Reasons why couples think registries suck, and rock

After talking, ok bitching, to many grooms and brides to be who, like me, feel like they're the kid who has a room filled with legos, but keeps getting more every holiday, I discovered we pretty much all had the same complaints and loves about registries! So here they are, hot off the complain-o-press.  Do you have any qualms or reason you love registries? Put them in the comments!

1. Sucks-  Most couple's today don't need more stuff.
Registries are great for people who lived apart before jumping the broom. Today though, more and more people are getting married later in life, have already established careers, and are living together long before they get married. Long story short, they have everything they need. Maybe there are a few things they can replace, but for the most part they're good. And yes, there's always asking guests to donate to a charity, contribute to the honeymoon blah, blah, blah, but what many couple's really need is money, mullah, the green stuff. Which brings us to...

2.  Sucks- You can't just ask for cash.
Yes, I am going to sound ungrateful, it's not what I'm going for, but here we go. Any who, I get why gifts at a wedding can be important. Cash can seem impersonal to some people, and it's nice for people to get you something tangible. But for most couples, young or old, cash is the only thing they could actually use more of. They'd like to have a "registry" towards a downpayment on a house, instead of new table linens, unless you're Will and Kate. Then I guess you could just use more weird hats.

3.  Sucks- You're supposed to hit a "set amount" of gifts in different price ranges.
This one's all me. So, you don't literally have to hit set prices. There are no "registry price police" that will come get you if you don't have 20 items between $50.00 and $100.00. Personally though, I want to scream a little every time my registry says I need 60 more items in the $100-$200, 40  more things in the $200-$300 range, etc.

4.  Sucks- It's not that simple to connect your registries if you have multiple ones.
Now there are sites that can conglomerate all your stuff together like GiftRegistry360 and such, but as one bride to be told me, there are almost always glitches. Either with stuff not showing up from one registry, or guests just not knowing how to use it, etc.

5. Sucks- The web registry was made by a chimp that's taken one web design class.
Now, I love chimps, I think most chimps could make far better websites then many web design majors I know. But the one that makes wedding registries should just go back to eating bananas and throwing poop around. Anyways, Macy's I'm talking to you. I just want to be able to organize my gifts myself so people aren't looking at my registry going "how the hell did a serving plate get thrown in with electronics..."

6. Sucks- There's no good tier system. 
I touched on this yesterday, but this is something I keep hearing from brides. That there's no way to say "I want this, after this please!" Does this seem a little OCD and controlling? Yes. That's ok though. Nobody wants to register for a mixer and an attachment, then get the attachment because it's more affordable, but not receive the mixer. That was just one example, and the tier system certainly wouldn't be most to least expensive, just what you really do need to what you really want.

7. Rocks-You can replace all your broken, over-used, mis-matched stuff
Mike and I have been living together for about two years now and have a mix of two sets of college stuff, garage sale stuff, his great-grandmothers stuff, my moms stuff, his moms stuff, and some of our own stuff we bought. Luckily most of it's kitchen ware, but man will it be nice when we have our own stuff that matches!

8. Rocks- You can register for pretty much anything.
With todays technology, and the advent of mega-stores you can register for just about anything (except cash). For example, I know someone who registered for a full-on snow cone machine. I've heard of people registering for iPads, dogs, life-sized clown statues and the like.  If you can dream it, and have the room for it, you can register for it.

9. Rocks- Registry rewards!!!
Macy's, this one I love you for. Some registries, like Macy's and I think William Sonoma(?) carry incentives with your registry. Like getting 10% cash back from a completed registry, or receiving mixing bowls or something when you've hit a certain price point for a brand.

10. Rocks-Helpfull staff
I don't always think this one rocks. But sometimes helpful sales clerk can save your bum when you're trying to figure out what silverware goes with what plate setting, or if you should double register for things etc.

Fiestaware? No, really. Where is it?

