Can We Register for Video Games?

When we first started talking about where to register for gifts, Mr. Potion jokingly asked me that question.

"Actually," I replied, "that's not out of the question."  

His eyes lit up- he wasn't expecting that.  He thought wedding registries were only for kitchen supplies.

When we get married, we'll be forming a household for the first time.  Sure, we've both lived on our own before, and as such we've acquired hand-me-down and Wal-Mart-quality stuff, but between the two of us, we don't have all of the "necessities" required to truly have a grown-up home.  

Okay, okay, is a KitchenAid stand mixer actually necessary to have a home?  YES.  No.  But things like a nice vacuum cleaner could be consider necessities.  Or a full-sized ironing board- I don't have one of those.  And the only bath towels I have are Miss Potion-sized, and they have my monogram on them- my maiden-name monogram.  So upgrades, and, in some cases *cough*STAND MIXER*cough* straight-up new stuff, are "necessary" for us to begin our life together.  No one can create a home from scratch- "it takes a village to raise a child," and such.  

Spoiler alert- this is why we have wedding registries.

This is why we have WEDDINGS, actually.  It's not just about wearing a pretty dress and meticulously choosing table linens and buying enough alcohol to keep your 300 closest friends entertained.  We have weddings because we're letting our community know, "Hey, we're getting married.  Can you help us out with that?  In return, we'll give you cake."  So that community witnesses the wedding vows, eats the cake, and provides the love, advice, support, and, yes, stuff, that the couple needs to start this family, this household.  People want to give you stuff on your wedding day; most people consider it downright rude to show up to a party- any party- without a gift of some sort, be it a bottle of wine, a bag of chips, a birthday gift, or a card with well wishes and perhaps some cash to get the new couple on their feet.  (Is that just a Southern thing, maybe?  The concept of hostess gifts?  Yes?  No?  Bueller?)  A registry makes it easy on the guest- takes the guess-work out of gift-giving, because it shows exactly what the couple still needs, and ensures that the couple doesn't end up with, say, two of the exact same kind of ice cream maker.

Unless, of course, you're like BM K and her fiance, who registered for the exact same ice cream maker at two different stores, and therefore received 2 of the exact same ice cream maker.

They really like ice cream.

Anyway.  If, like I was, you're hemming and hawing about the inherent selfishness of a wedding registry- if you feel uncomfortable telling people what to buy you- think about it the way I've described it above.  Nobody HAS to buy you anything, but most likely, they'll want to, so rather than making them ask your aunt to ask your mom to ask you if you have a coffee maker yet, utilize some not-so-modern technology that makes a list of stuff where that stuff disappears from the list once it's purchased.

And now, on to the good stuff.

We decided, to keep things simple, that we would do two registries: one brick-and-mortar store (that also has an online option) and one entirely online registry.

For the brick-and-mortar, we chose Bed Bath & Beyond because they're everywhere, they have everything, and they tend to be reasonably priced (plus they give out coupons like candy).  For the online option, we chose an Amazon registry, because it will essentially assemble a list of items from any store on the web and still function as a registry (ie check stuff off as it's bought).

Because I'm a little analytical, I wanted to make a list.  I knew that if we just showed up at BBB and asked for a scanner gun, we'd scan literally everything in the store and be pleased with ourselves.  We sat down together and thought about stuff we needed- and I thought about my dream kitchen- and assembled a list of items that needed to go on the registry.  Then we pulled up the BBB website and priced some of these items, and looked for them in other places, too.  If BBB had the better price, we decided to register for it there.  If a (legitimate...as in, manufacturer's) website had the better price, we put it on the Amazon registry.  Plus, things that we knew we wouldn't find at BBB went on the Amazon registry.

What could possibly not be found at BBB?

An XBOX Kinect!  [Will anyone buy this?  Probably not.  Would it be cool to have?  HELL YES.  Will we be sad if we don't get it?  No.  That's why it's labeled "nice to have" on the priority chain- not a must, but it would be pretty cool.]

image via Amazon

  
The Fleur de Lis china from Anthropologie.  That's what's so awesome about the Amazon registry- we can register for fine dinnerware from Anthropologie.

image screen capture via Anthropologie

  Light saber chop sticks from Think Geek- because THEY'RE FREAKING LIGHT SABERS.  Does this really need an explanation?

image via Think Geek

 After we'd made our Amazon registry, we took the rest of our list to BBB.  Compiling this registry actually took two trips- the first night we went in, we didn't realize we'd arrived less than an hour before closing!  Our consultant was super sweet; she explained how the scanner gun worked, gave us a bag of free goodies, explained their incentive programs with certain brands, and gave us advice for how to populate our registry- register for approximately 3 times as many items as guests to give people options, fine china is a good thing to have, register for cookware as separates and you'll be more likely to get the whole set...and then she let us out into the wild!  She would check in on us every now and then to see if we were finding things and, of course, to push certain hot items- but thankfully she wasn't too pushy.  I had my eye on a cookware set by Rachael Ray that wasn't available in store, so she added it to the online registry for us while we walked through the store!

Unfortunately, I was a bad blogger bride, and didn't take any pictures of this process.  Sorry.  But believe me when I say that Mr. Potion really enjoyed the scanner gun- I mean REALLY enjoyed the scanner gun.  He actually really enjoyed the process of picking out kitchen stuff, too, because with each gadget, he'd ask, "Ooh, what are you going to cook with that?!"

Some of our favorite items off the BBB registry include:

THE STAND MIXER.  Honestly, if we don't receive any other gifts- if all of our guests contribute $1 to a pot to buy us this- I will be a happy camper.

image via Bed Bath & Beyond

 The Keurig.  Almost every morning, when I call Mr. Potion from work to say hello and ask if he slept well, the conversation ends with a heavy sigh and the observation, "I can't wait till we get that Keurig..."

image via Bed Bath & Beyond

 A vinyl shower curtain printed with a world map.  Is it weird that I'm excited about a shower curtain?  Whatever, it's awesome.  We picked out bath towels and bathroom accessories in the various colors on the map- pink, green, blue, and yellow.

image via Bed Bath & Beyond

 Getting excited about a shower curtain might not be weird, but I'm pretty sure that getting excited about a vacuum cleaner definitely is weird.  DON'T JUDGE ME.  

image via Bed Bath & Beyond

Where did you register?  Are you using the amazing Amazon Universal Registry?  What item are you desperately hoping gets purchased?