FI and I decided to start our wedding registries before Christmas so that family and friends can use it for Christmas gifts. No one ever knows what to get us, so we thought this would be a great time to make our wish list. We didn't really register for any seasonal items and we plan on checking often to make sure things aren't discontinued.
A few month ago, we sat down to look at our different store options and decided on Williams-Sonoma and Macy's. We decided on these store for a number of reasons:
1) I LOVE to cook, so Williams-Sonoma was a no brainer! Plus, the completion discount is fantastic! 10% off everything left on your registry (which is pretty standard everywhere) for 6 months after the wedding (that is the longest completion discount we saw! Pottery Barn is 6 months too, but W-S and PB are owned by the same people.
2) Macy's always has sales, and there's one in just about every mall. We have a Macy's credit card, so we also get the Star Rewards program. We get 5% of what our guests spend back in a Macy's gift card after our wedding. Also, we get 10% cash back on things that we purchase. The things that we buy can be anything, not just things on our registry. Plus our china pattern and other things go on sale at least once a month. The 10% discount for registry completion is good for 3 months after your wedding.
Store we were disappointed in: Bed Bath and Beyond. I know plenty of people who have used BBB; however, we didn't like the completion program. You get 2 10% off gift cards, 1 to use online the other in store. So basically, you have to complete your registry in 2 big purchases. FI and I didn't like that idea and that's what sold us on Macy's instead. Plus, with Macy's having constant sales the prices are very similar.
This past Saturday we had our W-S appointment. W-S opens up an hour early for you and you have the whole store to yourself! You can ask questions, try things out...basically the store is yours! Being that I love to cook, I was like a kid in a candy store! The staff was absolutely wonderful and took the time to answer any question that we had. Everyone was extremely knowledgeable about the products that W-S carries. FI and I were looking at espresso makers, and they took us to the back of the store where the have them all set up. Once we found the one we liked, we had a whole tutorial about how the machine works, and the sales guy made us 2 lattes! Also, I wanted to register for a new set of knives. They opened up the knife cases for us, and I was able to test out any knife I wanted to by cutting potatoes! Again, they showed us the differences between the various knife companies and helped me settle on a set that I love! I really cannot say enough good things about W-S. There's only one problem, we can't get in to edit our registry online. We called about it and apparently there's an issue with the W-S website right now. I'm sure it'll be fixed soon.
After W-S we had some lunch and then decided to get the Macy's registry out of the way too. The bridal manager was very helpful and was great about answering questions such as "how many towels do we need". We didn't get as much individual attention at Macy's, but we really didn't need it.
Overall, FI and I tried to include a lot of different price points. Some items like the Vitamix blender and the espresso machine are very pricey, but those are dream items and we definitely won't be upset if no one buys those for us. There's a few things that we still need to add, but we're off to a good start for now. I've read that you should have twice the number of items on your registries as you have guests. We definitely don't have that many items yet, but we'll get there. I want to make sure there's plenty of options in lots of different price ranges.
FI and I had so much fun making our wish list! I think this has been FI's favorite part of wedding planning, he got to play with the scanning gun and he's just as much of a foodie as I am so he was very involved in every decision that we made.
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