Registry Woes

So if you read this blog, you know we registered for our wedding at Bed, Bath and Beyond a few weeks ago. It was very exciting because as much as we'd love matching dishes, some appliances, serving dishes, new things in our bathroom, etc., we have put ourselves on a tight budget this year and if anything still works, we can make it work, or find a way around it, we've avoided buying anything new. After grad school is done for the both of us and school is paid off, we'll talk about splurging but for now, our hand me down dishes and appliances are working.

So I was pretty excited to walk into a store and be able to just "shoot" the barcode of my dream items. And when the saleswoman (who is obviously trying to sell larger, more expensive items) is convincing me to register for items that I know very well are not in my, or any of my friends', price range...well I was a kid in a candy store. I know we probably won't get the big stuff but just the thought of having different glasses for white and red wine makes me feel like such an adult!

But part of me also feels really bad about the idea of a registry. For people like me and Tom, we have friends and family who I know will have no problem shopping and buying us our dream dishes and flatware. We also are living very comfortably in our little Florida house with dishes and pots and pans and what we need to get by. Other people aren't quite as lucky as us. So I started checking out ways to use the wedding as a chance to help others.

I know a lot of people donate to a charity instead of wedding favors. And that's a great idea! I also found out that if guests go to The Wedding Channel's website and find our registry on there, they will donate 3% of an item purchased off of our registries to the charity of our choice! All I have to do is click a button and sign up for it! Well...that was easy! Done and done! We also registered for charities, so instead of getting us a pot or pan or pillowcase, if you'd rather, please feel free to give to one of the charities we have chosen! It's all on weddingchannel.com, and they also have the details about our wedding (so far) and more information! So brides out there who have the same feeling as I do about registries, it's definitely worth checking out! The Wedding Channel makes it super easy and you can still get your dream dishes and The Wedding Channel will donate to a charity for you! There are a lot of websites that let you sign up for a charity as your wedding registry. Some charge administrative fees for donations (the costs for them to maintain their website and handle all the donations to make sure they get to the charities) or have a minimum donation amount. I'm still looking into it. I don't want anyone to feel like they have to give $10 when they only have $5 to give. So we'll see where that all leads...but that's my wedding though of the day.