Registries
posted by Laura @ 11:05 AM
3 comments
Thursday, November 23, 2006
More Registering, Including the Greatest Home Store on Earth!
I have discovered a new favorite store thanks to the wedding registry excursions. Maybe it’s just their great displays, or maybe their wares really are just that wonderful, but I’m in love with Crate & Barrel these days.
The next time we headed out to register on a Sunday afternoon. We headed to Oak Brook seeking two-for-one efficiency – Crate & Barrel and Macy’s.
We started at C&B with a hilarious group of sales associates introducing us to their scanning gun. From using the gun to what we wanted to scan, this one was a breeze. Even though we didn’t agree on every single item, we did agree on a lot. Dishes, vases, pitchers, bowls. FUN.
We had no problem finding things to scan, but we started to get frustrated because I was moving at a faster pace than Gavin, who has this loveable obsession with order in the registry process. He’s keeping an inventory of we scan as we go to make sure there are no duplicates. It’s possible that my new-found love for decanters and pitchers sparked the resulting spreadsheet… I had scanned three of each in two stores by this point. Something about the blown glass makes me happy! When we’d had enough and both looked sufficiently tired, we moved on.
We walked the few steps over to Macy’s, where they take registering seriously. We had to sit with a consultant who suckered us into a store credit card and baby-stepped us through their registry catalogs. We got free Frango mints and a Victorinox bag out of the process.
We headed out with their scanner in search of “nice stuff.” Instead, we found a small selection of crazy stuff such as the $2,500 massive Waterford wine goblet that Gavin scanned just to share how ridiculous it was with everyone. We scanned a few things throughout the store, noticing a lot of overlap with BB&B since we weren’t interested in most of the fanciest things.
Sadly, when we got home we saw that our Macy’s scanner had stopped working after the second item we scanned, and we didn’t feel like fixing it since we were nonplussed by the store overall. We decided we’d have to try a better Macy’s with more selection next time, and that we’ll aim to get bedding, and linens/towels from there to make it worth while.
On the way home we set up a Target registry in-store, but didn’t take a scanner out to add items to it. Their scanners were broken anyway. We started that process online instead.
It’s a slow, long process to complete a registry, as we’re finding!
The next time we headed out to register on a Sunday afternoon. We headed to Oak Brook seeking two-for-one efficiency – Crate & Barrel and Macy’s.
We started at C&B with a hilarious group of sales associates introducing us to their scanning gun. From using the gun to what we wanted to scan, this one was a breeze. Even though we didn’t agree on every single item, we did agree on a lot. Dishes, vases, pitchers, bowls. FUN.
We had no problem finding things to scan, but we started to get frustrated because I was moving at a faster pace than Gavin, who has this loveable obsession with order in the registry process. He’s keeping an inventory of we scan as we go to make sure there are no duplicates. It’s possible that my new-found love for decanters and pitchers sparked the resulting spreadsheet… I had scanned three of each in two stores by this point. Something about the blown glass makes me happy! When we’d had enough and both looked sufficiently tired, we moved on.
We walked the few steps over to Macy’s, where they take registering seriously. We had to sit with a consultant who suckered us into a store credit card and baby-stepped us through their registry catalogs. We got free Frango mints and a Victorinox bag out of the process.
We headed out with their scanner in search of “nice stuff.” Instead, we found a small selection of crazy stuff such as the $2,500 massive Waterford wine goblet that Gavin scanned just to share how ridiculous it was with everyone. We scanned a few things throughout the store, noticing a lot of overlap with BB&B since we weren’t interested in most of the fanciest things.
Sadly, when we got home we saw that our Macy’s scanner had stopped working after the second item we scanned, and we didn’t feel like fixing it since we were nonplussed by the store overall. We decided we’d have to try a better Macy’s with more selection next time, and that we’ll aim to get bedding, and linens/towels from there to make it worth while.
On the way home we set up a Target registry in-store, but didn’t take a scanner out to add items to it. Their scanners were broken anyway. We started that process online instead.
It’s a slow, long process to complete a registry, as we’re finding!
posted by Laura @ 10:32 AM
2 comments
Just Put Down the Registry Gun, and Walk Away… Steady Now.
We headed to Bed Bath & Beyond to finally start the registry process. We headed to the back of the store to fill out our paperwork and get the tutorial on how to use their scanning gun to fill up our registry. I was uber excited for this part since I haven’t gotten to scan anything since my Hallmark days, but they handed the gun 
over to Gavin instead making it very clear that most guys find it really fun. From the way it was handled, you could the assumption was that the only fun part for the guy was the scanning.
The employees introduced us to every sales associate in the pots and pans area so that they could help us, brought us bottles of water (luxe!) and then left us to go scan crazy.
The togetherness achieved during the couples’ retreat shattered in a nanosecond.
Gavin’s style of shopping is typical male. He sees the shelf of items, scans it quickly and just gets whatever looks best. Done in 5 seconds for better or worse.
