Home Registry Regrets?

[~*Alexis*~]

Any one have any regrets with their wedding registries? Anything they wish they would have put on or things they really regret?

Share your thoughts!

 

[Bella_mezzo]

nope, loved everything. We only put things on there that we wanted and we LOVE everything we got. We picked up a few things we didn''t get with gift cards and on ebay.

We only got 2 place settings of our china which was surprising, but we picked up three more in ebay and will probably get another 3 next year. There was some strange family drama behind this as my grandmother bought my brother his entire 12 place settings and she didn''t get us any china, but she gave me a set of sterling 4 years ago and said at the wedding to consider that our wedding present.

We registered for a Dyson Animal but no one got it for us so we got a Shark Navigator and it''s fantastic and way less expensive.

 

[ArtistJess]

i''m anxious to know this as well. we just registered yesterday.

 

[purselover]

I think we did a pretty good job with our registry, I just wish we had done a Tiffany registry as well I really like some of their bowls and stemware. That''s not really a huge deal though, we can just buy those things in the future.

 

[elrohwen]

We did a honeymoon registry, so we just got a check in the mail. No regrets!

 

[trillionaire]

Date: 2/18/2010 9:44:51 AM
Author: elrohwen
We did a honeymoon registry, so we just got a check in the mail. No regrets!

Do you get notice of who bought you what? I really would prefer a honeymoon registry to a traditional registry. I might do a small side registry, but mostly honeymoon. Anyway, I would still like to thank everyone who contributed. Also, if you don''t mind me asking, which honeymoon registry did you use? I thnk I signed up for HoneyFund, but I don''t remember...

 

[elrohwen]

Date: 2/18/2010 11:12:49 AM
Author: trillionaire

Date: 2/18/2010 9:44:51 AM
Author: elrohwen
We did a honeymoon registry, so we just got a check in the mail. No regrets!

Do you get notice of who bought you what? I really would prefer a honeymoon registry to a traditional registry. I might do a small side registry, but mostly honeymoon. Anyway, I would still like to thank everyone who contributed. Also, if you don''t mind me asking, which honeymoon registry did you use? I thnk I signed up for HoneyFund, but I don''t remember...

Yep, we got an email after every purchase and the website also kept a running list of who bought what. I made sure to reference things people bought on the Thank Yous; especially if the gift was "real" like a hotel stay. At least half of them were total jokes ("Bear Attack Kit, so we can attack them!") that DH made up. DH had such a fun time creating it and people loved it! The "boring" real gifts were the last to go. Or lots of people got us one practical thing and one joke thing, even though all the money went to the same place anyway.

We used Traveler''s Joy. They did charge a percentage, but it was the lowest percentage we could find. I wish we had found a free one though (but I do understand that the sites need to make money too).

 

[trillionaire]

Date: 2/18/2010 11:23:40 AM
Author: elrohwen

Date: 2/18/2010 11:12:49 AM
Author: trillionaire

Date: 2/18/2010 9:44:51 AM
Author: elrohwen
We did a honeymoon registry, so we just got a check in the mail. No regrets!

Do you get notice of who bought you what? I really would prefer a honeymoon registry to a traditional registry. I might do a small side registry, but mostly honeymoon. Anyway, I would still like to thank everyone who contributed. Also, if you don''t mind me asking, which honeymoon registry did you use? I thnk I signed up for HoneyFund, but I don''t remember...

Yep, we got an email after every purchase and the website also kept a running list of who bought what. I made sure to reference things people bought on the Thank Yous; especially if the gift was ''real'' like a hotel stay. At least half of them were total jokes (''Bear Attack Kit, so we can attack them!'') that DH made up. DH had such a fun time creating it and people loved it! The ''boring'' real gifts were the last to go. Or lots of people got us one practical thing and one joke thing, even though all the money went to the same place anyway.

We used Traveler''s Joy. They did charge a percentage, but it was the lowest percentage we could find. I wish we had found a free one though (but I do understand that the sites need to make money too).

Not to threadjack, but one last Q...

how did peope generally respond to you doing a honeymoon registry? Everyone keeps saying that it''s not the ''done thing'' or is considered tacky, but I think they are fun (when other people have them) and I''m so non-traditional anyway that I''m not sure I mind being a little different. Did people give you things you didn''t register for instead? Did you pay for most of your honeymoon?

