Facing the dreaded R-monster

For about two months now, Mr. Snow Cone and I have had "register for gifts" on our wedding to-do list.  And, for about two months now, we've managed to bob and weave, trying our very best to avoid this dreaded task.  Now, to an outsider, registering may seem like an awesome task to have.  Think about it: you walk through a store and hand-pick each and every item you want other people to buy for you.  It's just that easy!  To those facing the R-monster in the eyes, you know it to be a serious sweat-inducer.  In reality, you're walking through a store that is inevitably much larger than you had ever realized, trying to decide which of the 30 different types of towels you want in which of the 15 available colors.  You're also trying to compromise your own stylistic preferences with those of your future spouse's.  You're also trying to stay calm and patient with the whole process while being focused and efficient.  And you're also trying to make sure you pick the right stuff, since this is one of the few opportunities in life where you get pretty much full control over what gifts you receive.  No pressure at all!

Image via SuperCoolSpy Club's Flikr

We finally buckled down and started taming the R-monster.  We headed off to our local Bed, Bath, and Beyond to start deciding what items we needed for our bedroom, our bathroom, and our beyondroom.  After filling out some quick paperwork and getting our hands on that lovely scanner gun, we started to make our way through the store.  Everyone knows BB&B is a doozy of a shop; however, when you're looking at roughly 80% of their merchandise, "doozy" is quite the understatement.  We shopped for about three hours, and not surprisingly, we ran into one minor meltdown.  Surprisingly, however, it was courtesy of yours truly.  Registering can be such a brain drain, and I'm fully confident that everyone has a breaking point where you don't want to weigh picking one set of muffin tins over the other, and you just want to get the hell outta Dodge.  Mr. Snow Cone wasn't as easily deterred, so he foraged onward, pulling my temper-tantrumy butt into the last leg of the store before we could finally call it a day.

The end result?  We don't have nearly enough on the friggin' list.  We have about 100 items, which sounds reasonable.  However, I'd bet about 2/3 of the items are $20 or under, and the remaining 1/3 weigh in at $200 or above.  Not exactly ideal gift-buying terrain for our guests.  We also failed to include flatware, dishes, and bedding, hoping to knock it out in a subsequent store.  Despite our mediocre showing, here are a few of my most highly-coveted items:

Image via Bed, Bath, & Beyond

The ubiquitous KitchenAid stand mixer.  Yes, I know that this lovely contraption crops up on the majority of the registries, and yes, I know it's on the expensive side of things with a price tag of $300.  However, I love me some baking, Mr. Snow Cone bought me a beginner's cake decorating kit for Christmas, and I've been counting down the days until my wedding for a long, long time, knowing this beaut would be more than likely coming my way at that point in time.  Fingers crossed we have a very generous guest, or a group of very organized guests who would like to all chip in!

Image via Bed, Bath, & Beyond

These may look like regular, ol' bathroom mats.  But don't be fooled!  They are memory foam bathroom mats, AKA little pieces of heaven for your feet.  Just imagine how much more comfortable I'll be while brushing my teeth!  Maybe not a traditional top-priority item, but I'm a sucker for memory foam anything.

Image via Bed, Bath, & Beyond

Right now, I'm surviving largely on hand-me-downs and college apartment leftovers when it comes to my kitchen arsenal.  Not exactly the ideal set-up.  So, you can imagine my desire for a full set of CorningWare; I'm ready to live, cook, and eat like a grown-up, and hopefully this will be a step in the right direction. 

Now that round one of taming the R-monster is done, I feel like a weight's been lifted off.  BB&B is likely our biggest registry trip, so everything should be downhill from here.  I think the outing went far better than expected, probably because we approached it with a laid-back attitude.  Whatever we got done would be OK, and we could always come back to finish up and round out the registry in the future.  Even though the entire process was a bit scary, we managed to handle it with a morsel of success, I do believe!

How did you first attempt at registering go?  Any tips for people just starting to tame the R-monster?