Do you remember when you went to the brick and mortar store to find your place settings that you always wanted, scan them, and then move onto the next coveted item. You could do this at 2, maybe 3 stores max, but if you chose items from too many stores, you would overwhelm your family and friends.

I still get a certain pleasure out of entering stores and going through their inventory, feeling the texture, and looking at the shine, but you no longer need to feel limited to specific store fronts or even household items for your wedding registry.

There are many creative registries that fit the needs of today’s bride…honeymoon registries for travel lovers, and online wedding registries that allow you to add any item from any online store. For example, take myregistry.com or WishpotWedding, both of which provide you with a toolbar widget that you push when you come across an item online that you want to add to your registry.

Wishpot takes it a step further with a search function that enables you to search for a specific item across their product database. This is great if you are not sure exactly what you want.

But, for all of you who are not interested in furnishing your home, or outdoor gardening, there is the Honeymoon registry. Personally, I’m a huge fan of Honeymoon Registries. It is your special time…why not indulge a little after all the stress from the wedding! Some Honeymoon registries include Traveler’s Joy and HoneyMoon Wishes.

Whatever your final decision on wedding registries, just know that there are many options out there. And, it means you get to go SHOPPING!

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I want to first start of by saying this feels a bit selfish registering for gifts. I would say I have lived a simple life and never expected things to come my way. So it feels odd to be asking for gifts, just because we are getting married? What an interesting tradition. Looking at the greater picture of things I see that many people have expressed interest in being apart of our next chapter in life, and are equally as excited about it as my fiancé and I.  Friends and family keep asking us “what do you guys want or need?” So I suppose a registry will help get things started off right in married life. Looks like it will start with proper household items and a beautiful honeymoon vacation!

This past weekend we decided to face the registries and find what we needed. We debated Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Target but decided to pick Target and Bed Bath and Beyond for their affordability. We also came to the conclusion that we wanted a honeymoon registry most of all.

We tackled the shopping part first. Our adventures started with a Club Wedd Registry at Target, which was not as easy or fast as I had imagined. After we arrived at Target and began the process we realized this was not just fun but also a serious task. It hit me, this was going to be for our first house together and we are registering for things that will be ours. More importantly I wanted everything to sort of go together as a whole, to have a certain warm welcoming vibe. I wanted to pick things that felt like us as a couple.

My fiancé helped me graciously pick colors, styles, and brands but after awhile started to lose interest and patience. At this point we had only made it down four isles and a whole hour had already passed. Yikes! Note to self warn your husband–to- be that this may take awhile and some serious patience. We energized with some coffee, thank you Starbucks for being inside of our local Target. We went on, I sent him off to find the perfect electronics for the house as well as some outdoor backyard stuff. Which is more his style of shopping than mine. After over three hours of the slowest well thought out shopping we have ever done together I am happy to report we picked all the things we needed from Target. Mainly natural colors for all the household items, stainless steel appliances and one kick ass outdoor patio set and fire pit. Yes, can you tell I am practically drooling over the patio set we found? I can’t wait to sit and have brunch out side with the dogs, or have family over on a warm summer night for an outdoor dinner to be followed by wine next to the fire pit. Okay I’ll stop dreaming for now.

Our second registry is at Bed Bath and Beyond where I the bride to be graciously went with out husband in hand to pick out our bed linens, flatware, and all the things that Target had but was not to our liking. I have to say I was surprised at how helpful the Bridal Registry Consultant was. She made my task to register the remaining items so much easier. I wish I had just started here and then went to Target for the rest, oh well. She happily greeted me with something to drink, a bride guide pamphlet to the store, a checklist and then walked with me to make recommendations and point me in the right direction. Thankfully my task was done in one short hour.

Lastly, our third registry, the one we are the most excited about. Which is our honeymoon registry. Without the help of our friends, family and fans, we would not be able to take one. After much research and through recommendation we decided to use http://www.honeyfund.com, which is a free honeymoon registry site designed for guests to contribute to different things related to your honeymoon i.e. airfare, dinners, hotel, champagne, day trips and more. We thought this was a fantastic idea and would be great for guests who would prefer to help give us an adventure of a lifetime rather than material items.

That ends the adventure of registries, one husband-to-be down, two coffees later, and one pair of very sore brides feet. I look forward to setting up our house and taking our vacation but most of all I cant wait till my Plus Size Bride Wedding happens in 243 days.

I want to thank you all in advance, and let you know we appreciate the gifts that help us on our journey together as husband and wife. If you are a hardcore “Plus Size Bride” fan you can view our registries here:

Target Registry: http://www.target.com/registry/wedding/3GZXEHH5DXA2O

Bed Bath and Beyond Registry: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/regGiftRegistry.asp?order_num=-1&wrn=%2D1488720286

Honeymoon Registry: http://www.honeyfund.com/wedding/meganandsam

And what about registry completion? I was surprised and pleased to find out about this helpful feature of many bridal registries. It means that after your wedding, whatever is not gifted to you, you and your new spouse can then buy for a certain percentage off. Say you registered for eight butter dishes and only received three as gifts. Then you can go buy the remaining (and essential) five butter dishes for 10% off (depending on the store’s deal.) Even better: if you want some really expensive kitchen contraption that you think nobody’s going to buy you (in my case, a $400 sparkling water maker,) put it on your registry anyway. Best case scenario, some fairy godmother/father comes through and gifts it to you. Worst case scenario, you buy it for yourself after the wedding using the store’s registry completion discount deal.

Here are some popular registries and the incentives they offer:

Bed Bath and Beyond: Lots of different incentives based on brands, like if you register for $500 worth of Calphalon stuff, you get a free Santoku knife ($300 value.) Upon registry completion, there are more (and fancier!) gifts offered by brand, like if you get $299 of Samsonite or American Tourister goods, you get a free Boarding Bag upon completion.

Macy’s: Although it appears that Macy’s has removed the links for registry discounts from their site, I would advise brides and grooms to ask in-store. Last I checked they had a pretty decent discount (10-15%) for registry completion.

Crate and Barrel: Calphalon and All-Clad offer free gifts with a certain dollar amount of registry.

And one last quick tip: Check out alternative registries like

Honeyfund.com

Uncommon Goods

JustGive.org

Happy registry!