Wedding Wednesday: Registries

I wanted to talk a little bit today about our registries and just what gifts we got. I know the point of a wedding is not the gifts, but it does become a confusing issue for many, so I thought this might help others when it's time to register for gifts.

We only registered at two stores, Kohl's and Target. I told you previously about my experience with the Target registry. Our Kohl's registry was pretty much the opposite of that and I highly recommend registering there.

Since our wedding was in June, we registered in January, just after Christmas. I recommend waiting until after Christmas because stores put a lot of stuff on clearance in the days after Christmas and you don't want to register for stuff that's going to be clearanced right away.

We also registered for a lot of stuff because we were in the process of buying our house and we didn't have much of our own. I had a few things from my apartment, but they were cheap things that I wanted to upgrade.

We registered at Kohl's first since I knew most of our items would be from there. Let's look at what we registered for.

Dining

• Potholders/oven mitts
• Dishcloths
• Kitchen towels
• Everyday flatware
• Special occasion flatware

We got most of these items except the special occasion flatware.  You'll notice I did not register for china. This was for 2 reasons: 1. I inherited a set of Christmas china from my grandma and that's pretty much only occasion we would use china. 2. We really don't have a place to store one set of china, let alone two sets.

Kitchen

• Knives
• Pyrex baking dishes
• Cutting Boards
• Kitchen gadgets
• Cake pans
• Cookie Sheets

We got some of the Pyrex, the cutting boards, most of the gadgets, the cake pans, and cookie sheets. I think we only got one of the knife sets. For some reason, nobody wants to buy newlyweds sharp knives.

Kitchen Electrics

• Chef's chopper
• Deep Fryer
• George Foreman Grill
• Waffle Maker
• Electric Griddle
• KitchenAid Stand Mixer
• Hot Air Popcorn Popper

We didn't get the Chef's chopper (I got it for Christmas from my mom), the waffle maker, or the the stand mixer (my husband bought me it for Christmas.) We still don't have a waffle maker and frankly, we probably don't really need it.

Bath

• Towels
• Washcloths
• Bath rugs

We got a lot of our towels and bath rugs. These were pretty popular.

Bedding
I registered for bedding for our guest room, but we didn't get any of it. I had also put some sheet sets for our master bedroom, but didn't get those either. I guess nobody wants to buy bedding?

Misc.

• Dyson vacuum
• Kitchen rugs
• Doormats
• candles
• decorative items

I didn't expect to get the Dyson, I put it on there for the registry completion discount, but we never found a good enough deal to get it. We got one of the kitchen rugs and some of the candles, but none of the doormats or decorative items.

Here's what we registered for at Target.

Bath

• Bath rugs
• Shower hooks
• Towels 
• Shower curtain
• Shower caddy
• Rain Showerhead

We may have gotten a few of the towels, but nothing else. I actually ended up buying the shower curtain because it went limited availability and I really wanted it for my bathroom. The towels I wanted went clearance after our wedding, so I picked some up then.

Kitchen

• Kitchen towels
• Dish cloths
• Pot holders/Oven Mitts
• paring knives
• Cake carrier
• Tongs
• Canister set
• Breadbox

We got towels, dish clothes, pot holders, and the paring knives.

Small Appliances

• Dyson Vacuum
• Iron
• Toaster
• Crock Pot
• Hand Vacuum

Again, I didn't expect to get the Dyson, but it was actually cheaper at Target. The toaster I picked out disappeared after I registered, so I ended up putting one on the Kohl's registry and we got it. We did get the Crock Pot.

Misc.

• TV Trays
• Bicycles
• Board Games
• Lamp
• Wall Clock
• Coolers
• Shredder
• Fire Safe
• Ironing board
• DVD player

We got some of the board games we asked for. My mom bought me the clock for my birthday later.

We actually did get quite a few things off our registries. I was surprised that we got most of our appliances. We also got quite a few gift cards to both Target and Kohl's as well as cash and checks from a few guests.

One thing we got that we didn't register for? A set of pots and pans. It was a really nice and thoughtful gift, but we have a glass top stove, so we can only use certain kinds of pots. So my grandma bought me a set for my birthday back in January. Luckily, we were able to return the pots and get store credit.

And of course, I had to write thank you notes for all these wonderful gifts. I used a picture from the wedding for the front and ordered them through Kodak because they were having a sale. They turned out really nice. I hand wrote a personal note for everybody and got them sent out a few months after the wedding.



This is the picture I used for our thank you cards. Photo by Amanda Fales Photography.