Gift Registry

Wow.  Why is this so difficult?!?!?  

Obstacles:  

• I've been on my own since I was 17, so I have quite a bit of what I need already.
• Because we are adults, when we need something new, we buy it.
• Brandon & I live in an itty-bitty apartment that can barely contain us (and our massive movie collection), never mind any more household goods.

However, I am expected to register for wedding gifts.  I get it and I certainly appreciate that loved ones are so eager to buy gifts for Brandon and I, but, wow.  It sure is one of the most difficult parts of the wedding planning I've encountered so far.  I was talking to a friend the other day and mentioned, with a little bit of frustration, that I had to work on my bridal registry.  He replied, "Doesn't that mean pick what presents you want?"  Well, yes, yes it does.  But, where do I start?  What do I want?  (And let's not even get into the guilt associated with picking out things for other people to buy for me...)

Brandon and I have decided to register at Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond.  (I'd love to also do IKEA, but they don't even have the option.)  Also, we've thought about doing something like Honeyfund where we can register for cash towards our honeymoon, down payment on a house, etc.  Is that tacky?

So, I have been perusing these stores and websites.  Probably the most difficult thing of all has been picking out new dishes.  We finally settled on a Corelle set after deciding it didn't matter if they were "cheap", they're damn near unbreakable!  But then, do I register for all of the matching accessories?  Or is that overkill?  Do I really want that print all over the kitchen?  Or should I just find something that tastefully coordinates?  

And what about the other rooms?  What color schemes should we go with for each room?  (How lucky that we only have a bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen.)

At this point, I am never going to let these registries go "live" because I am going to be in  a perpetual state of editing them.  

The Theme

I worked for a few years at a CD/DVD store that Brandon would frequent.  We both have a great love of movies and would often talk about the latest films or other movies that merited watching.  (In short, we are both movie snobs.)  There was no romance in this.  In fact I clearly remember thinking of Brandon as "a pretty cool kid (yes, kid) who I get to talk to about movies."  (Except for that time he left a huge stack of movies that he didn't buy in the Rap CD section.  He was not "a pretty cool kid" then.)

This all changed after we were reunited at a New Year's Eve party thrown by a mutual friend (The lovely Dani Hagstrand!).  We exchanged numbers at the party and agreed to "hang out" soon.  A week later, we went on our first date (well, we didn't know at the time that it was a date.  We thought were just "hanging out") and we've been together ever since!

Now, going back to that first paragraph:  We LOVE movies!  We own far too many, we talk about them daily, we find enjoyment in checking out trailers for upcoming films online.  We've both even worked on a handful of film sets.  It's pretty obvious, we absolutely have to have a movie-themed wedding. 

A sort of secondary theme will be "vintage."  (No, I'm not talking about wine.)

Vintage -adj.  1. of lasting interest and importance; venerable; classic  2. representing the high quality of a past time

That's the kind of vintage I mean.

I love throwing themed parties and, well, weddings are basically gigantic parties.  I'm pretty excited to find ways to incorporate both themes into our wedding.  I've got some ideas but am open to more!  Perhaps I'll share some of those ideas in the future.  At the moment, I'm hesitant to share too much because I don't want to spoil all of the fun!  One thing I will share is that we really want to get married in a movie theater.  We are having trouble finding one that works for us both in looks and price.  Any help or advice in this department is welcome!

The colors for our wedding are chocolate brown (which, to my dismay, has all of a sudden become very trendy) and ice blue with touches of red.

So, yeah, planning a wedding a ton of work.  It's nerve wracking, frustrating and overwhelming (just like all of the books said it would be!).  But I'm having a lot of fun putting together the theme!