 

[elrohwen]

Date: 2/18/2010 11:37:56 AM
Author: trillionaire
Not to threadjack, but one last Q...

how did peope generally respond to you doing a honeymoon registry? Everyone keeps saying that it's not the 'done thing' or is considered tacky, but I think they are fun (when other people have them) and I'm so non-traditional anyway that I'm not sure I mind being a little different. Did people give you things you didn't register for instead? Did you pay for most of your honeymoon?

Our wedding was very "young" - less than 10-15 of the guests were older relatives, and honestly younger people (especially our friends) don't seem to know or care what is "done" most of the time

Our friends loved it! They especially loved how funny and creative it was. Plus, they know we have a ridiculous amount of stuff (especially kitchen-ware) so they understood. I guess whether people like it just depends on the demographic of your wedding.

Some people gave cash instead of using the registry, but very few bought us off the registry gifts. A couple people got us small cheap things, then also used the registry. Only one couple gave us their entire gift off the registry - a set of Corningware (which I actually ended up liking, though originally I was like "Why would they buy us *more* kitchen stuff?") But we have absolutely nowhere to put that Corningware set (it's in the basement except when I use a piece of it) so it made me very glad that we made the decision not to register for any other house stuff.

Our registry definitely paid for most of our honeymoon. It was a small-ish wedding, so I intiailly calculated a pretty low amount from gifts, but everyone was extremely generous and we ended up getting a lot more than we ever expected.

Sorry for the threadjack, Alexis!

 

[PilsnPinkysMom]

No major regrets but definitely some "I''m SO glad I registered for this!" stuff

Good Stuff:
-Slow cooker
-New pots & pans (we chose a nicer Anolon set from Macy''s & LOVE it- though anything is better than our thin, crappy pots & pans from college years)
-500 thread count sheets
-New cutting boards

If you or your DH enjoy cooking, it''s really a great opportunity to upgrade your kitchen ware & then donate your old stuff.

I registered for a bunch of china and got ZERO of it (for which I''m glad), but I did get a crystal vase that matches the china pattern... it''s our only "keepsake" and I''m very happy to have it. I''d recommend at least one nice keepsake item (vase, picture frame, etc) if you''re a sentimental person

Minor Regrets:
-Fancy blender
-Wine cooler
-Various bar ware (no place to put it right now)
Though most of these things will be used in DH''s "dream bar" that he plans to build in our new place

...So who knows, maybe they were worthwhile after all.

 

[Haven]

We did a pretty good job with our registries. There is only one item that we didn''t end up keeping, and I *thought* it was going to be my favorite thing in the kitchen.
-->A big Krups coffee/espresso maker.

It was a great machine, but it''s just too darn big. We ended up selling it on Craigslist because we just didn''t have the counter space for it. I feel pretty awful about getting rid of it because my best friend from college gave it to us KNOWING that I am a coffee snob. (Well, I certainly was back in college when we lived together.) I didn''t have the foresight to think about how a big machine like that would take up too much precious counter space.

We love and use everything else, though.

 

[ProseCuter]

Registered for everyday dishes (http://www.cobblecourt.com/pesiwh.html) for 10 place settings and got almost every piece. Love it and very happy we registered for that. We also registered for some Simon Pearce glassware, but only received 2 wine goblets. It is rather pricey, but was disappointed we didn''t receive more.

Like others, only registered for items we loved, so no regrets.

 

[wannaBMrsH]

We didn''t register for any gifts, but we still got some really cool stuff.

We actually got a wedding gift right before Christmas that came in handy during all the holiday parties and SuperBowl Sunday...

One of my college friends bought us an icemaker. It''s about half the width of our dishwasher and just as tall. We installed it in the cabinet next to the refrigerator and we LOVE it!!!!

No more calling people to stop at the store for ice on the way to the party!

If that is at all a possibility for you (spacewise as well as registry wise) I would definitely recommend it!

 

[MonkeyPants]

sorry to thread jack, but reading the responses makes me think that you generally can't return the items for cash or store credit. Is this true? Fi and I have pretty much everything we need for our home. We live together and don't really want much else but felt obligated to register for lots of items at different price points. Will I end up with a bunch of stuff in storage?

 

[elrohwen]

Date: 2/20/2010 12:46:44 AM
Author: MonkeyPants
sorry to thread jack, but reading the responses makes me think that you generally can''t return the items for cash or store credit. Is this true? Fi and I have pretty much everything we need for our home. We live together and don''t really want much else but felt obligated to register for lots of items at different price points. Will I end up with a bunch of stuff in storage?

