Canadian Registry Recommendations

misssarahjane · November 2010

Hi ladies,

I'm looking into registries right now. I've had a lot of people tell me I should go with HBC, the Bay, because it's in almost every major city.

I wanted to get other peoples' suggestions. Where are you registering and why?

I've read that you should register at three stores - one high end, one middle, and one lower end - to give all your guests a price point they're comfortable with. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

Littlin · November 2010

We registered at The Bay and also had a honeymoon registry. Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, & William-Sonoma would have been great too, but you can't order online in Canada and not every city has a store close by. Lots of people ended up giving gift cards anyway, so I think anything would work.

The Bay is a pain to decipher online (I'm a pro now, but not every guest would be), but they have a lot of selection and a good "completion" program where you get 10% off everything left on your registry for a year after your wedding (which comes in handy if you add big ticket items just before the wedding and then need some when you buy a house!).

I don't know if that's help at all, but there are tons of options and people will figure it out! I didn't do the low, medium, high either - like I said, most people gave gift cards to the higher end stores if they didn't want to get anything off our registry at The Bay which was fine with me!

ring_pop · November 2010

It depends on your guests. If you have lots of guests coming from all over Canada and you think they would all want to purchase off your registry, I would suggest registering at The Bay/Home Outfitters or Sears so that it's easily accessible for people.

I, on the other hand, didn't expect too many of my guests to use the registry. So we registered at William Ashley for china and flatware. Their service was wonderful. But they are only in Toronto, not sure if that is useful for you. (They do online ordering.)

We also registered at Kitchen Stuff Plus for some new pots and knives, but we really didn't expect people to buy them; we did it for the 10% off registry completion afterward.

I wouldn't suggest Pottery Barn or C&B - like Littlin mentioned, it wouldn't be very accessible to a lot of guests. I'm not sure if IKEA does registries and I'm pretty sure Walmart and CT don't. I can't imagine being able to come up with that many items from Pier 1 that it would really be worth setting up.

IMO it's not necessary to register at multiple places. Just cover a wide price range in one or at most two registries.

PaigeMcC · November 2010

We registered at the Bay but it was a PITA. I hope it was just the store we were at, they didn't really explain anything (Uhhh, I'm new...how does this work exactly?), they were pushy and FI and I were very uncomfortable.

We're heading to Sears and Bed Bath and Beyond in the new year. Hopefully we'll have more luck with them. IMHO, I don't think you need to register at more than one or two places just make sure you cover a variety of price ranges so your guests have numerous options, should they chose to buy you a gift from your registry.

LidleD · November 2010

We registered at The Bay and Home Outfitters, and found the staff much friendlier and more helpful at Home Outfitters. We wanted to register at Home Depot, but from what I can find out, they no longer do gift registries. It's too late now anyway, as I don't feel comfortable registering at a third place.

misssarahjane · December 2010

Thanks ladies. I'm leaning towards the Bay & Home Outfitters.

It seems that Canadian Tire and Walmart Canada don't do gift registry anymore (I read in a community board on a public website that they did at one point).

@PaigeMcC - hopefully it was just the Bay location you were at... since we have guests coming from all over Ontario, it'd probably be easiest to go with that chain simply because of it's accessibility.

I know when you're at a wedding show, they'll often give incentive gift cards, ie. $50 gift card if you register there. I wonder if they'll give me one if I bring that up... we can't wait until the next show because our engagement party is a week before the next one in Ottawa...

Are any of you brides having a wedding in the Kingston, ON, area?

Thanks again for your help, ladies! I wish the Knot had more Canadian content!

mcdol3 · December 2010

We registered at The Bay and Home Outfitters. Because it's across Canada it works well for all our guests

echo136 · December 2010

We did the Bay and Home Outfitters. The Bay is where half our guests are living and there is at least a Home Outfitters in my hometown where we are getting married. We were going to do the Bay and Sears because Sears is in my hometown too but found that Sears had little of what we want. We managed to get most things between Home Outfitters and the Bay. We had good experiences at both places other than one crazy associate at the Bay who I had run-ins with the other day while trying to buy shower gifts for my friends fi. She is just crazy and opinionated but guarantee there is one in every store. LOL

PaigeMcC · December 2010

Totally off topic but echo that sangria dispenser is making me thirsty!!!!!!

missymr · December 2010

We registered at The Bay and we had a very good experience. I was really worried about it because I'm uncomfortable with the whole registering thing even though I understand why it's practical.

But the clerk who worked with us was very knowledgeable and helpful and it ended up being fun.

We checked out Bed Bath & Beyond in part because they have a better online store option. But they didn't really have anything The Bay didn't and we decided to just go with one location instead.

The Bay has the best completion program too. BBB offers 10 per cent off as one time shot after your wedding for anything you didn't get. The Bay offers 10 per cent off most things (not major items like appliances) from the time you register until a year after your wedding. And they actually encouraged us to "register" for gifts we planned to give for Christmas and get the 10 per cent off.

I thought about doing that but assumed they would not allow it if they figured it out but they told us to do it! I guess they figure it's a way to get us shopping there and 10 per cent isn't a huge deal to them.

Anyway, we went to The Bay at Bayshore in Ottawa and I would totally recommend them to anyone.

I'd love to register at Crate and Barrell but they don't have one here and the online site doesn't ship to Canada. Oh well.

echo136 · December 2010

paigemcc - it makes me thirsty too!! I cannot wait to get it and drink sangria (and maybe other things) out of it!!

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