# of registries

mmi102581

This may sound crazy, but I registered for 5 stores for our registries.  I literally fought with myself back and forth about having just 3 or 4 max, but at the same time, we like different things at all 5 stores and they are all a variety of price ranges.  The wedding is in NC in my hometown and a couple of the stores are there locally, however the other three stores and still within the state, but further away.  Plus we have family and friends in other states so this way, they have a larger variety to choose from.  My closest friends think this is a good option because it is certain things we like from each store and give guests the option.  We truly will be blessed with any gifts given.  Any thoughts? 

MrsGandthebeag

Five is way too many.  I think anything over 2 looks gift grabby.

hoffse

I think you're fine.  I often see 5-8 around here, particularly when one or two are local.  To be honest, I had a complex about it with these wedding boards, but I eventually registry stalked a bunch of people in my circle and realized mine was totally normal with 4.  Check against people you know, and if it's typical don't sweat it.  NC is a region where many people give boxed gifts for both the shower and the wedding, unlike Boston (where PP is from) where cash tends to be a more typical gift for the wedding, so you don't need as many options.

mmi102581

I based everything around what I know about my guests from prices to location.  A lot of my family especially from the south do not shop online, therefore want to physically be able to purchase in store.  I chose Belk for my formal and everyday china mainly, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, for some basics, Pottery Barn for some of their entertaining pieces, Williams-Somona for about 15 items that are specialty there, and Crate and Barrell again for some of their specialty items that you cannot purchase anywhere else.  I don't think anything over two is grabby, it just gives options.  I don't like just seeing two registries.  If anything I would have cut it back to 4, but I just could not decide between Crate and Barrel and Williams-Sonoma...I like them both and there are different items at each store

mmi102581

I am not upset of all things...just wondering if other brides had more than three registries especially when we will have guests traveling from FL, NV, CO, and WI and have close to 300 guests invited.  I have noticed that 3 are pretty typical, especially from weddings I have been in in the past as a bridesmaid.   

hoffse

Well I have 4 and we also have about 300 guests invited.  The problem I have with the "it depends on the size of your wedding" thing is that how does a guest know if 100 people are invited or 400?  If you as a guest would judge at 100 but not at 400, that seems silly to me because there's no way to have any sense of how big the wedding is until you show up. 

 I honestly don't judge when I see more than 3 or 4 because I have no idea if their wedding is huge or not, or if they have family members flung out all around the country they are trying to accommodate, or if they are from towns without large box stores and need to have several local shops as well.  I know a girl who invited 1100 people to her wedding.  I really hope she had more than 3 registries...

My 4 are Macy's, pottery barn, amazon and beverly bremer, which is a silver shop.

hoffse

PP the other thing you can do is make your WS registry viewable in-store only.  It won't come up on TK or be viewable online if you select that option.  With only 15 items, it's a pretty short list anyway, but if somebody is planning on going to WS they can see it.

Honestly though, I wouldn't worry about it.

MyNameIsNot

Five registries comes off really gift grabby to me.  Most people in my area do 2, maybe 3.  (And I'm in the south in a group where most people give physical gifts, not money.)  

We didn't register at them, but people still gave us gift cards to Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma and Crate & Barrel.  We used those to buy the handful of things we wanted from those that weren't enough to justify moving one of our registries or creating another one.  

mmi102581

Thank you all for the advice!  So today,  I decided to drop Crate and Barrel because there were literally only a very small handful of items I liked there.  I still the majority at BB&B, Belk, Pottery Barn, and Williams-Sonoma.  Mainly kitchen items at BB&B and WS, then specialty items at PB and Belk.  Best of luck to all the brides!  

strlzfan11

You could probably get away with combining 1-2 of those registries onto an Amazon Universal registry.  People may not shop online, but that doesn't stop them from looking online to what a bride & groom already has from their registry.

Peledreamsofrain

Actually, I was kind of devious about my registries because of all the awesome info I got off of the knot, and because I like free wine and crackers.

So the backstory is that I'm very choosy about items.  Out of a single store, I may like 3 to 4 items, the rest is very meh to me.  So I created 3 registries that held the bulk of my gift requests, and put them on my knot website for my guests to see.

In reality, I attended probably 5 additional registry events, and created dummy registries with one or two items that I liked from the store.  I enjoyed the free food and wine, then went home never expecting anyone in my guest list to even look at them.  I never intended to recieve gifts off of them.

Now, after the marriage, every single place that I registered at sent me discounts for completion, and invitations to yet more discount parties.  Through this, I discovered that my BBB registered plates (real registry available to my guests) were being sold much more cheaply at Macey's (dummy registry), and was able to get 70% off on them after all the discounts were applied.  I was super excited about that one.

Mwahaha

mmi102581

Thanks for the advice!  I am the same way having certain things at particular stores that I like.  I decided to only show 4 on the website's registry but have Crate and Barrel just kind of "out there" and not advertise at all...you never know!