China and Crystal and...Turbo Tax ?! Oh, my!

I was REALLY excited to register when we first got engaged. The future Mister and I love to cook, we love kitchen gadgets, and have been known to refer to Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma as “The Toy Stores.” Since we’ve maintained separate households up until recently, we’ve amassed a number of kitchen essentials already (garlic press, espresso maker, waffle iron, you know, the things no kitchen should be without…).

I also got scammed into jointly purchasing silverware and matching dishes for Mr. Fairfax’s place before a) I lived there b) we were engaged. Should I have been suspicious when he insisted that we invest in a nice set of Oneida flatware? That he could no longer take the rag tag assortment of dishes? Perhaps yes. I was blindsided by his proposal to say the least. But I digress.

The real point of this post was to say, it’s easy to be so dazzled by traditional registry items that you neglect to think about what else you might need to run your household. Dishes, silverware, and napkin rings are all very useful and necessary, but don’t forget to “think outside the kitchen.”

So suddenly you’re married, you have in-laws who want to come visit! Where to put them? Thank goodness you registered for that handy Aero Bed!

The Aero Bed is a real life-saver whether it's a college bud looking for some
place to crash or your new in-laws visiting. There are other brands of air bed out there, but I like the Aero Bed best, personally. A Bed Bath & Beyond or Target registry is probably your best bet for this. Picture via www.amazon.com.

You’re finally in your first apartment together! You’ve just hit Ikea, Crate and Barrel and hey, your wedding pictures just arrived from the photographer. Sweet! How are you going to hang all your gorgeous picture frames and pictures ledges you lovingly picked out? Why, with your new cordless power drill…Seriously, power tools are where it’s at. Start out with a cordless drill with multiple bits. It will revolutionize the way you hang pictures and assemble furniture.

Stores like Lowe's and Home Depot now allow you to create gift registries. Visit their home pages and do a search for "gift registry." Picture via www.cordlessdrilling.com.

Ah, wedded bliss! Oh, home ownership! Boo, filing your taxes jointly and itemizing for the first time. Hooray, for Turbo Tax Deluxe! My big sister is a personal finance wiz kid and she swears by Turbo Tax. Go for the deluxe version as it allows you to itemize your taxes among other neat tricks.

Target carries Turbo Tax products and
also has a gift registry function. Picture via www.static.howthingswork.com.

What are some of the items you plan to register for?

I am Fed up with Fine China!

Ok, so I am new to this blog... A big HELLO to all the DC brides out there!

I am getting married in a little less than a year from now- on May 24th, 2009. I thought that a year is quite a long time to plan for a wedding. Well apparently not! I am dizzy with the thought of booking the perfect photographer, booking the band that will get everyone out of their seats and dancing, ordering food that the guests will be talking about for months, buying a wedding dress that doesn't make me look like I drowned in a sea of white ruffles, and on top of all that, dealing with two very involved mothers that live 1,000 miles away from each other.

However, during the past couple of weeks, I have only been obsessing over china...like I have time for that! My fiance and I went to Bloomingdales to begin our registry. The registry consultant asked us to describe our personal styles and at the same time my fiance uttered "modern," I blurted out "classic!" Then, I quickly said we liked angles while my fiance stated that we liked solid white. I think that the consultant was confused. We also stated emphatically that we did NOT want to register for china! Who needs china? We are in our 20's! Casual, everyday dinnerware would do just fine!

Guess what? We left registered for fine china, and lots of it! But....since we had told the consultant about our modern, classic, white, angled style????, she subsequently recommended Fusion White by Bernardaud. The registry consultant had persuaded us into registering for china, telling us that we would have it for the rest of our lives and someday, at some point in our lives, we would want to entertain. We conceded.

However, I have been pondering, no obsessing, over this fine china for the past few weeks. I have been studying pictures of china on our online registry site. If we are going to register for fine china, why should it be plain, white and boring?? I decided I need some color in my life. That is when I secretly deleted our white plates and registered for Laque de Chine Gold by Haviland. The plates and other pieces come in all sorts of fun, funky colors and you can mix and match! It took me a while to decide on colors but I ended up registering for the pistachio and chocolate combination, but I love the azure and mandarin combo as well! I am absolutely giddy. There is one problem- I have not told my fiance I changed this on our registry. Hopefully, he won't mind our dinner parties where I serve a steak on pistachio-colored plates and a salad on chocolate-colored ones! Who cares? I love it!

Registering for Sheets?

If sheets are on your registry then make sure you read this article in the Washington Post on how shops and manufacturers are cheating consumers...hint: Those 800 thread count sheets for $150 might not be as soft as you were hoping for.

Feather Our Nest

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but Mr. Georgetown and I just closed on our first house together on Monday. Our purchase was even featured on a local Brooklyn blog today! We can't be more excited...or over whelmed. The whole home buying process has me really questioning the need for the items we registered for so I started doing a little research on registry alternatives.

For those of you who haven't made the biggest purchase of your life yet, here is a neat alternative to more traditional department store registries. It's called Feather Our Nest. The idea is that your guests give you money for a downpayment for your first home together, instead of towels, sheets or the china you'll never use. When your guests contribute, they even get a gift card so they'll have something to "physically" give to you on your wedding day. It costs $300 per couple to start your registry, but it's fully refundable when you close on your new home!