You absolutely can return things for cash or store credit (I imagine which one it is depends on the store). My mom actually suggested we register for a bunch of stuff and plan to return every single one for the money. I said that was ridiculous - I''d rather have a honeymoon registry where at least people know they''re giving us money. I didn''t want someone (especially someone local) to say "Have you tried out that waffle maker we got you?" and have to deal with the awkwardness. I don''t see a problem with returning some items that you thought you wanted and decided you can''t use (like Haven''s coffeemaker) but I didn''t want to return 60+ items that people spent time purchasing. It''s really up to you though and what you feel comfortable with.

 

[Elmorton]

Regrets:
Picture frames - we really had enough already
Hand mixer - have never used it.
Non-stick pans - at the time, we didn''t really cook and thought this was a good idea. But handwashing pans is evil.

Wish I would have registered for:
Food processor - I''d never used one, so I got a mini one. I really wish I would have registered for the big boy.
Everyday wine glasses - really heavy, every day pieces instead of the thin Mikasa ones I fell in love with (and have since broken half the set)
Cast iron. I LOVE my grill pan - threw out the George Foreman last year. Should have registered for some basic pieces.

Registry loves:
Crockpot
KitchenAid
Krups Espresso - I have the smallest one (I think it''s $40 or so?) and I love the thing. It''s perfect for making my morning latte or for making 2-3 when we have guests over.
Rice Cooker - again, a relatively inexpensive one, but I can''t believe how much I actually use it

 

[Bella_mezzo]

Oh yeah, we love our Zojirushi rice cooker, but I registered for the one we'll hopefully need in 10 years when we have 4 kids, don't get the biggest size rice cooker for 2 people, it takes us a ton of counter space and makes enough rice to feed an army. We're making it work, but I wish I had just registered for a small one right now...

 

[MonkeyPants]

Thanks for responding elrohwen!

 

[zoebartlett]

We use most of the things we registered for. I suppose we do have a few things that we wouldn''t have put on our registry if we were to do it again:

Wine glasses, a few wine bottle accessories, and a glass pitcher. I thought it would be good to put something on the registry we would be happy to have but that we wouldn''t buy for ourselves. The only problem is that we rarely drink or entertain. I thought it would be nice to have but they''re taking up space.

Small drinking glasses -- we never use them.

I think in general, it''s good to think hard about whether you''ll really use something. For instance, so many people told us that the Kitchen Aid stand mixers are great to have, and we''d want one too. I love the look and the versatility of them but for us, it''s not practical because we wouldn''t use it often. I''m glad we didn''t include it on our registry. We went with a new hand mixer instead and I''m so happy we did.

 

[JSM]

Though we had lived on our own, most of the things we had were hand me downs or very old and BADLY needed replacing. I registered for towels, sheets, and kitchen stuff. I LOVE kitchen stuff! I use everything all the time - specialty pots and pans, food processor, utensils, pyrex, bakeware, knife block... guests were very generous.

The only thing we haven''t used is the blender... I drink wine, DH drinks beer, and I use the food processor for chopping stuff. I keep thinking that it will be used someday, but now it''s still in the original box!

 

[Haven]

Date: 2/21/2010 12:02:07 PM
Author: jsm
Though we had lived on our own, most of the things we had were hand me downs or very old and BADLY needed replacing. I registered for towels, sheets, and kitchen stuff. I LOVE kitchen stuff! I use everything all the time - specialty pots and pans, food processor, utensils, pyrex, bakeware, knife block... guests were very generous.

The only thing we haven''t used is the blender... I drink wine, DH drinks beer, and I use the food processor for chopping stuff. I keep thinking that it will be used someday, but now it''s still in the original box!

We didn''t use our blender either until DH rediscovered his love of protein shakes. Now that darn thing goes on every single morning while I''m trying to sleep!

I thought about getting rid of it, too, because I didn''t use it so much. But now I''m glad I didn''t.

 

[ladypirate]

Date: 2/21/2010 12:02:07 PM
Author: jsm
Though we had lived on our own, most of the things we had were hand me downs or very old and BADLY needed replacing. I registered for towels, sheets, and kitchen stuff. I LOVE kitchen stuff! I use everything all the time - specialty pots and pans, food processor, utensils, pyrex, bakeware, knife block... guests were very generous.


