My Fiance and I have been living together for five years now. Over that time, we've acquired a lot of things most couples wouldn't normally have but would register for.
We decided to register for things that we really need, which mostly are items that are more than your average wedding gift. Things like a really nice vacuum for example. We also picked out the standards of things we don't already have like flatware, glasses and stem-ware, and table china but there isn't a lot of it since we have most of those things. Keeping in mind that most people won't like to spend that much on a gift, we also registered for gift cards to where we were registering at. We're hoping that the people we know won't buy us the flatware and such, will just get us gift cards instead so we can get the things we really want off the registry after the wedding. Our thought behind this is, the place we registered offers a discount on items on your registry after your date if they haven't been bought as gifts.
My mother is VERY old fashioned, and she has made a statement on multiple occasions that the things on our registry are things that no one will buy, and that those items are too expensive. She wants us to take them off the registry because she thinks it reflects poorly on her. She also keeps suggesting that there are items we NEED on there that we already have. I've told her that we don't expect the bigger items, and that we get a discount after the wedding if its on our registry, and also that the items we don't have on the list are things we already have.
So, what I'm asking is advice from other individuals who might have run into this. We've had a lot of other people tell us it's fine, and even the place we've registered has these items on the list of regular registry items.
I'd also like to point out that we DO have items on the list that are well within reasonable things for a registry list. It's not like we are being foolish with a wish list. There is something there for everyone.