My style is typical female. I see the shelf of items, then the entire department of that item, and scan it all quickly to see where to start. I then consider all the options, reading tags and boxes as I go to make sure I’m getting THE best for my money. Like the savvy shopper of my generation, I prefer to preface any purchase more important than toilet paper with Internet research as well… although even paper goods require a price comparison and consideration sometimes. (Gotta get two-ply!)
It’s like George Bush and Ralph Nadar going to the mall to shop for political solutions. Extreme shopping views.
We didn’t scan any of the pots or pans b/c he got fed up and I felt the need to consult with the Internet and cooks in our families. We were already bickering and Gavin was already checking his watch and using one-word sentences. This is 10 minutes in.
On to bake ware, I suggested. Surely cookie sheets and kitchen gadgets can’t be hard!
over to Gavin instead making it very clear that most guys find it really fun. From the way it was handled, you could the assumption was that the only fun part for the guy was the scanning.The employees introduced us to every sales associate in the pots and pans area so that they could help us, brought us bottles of water (luxe!) and then left us to go scan crazy.
The togetherness achieved during the couples’ retreat shattered in a nanosecond.
Gavin’s style of shopping is typical male. He sees the shelf of items, scans it quickly and just gets whatever looks best. Done in 5 seconds for better or worse.
My style is typical female. I see the shelf of items, then the entire department of that item, and scan it all quickly to see where to start. I then consider all the options, reading tags and boxes as I go to make sure I’m getting THE best for my money. Like the savvy shopper of my generation, I prefer to preface any purchase more important than toilet paper with Internet research as well… although even paper goods require a price comparison and consideration sometimes. (Gotta get two-ply!)
It’s like George Bush and Ralph Nadar going to the mall to shop for political solutions. Extreme shopping views.
We didn’t scan any of the pots or pans b/c he got fed up and I felt the need to consult with the Internet and cooks in our families. We were already bickering and Gavin was already checking his watch and using one-word sentences. This is 10 minutes in.
On to bake ware, I suggested. Surely cookie sheets and kitchen gadgets can’t be hard!
We fought over every. single. selection.
Apparently we don’t even have the same taste in can openers. Or, apparently we just like to argue. We are my grandparents already… at least they made it 50+ years!
We left the store with a handful of things on the registry and Gavin late for THE fantasy football draft. Not ideal for either of us. We did, however, agree on a food processor - the one item we're registered for that neither of us knows how to use yet. Progress…
posted by Laura @ 1:27 AM
0 comments
Thursday, November 16, 2006
The Couples Retreat
So very, very much to catch up on! With the help of our parents, we’ve made enormous progress in the past couple weeks in an attempt to get as much done before the holidays as possible. One week before Thanksgiving and Black Friday, it looks like we can’t totally abandon the wedding for the season, but we can make sure it’s not consuming our weekends.
With lots more updates to come, we’ll start back at the beginning of our blogging lapse – the Catholic Couples’ Retreat.
Known as “pre-cana” to Catholic fogies and their guilt-ridden children alike, this workshop is meant to kick off your marriage experience by opening up parts of your soon-to-be-married relationship you may not have explored yet. According to most married Catholics we talked to, it promised to be an awkward time if nothing else. We were encouraged, however, that Bill and Sara, who were just married at St. James, said it wasn’t bad. Bill wouldn’t hold back crazy stories if he had any to tell.
We attended the retreat at St. Michael’s in Wheaton, managing to find the room with another couple that was wearing the let’s-get-this-over-with look all over their faces.
Once upstairs, we found a cafeteria-style room with about 12 round tables… and about 11 silent couples all sitting at their own tables. We walked to the front to check in with the nun running the workshop (also at her own table). We signed in, paid our $50 fee (the church knows how to make its money…), and turned to make the decision of where to sit as most of the other couples checked us out.
I followed Gavin to the empty table in the back of the room.
More couples continued to show up and a couple about our age that thankfully shared a sense of humor sat with us at our table.
Sister Gesuina, the nun, started the workshop by introducing herself and starting the string of unholy language and jokes she employed all morning. We could tell right away that she wasn’t a typical nun. She passed off her demeanor as being the cause of a strongly Catholic Italian family and working with high school kids. Based on my experience with both, fair enough.
She was more like a stand-up comedienne than a nun, sharing observances like, “As a warning to any of you out there marrying into a Catholic family, you do realize that once you’re married, there’s only one side of the family, correct?” (I may have been the only one who laughed at that one. My Mom cracked up too when I shared the joke later.)
We took all sorts of personality and word association quizzes. We even played a logic game where Gavin got every answer right (before revealing that he’d heard almost all of them before). We compared answers to discover that we were both in denial about which animal our personalities best match, and that we aren’t your typical word-association subjects. Assuming we’d be instructed to discuss the surveys and what they revealed about the compromise in our future marriage, we kept quiet about our “cheating.” The discussions never came.
