Question about registering (XP from June 2012 board)

drewmw

So FI and I have decided to register at two different places: Bed Bath and Beyond is one and Kohl's will most likely be the other ((the reason being we have some family from a really small town that doesn't have a BB&B - but they do have a Kohl's and a JCP)). My questions is, how do you think we should decide what to register for where? We are thinking it would be easier to, for instance, just do kitchen stuff at Kohls and everything else at BB&B? Another, more time consuming option we are considering would be to go to BB&B, register for everything we want, then go to Kohl's and register for everything we want, then get online and remove duplicates? Would that be too complicated?

Are you guys registering (or did you) at more than one store? How are you doing (or did you do) it?

Also, should we do it? I was thinking maybe we should do it before sending STDs (which will be October/November), because we're putting our website on them and I'd like to have our site completed, including registery info, before we give everyone the link? Ugh, what do you all think?

I think I may be over-complicating things. I'm good at that

Allycat11

You are over-complicating things, but that is okay

You will hear tons of different advice on when to register.  FI and I  set up our first registry about 10 months out, the others later.  We did one so early just because we had down time.  The first gift was purchased 3 or so months out. 
Pros: Less stress later on, time to really make decisions and make changes.
Cons: Things can go on clearance which can create more stress.

I think 5 -6 months is a good time frame because that should give you plenty of time to make changes before showers. 

I like how we did ours but it was very time consuming.  We went to BBB and Kohls and registered for everything we wanted (unless we knew for sure one store had an item that was way better).  We also weregistered at Sears but we were strictly in their outdoor/tools sections.  After we set up both registries we reviewed what was on both and picked our favs.  Some of this was done online, other things we needed to do in store. 
For some items it may be easiest to just pick one store you know you plan to purchase from and only compare options there.  We did this for towels adn sheets.  It would be very difficult to compare towels or sheets at 2 different stores so we only went to BBB for them ang compared our options at their store only. 

I also suggest monitoring registries closer to your date and seeing trends of what is being purchased.  We noticed that no one has touched our Sears or Kohls registries.  So, I removed items from Kohls and added them to BBB.  We have dishes we love at Kohls so we want to steer people towards those items if they are shopping off of that registry. 

ETA: Sorry for the novel, hope that helps.

lmalear01

I registered at BBB, Target, and Kohls. We registered at Kohl's for the same reason.  My FI family all live in the same area and they do not have a Target or a BBB but they do have Kohl's.  With Kohl's becareful if you register for online exclusive stuff.  They only allow people to ship the gift to your house if they purchase the item off your registry.  A lot of Kohls good kitchen items are online exclusive and this turned a lot of people off that wanted to buy on kohls.com.  We ended up moving all of the online only stuff to BBB.  Also, if you register super early you have to keep an eye on your registry because a lot of stuff especially at Kohls became no longer available.  I didn't have this problem at Target or BBB yet but I know it can happen anywhere. 
As far as when to register.  We registered about 9 months out when we sent our STDs.  We just made a small registry at that time and did our full registry in June.
HTH

zulamay

We didn't have too many duplicates between BBB and other stores.  They carry different lines, items, etc.  Just go to whichever store first and register what you like, then take your list from that store to the next store in case you can't remember or get confused.  Good luck & don't complicate it - it's just shopping.

Milsey32

We originally were going to register at BBB, Target, and Kohls but Kohls was a nightmare... not the best service and like PP said, there was stuff that was only available online or out of stock or it would just become unavailable so we deleted it asap and are very happy with our BBB and Target registeries. [:

We registered before we sent out our STDs (at the 6 month mark) and our wedding website was posted on the back of our STDs. Registry information was posted on the wedding website BUT the STD did not mention anything of that sort. (just something like "please check out our website ----" or whatever). Registry info should only be put on wedding websites and shower invites. Nothing else.