The only thing we haven''t used is the blender... I drink wine, DH drinks beer, and I use the food processor for chopping stuff. I keep thinking that it will be used someday, but now it''s still in the original box!

Smoothies! We throw in frozen fruit (we use the spectrum blend from costco), nonfat plain frozen yogurt (Trader Joes) and some OJ and it is AWESOME.

In fact, I think I''m going to go make one right now.

 

[elrohwen]

Date: 2/21/2010 12:02:07 PM
Author: jsm
The only thing we haven''t used is the blender... I drink wine, DH drinks beer, and I use the food processor for chopping stuff. I keep thinking that it will be used someday, but now it''s still in the original box!

Ditto, our blender is collecting dust! I''d really like to get rid of it, but I''m afraid someday we''ll decide to use it again. DH used to make milkshakes with it, but then MIL bought him a milkshake maker. And then he realized he was lactose intolerant. Lol. We have a lot fewer milkshakes now.

 

[JSM]

Lol! It appears I am not the only one not getting use of my blender. We have this beautiful KitchenAid from my Godmother, and I have literally not even opened it!

Fruit smoothies sound awful good though...

 

[wsu12]

I LOVE our blender (The Breville stainless steel model) and use it often for protein shakes. Regrets: The Kitchenaid stand mixer, I really wish I would have registered for it.

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

Our ''registry'' was to ask people to make a donation to Cancer Research UK (a charity we''re very thankful for and that means a lot to us). A lot of people didn''t do that and bought us a gift instead. We both already had a house, so we''ve ended up with a diningroom cupboard full of random, mismatched china and glassware. It was bought and gifted with love, so we have it still and we use it when we can, but if I was doing it again, I''d ask for the donations and have a small list for people who don''t like the idea, with cute or fun items that we would have used.

We did get some cheques from older relatives, and they told us we could donate the money if we really wanted to, but they''d rather we used it for ourselves. We used that money to get an antique rug for our living room, but we donated the equivalent amount from our own funds, because we felt a little guilty /conflicted about it.

 

[Keepingthefaith21]

Something I wish I had thought about a bit first was space.

We found creative ways to get everything to fit but I should have thought about the fact while it is nice to have 8 matching martini glasses, it''s not easy to store such fragile glasses and really - how often do I need 8 martini glasses.

I think my only regret are photo frames. I actually registered for a few not realizing photo frames are kind of a generic gift that some people will get you even if you haven''t registered for them. We now have a PILE of frames that we will probably never actually hang up - I don''t want our house to be an art gallery of our wedding. I''ll keep them aside - either use them as gifts for other folks later in life or hope that we have enough memorable experiences to some day fill all the frames

 

[rhbgirl24]

We did a honeymoon registry and a normal registry and I''m really glad we did. We got a TON of stuff pre-paid for our honeymoon, which was less money out of our pocket.

The normal stuff we got - towels, our formal dishes, kitchenaid stand mixer, bread maker - I LOVE!

So no regrets here!

 

[charbie]

Date: 2/20/2010 12:46:44 AM
Author: MonkeyPants
sorry to thread jack, but reading the responses makes me think that you generally can''t return the items for cash or store credit. Is this true? Fi and I have pretty much everything we need for our home. We live together and don''t really want much else but felt obligated to register for lots of items at different price points. Will I end up with a bunch of stuff in storage?

i was able to return items for store credit, but not for cash. if things were bought off the registry, they received a gift receipt, and that would only work for credit. my husband and i got over $400 in credit to kohls, then got a 30% off coupon in the mail. we went on a HUGE shopping spree one day we had received multiples of a few items (not sure how that happened...i got 4 spice racks) so we returned a few items. and we also received a few scales (guess people were trying to give us a hint), plus 2 vacuums, and my husband wanted us to return a tailgate grill we got (i registered for it, thinking he woud want it...grrr!).

things i loved on my registry:
our luxury bedding
serving dishes- i love having people over now! i''m a real hostess!
mixing bowls/pyrex storage wear

things we could have done without:
the aforementioned tailgate grill
plug-in skillet (i use my electric stovetop)
non-stick pans- i like my calphalon...yet it IS a pain to always wash them.

 

[tlh]

I registered for stuff and didn''t get anything from the registry. Then my husband registered for a bunch of junk. Literally stuff we didn''t need, because our registry needed "low priced" items. So we got those... and duplicates of those.

I wish we didn''t register for anything at all - and just got whatever people wanted to give us... which happened a lot too.

*grumpy*