I went into Macy's a few days ago, on my never ending hunt to find fitting jeans, and instead fell in love. With Fiestaware! Or is it just Fiesta? Anyways, like I said, I'm in love. So naturally I drug my faince' over to the regitry counter to get a scanning gun and went to town! Only seven months early, but that's neither here nor there. I had a blast trying to find a turquoise teapot, whilst Mike had a blast seeing if he could scan the ceiling. He could not.

After dropping, chipping, and flat-out breaking many of our plastic dinnerware pieces, I'm confident in saying that I was the reason the phrase "this is why we can't have nice things" came to be. So we've decided to opt-out of the whole "nice china" thing and instead go with dinnerware that will just last us a long time, and is somewhat cheaply replaceable...Plus the colors are so fun!

While the whole registering part went great, for me anyways, when I got online to view our registry I wanted to cry. Everything was so disorganized! I'm not sure how Macy's decided that the soup bowls belong at the bottom of the page, far-far away from all the rest of the dinnerware. Or that a serving plate belongs in a whole different section from the rest of the serving stuff, but wow do I think it's a mess. I think it'd be great  if they just left the organization up to the couple! That and have some sort of tier system of "I would like this, then this" etc etc. Because no one wants a pasta attachment for a mixer, but no mixer to attach it to.

So Macy's if you're listening, which you totally are. not. Please, please, please make your registry system more user friendly!

Did I hear you were going to...

Something I've learned from planning a wedding, is to never ever, under any circumstances, say you're doing "A" and then do "B". People are allergic to change.

Ok, that's not possible and happens about every other minute when you're planning a wedding. My mom is still, somewhat jokingly, on me about having a summer wedding, which we had originally planned.

Apart from my mom's joking, I've seriously had people come to me complaining about the most random things. Things that I had no idea effected anyone but myself and Mike. Like what we put on our save the dates, or what color our wedding website is..

So how do you deal with  -"I heard you're getting buttercream frosted cake. I just wanted to let you know that buttercream is gross and I will smoosh it on your face if you serve it to me..." and no, unfortunately that was not a real conversation, it's just would totally happen.

Do you submit to their demands of having twelve tier wedding cake? Get a bouncy house and clown to entertain their misbehaving kids?

I'd love to say NO! put down your foot in every instance, it's your wedding!! But that's not always the case. Sometimes people have actual good reasons for complaining or suggesting things...I think. Then there are people who keep suggesting you rent a camel to ride in on, and all you can say is "huh".

Anyways, I guess it comes down to being understood and being understanding at the same time. Can you bend a little on if kids are allowed at the rehearsal dinner? Maybe, if it doesn't really matter to you. But should you bend on something important that will effect price too much or ruin your experience? Nope.

Side note: Many people I know have much more wedding sense than I do, and I'm extremely thankful to have them around. Actually Mike is probably even more thankful to have people to organize my ideas..Otherwise we might be having a circus themed wedding, in Cancun, on a cruise liner...which would be SO COOL!!! Right??

Oh hair, where art thou?

You know when you go into get one of those experimental "I want to tottally alter my look" haircuts? We'll I did just that two days before I got engaged I chopped off most of my hair. I mean it was short befor that, but I wanted a cute bob. And it is, only problem is I'm getting married in seven months and this is my hair... grown out...

I looove my short hair, but want it long for my wedding because, well I do. So I've been soliciting advice from hair stylist friends and other experts in the field (google), on what I can do to grow my hair out fast, and so far the resounding opinion is pre-natal vitamins! Which, if you're not pregnant, buying them is SUPER awkward. Especially when the inevitable "so when are you due?"..."uh I'm getting them to grow my hair out"..."wink* Ok, right" conversation comes up between you and the cashier, or random-super-conservative-friend-you-never-regularly-see-except-when-you-happen-to-be-buying-pre-natal-vitamins-seven-months-before-your-wedding... Never-the-less, I'm going to try it and if nothing else I'll have really nice nails, because apparently they do that too!