Becky's Tips for Registering

Registering for gifts was a blast. Shopping is one of my all-time-favorite hobbies and one that I consider myself to be pretty darn good at it. However, registering was slightly trickier than what I expected. What I wanted was someone to give me a scan gun and let me loose. What I needed was a significant amount of planning. Here are a few tips, tricks and questions to ask yourself before you go crazy with registering.

1.) Evaluate what you already have. Matt and I have lived together for a year and a half. We tend to buy things for our house as we want them, so we didn't necessarily need all the "typical" registry items that couples starting from scratch might need. There's no sense in replacing a perfectly good item if the money can be better spent elsewhere.
2.) Pick items to be upgraded. Some of our things are nice, but I would love to have a higher-end version. Items that we use all the time, like our toaster oven or a good coffeemaker, are always worth splurging on. Register for a few splurges - items that are a better version than what you would typically buy for yourself.
3.) Register for the basics. I don't know about you, but I buy flashy. Brightly colored pieces and seasonal decor catch my eye and I love changing things up with them. As nice as they are, it's important to have a solid foundation to build on. Most of our registry items are white or neutral colors. They are classic and I can use them for years, regardless of my color-palette of the moment. Save the bright, trendy, timely pieces for your own purchases and stick to staples that will last you much longer.
4.) Wait. I know it's hard, but wait to register until the week before any invitations are sent. I guarantee that it will save you stress and headache. As is the nature of a retail operation, items get shuffled through stores, they run out, they are discontinued, they are gone. The next thing you know, the bedding set, shower curtain or dining set that you planned the rest of your decor around is gone and you have to replace more than just the missing item. This happened to me, so I am speaking from painful experience. Ouch.