Much like The Bear Cubs, we, The Cowboy Boots don't really need all that much stuff for our house. We've lived together for over three years at this point which means we've made numerous trips to Bed, Bath & Beyond, Target, and many other home goods stores throughout the course of our relationship. True, we don't have much furniture (we rent a partially furnished place) but we don't expect our guests to buy us expensive things--I mean, they're traveling all the way to Colorado for our wedding.
So, we put in for a few things on Williams-Sonoma (we're big into cooking), Pottery Barn, and Sears. You know, a toaster here, a showerhead there. Mainly just little things that would make our lives that much better.
And while we never got the luxury of going through the store scanning things (does that sound fun to anyone else? It does to me!) because we registered online, there is one store we got to handpick our items. Mr. CB's parent's gallery. That's right. They own a gallery in Upstate New York called Gallery Three, Two, One. With one-of-a-kind crafts, gorgeous pottery, and other goods, it's like a treasure trove when I'm in there (not to mention the jewelry). Here are a couple of the items we registered for:
A pottery birdfeeder
Royce Yoder Dinnerset
Beyond house goods, though, Mr. CB and I talked a lot about registering for a home down payment. Money towards a house is more valuable to us than curtains and bedspreads. But we couldn't figure out how to do this without going through a website that takes a percentage of the gift. There's FeatherOurNest.com which requires $200 to create a registry and makes you pick out a house and work with a real estate agent almost immediately. We're not quite there yet.
OurWishingWell.com is another option--you can register for general things like a "digital camera" instead of, say, a Leica D-Lux 4. Or a "home down payment fund." It's kind of nice that you don't have to pick out the exact stuff you want in the midst of wedding planning. The downside? There is a "small transaction fee when you withdraw" (i.e. the website takes a percentage of your gifts).
In the end, we opted for Honeyfund.com. A honeymoon-specific registry that acts in a general way like Ourwishingwell. For instance we registered for "Horse-Trekking" with no specific outfitter or "Wine Tasting" with no particular vineyard in mind. You make up the amounts, how many gifts of that amount you need, and you get as specific as you want with each item. The closer it gets to our trip, the more specific our listings might become when we know where we're staying or what restaurant we want to eat in. Our gifts range from increments of $25 to $100. And guests can buy as many or as few as they want. Take a look:
Guests can pay by PayPal, credit card, or bring you cash or a check at the wedding. And, the website tracks who buys you what as items are purchased. Plus, they don't take any fees. Sample registries on the website can also give you ideas for activities on your own honeymoon.
We didn't ditch the home down payment fund altogether though. Check out the final item on our honeymoon registry:
What unconventional registries did you use? Do you think they'll be successful?
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