Rather than a discussion or even a chance to compare answers in a constructive setting, we took a break for doughnuts and Sunny D before moving into the next part of the retreat. Gavin and I piled on the rations and headed back to our table, realizing no one else took as much as we did. Hey, for $50, we wanted breakfast!
The second half of the retreat was the part everyone remembered when they told us the retreat might be awkward. This half is when Sister Gesuina talked about sex.
Have you ever heard a nun talk about sex graphically and metaphorically? We have now.
Sister Gesuina made significantly less jokes, but made an earnest effort to avoid the 5th grade sex-ed atmosphere. (Really though, does it ever get easier to talk about sex in a room of people you don’t know?) Toward the end, she passed around laminated illustrations of the male and female reproductive systems with an explanation of the church’s stance on sex within marriage and birth control on the other side. That was the end of the cross-couple joking at our table ended shortly thereafter since no one wanted to call any attention to themselves during all of this, although Gavin and I had to try really hard not to crack jokes about the laminated anatomy lesson.
Sister Gesuina wrapped up by letting us out an hour early, which she explained makes her popular. She handed out generic certificates of completion to each couple and we were dismissed.
No discussion. No takeaways. No revelations or growth as a couple. No real progress of any sort within those two hours.
We did get doughnuts and Sunny D though.
We left and decided we needed to move ahead in some way that weekend. After hopping in the car, we headed to Bed Bath & Beyond to start our registering experience.
With lots more updates to come, we’ll start back at the beginning of our blogging lapse – the Catholic Couples’ Retreat.
Known as “pre-cana” to Catholic fogies and their guilt-ridden children alike, this workshop is meant to kick off your marriage experience by opening up parts of your soon-to-be-married relationship you may not have explored yet. According to most married Catholics we talked to, it promised to be an awkward time if nothing else. We were encouraged, however, that Bill and Sara, who were just married at St. James, said it wasn’t bad. Bill wouldn’t hold back crazy stories if he had any to tell.
We attended the retreat at St. Michael’s in Wheaton, managing to find the room with another couple that was wearing the let’s-get-this-over-with look all over their faces.
Once upstairs, we found a cafeteria-style room with about 12 round tables… and about 11 silent couples all sitting at their own tables. We walked to the front to check in with the nun running the workshop (also at her own table). We signed in, paid our $50 fee (the church knows how to make its money…), and turned to make the decision of where to sit as most of the other couples checked us out.
I followed Gavin to the empty table in the back of the room.
More couples continued to show up and a couple about our age that thankfully shared a sense of humor sat with us at our table.
Sister Gesuina, the nun, started the workshop by introducing herself and starting the string of unholy language and jokes she employed all morning. We could tell right away that she wasn’t a typical nun. She passed off her demeanor as being the cause of a strongly Catholic Italian family and working with high school kids. Based on my experience with both, fair enough.
She was more like a stand-up comedienne than a nun, sharing observances like, “As a warning to any of you out there marrying into a Catholic family, you do realize that once you’re married, there’s only one side of the family, correct?” (I may have been the only one who laughed at that one. My Mom cracked up too when I shared the joke later.)
We took all sorts of personality and word association quizzes. We even played a logic game where Gavin got every answer right (before revealing that he’d heard almost all of them before). We compared answers to discover that we were both in denial about which animal our personalities best match, and that we aren’t your typical word-association subjects. Assuming we’d be instructed to discuss the surveys and what they revealed about the compromise in our future marriage, we kept quiet about our “cheating.” The discussions never came.
Rather than a discussion or even a chance to compare answers in a constructive setting, we took a break for doughnuts and Sunny D before moving into the next part of the retreat. Gavin and I piled on the rations and headed back to our table, realizing no one else took as much as we did. Hey, for $50, we wanted breakfast!
The second half of the retreat was the part everyone remembered when they told us the retreat might be awkward. This half is when Sister Gesuina talked about sex.
Have you ever heard a nun talk about sex graphically and metaphorically? We have now.
Sister Gesuina made significantly less jokes, but made an earnest effort to avoid the 5th grade sex-ed atmosphere. (Really though, does it ever get easier to talk about sex in a room of people you don’t know?) Toward the end, she passed around laminated illustrations of the male and female reproductive systems with an explanation of the church’s stance on sex within marriage and birth control on the other side. That was the end of the cross-couple joking at our table ended shortly thereafter since no one wanted to call any attention to themselves during all of this, although Gavin and I had to try really hard not to crack jokes about the laminated anatomy lesson.
Sister Gesuina wrapped up by letting us out an hour early, which she explained makes her popular. She handed out generic certificates of completion to each couple and we were dismissed.
No discussion. No takeaways. No revelations or growth as a couple. No real progress of any sort within those two hours.
We did get doughnuts and Sunny D though.
We left and decided we needed to move ahead in some way that weekend. After hopping in the car, we headed to Bed Bath & Beyond to start our registering experience.
posted by Laura @ 9:51 PM
0 comments
