, I swear I have a bottom lip.

Mr. C and I decided to embark on our first registering experience on the afternoon of our 5-year dating anniversary and chose Target as our destination. We went in without a definite list of must-haves (or any sort of plan at all), which was a definite fail on our part. We also failed to come up with any sort of color scheme or "theme" for any of the rooms of our future home, which resulted in many a frustrated conversation during our 2-hour registering date. A lot of our conversations went like this...

Me: "Do we need a tea kettle?"

Mr. C: "Do we drink tea?"

Me: "I've always wanted to become a tea drinker! And it's green. I love green. But will it match our future kitchen? Hmm..maybe we don't need a tea kettle. Okay, let's just add it anyway, we could always use it to make hot chocolate. Oh look, a salad spinner!"

Mmm. I love me a man with a scanner.

We also may have had argued over plate colors and the necessity of a waffle-iron. Seriously, you want to know the depth of someones love for you? Just make them search for the barcode on a vacuum cleaner's box...3 times, when you keep changing your mind. This is how I know Mr. C loves me.

After this somewhat disastrous registering experience (in which we left the store with mayyybe 15 items on our registry list) we decided to call it quits for the day. Because we knew we'd have to do this all over again to complete our registries, we decided to approach the next registry adventure with a solid game-plan. A couple months later we were able to complete our Target registry, although finishing up our Bed Bath & Beyond registry is still on our "To-Do" list. *sigh*.

Although registering may not have been the most exciting or fun-filled part of wedding planning thus far, it was one of those wedding to-do's that really grounded me and reminded me that we are for real getting married. No longer just dreaming about cookware sets and bathroom towels, but seriously getting to choose them. For our house. That we will live in together, as a married couple. That realization in itself made the experience one I'll always remember. At the end of the day, there is no one other than Mr. C that I would like to bicker over flatware sets and crockpots with.

Was your registering experience all that you dreamed it would be? Was it something you got done as quickly as possible and/or avoided like the plague?