Did you love registering for wedding and baby gifts?!?!? I sure did. Although both were so much fun, they were also a little difficult to do as well. For the baby registry I had to ask a couple of friends what I really needed. Yesterday, I saw some people on Facebook asking for help with both wedding and baby registries. There's so much stuff out there, it's hard to know what one really needs! Also, I feel like these registries, particularly the wedding one, is where having too much stuff starts.
When James and I registered for wedding gifts, we already had everything we needed (because honestly, people don't NEED much). But just like everyone else, we wanted to upgrade the things we had. Once we registered for upgrades, we really didn't have much on our list and I think we both would have been content leaving it at that, but we were urged (by store clerks, articles online, friends/family) to add a wide variety of things and in all price ranges so that our guests would have a good list to choose from. I mean, yes, it's fun to just scan anything and everything you think you'd like to have.....but if I did it today, I would be more honest with myself and only scan the things I truly needed and thought I would actually use. We have/had close to a dozen things we got for wedding gifts that we have never even opened....and we got married 5.5 years ago. We didn't get married to get gifts. We wouldn't even have cared if we got gifts. I think it's great for couples to register for gifts and I do like having a list to choose from when I attend a wedding or shower, but I don't think it's quite as necessary as some make it seem to have a giant list with hundreds of items on it. Some of my favorite wedding gifts were actually the unexpected and personalized ones :) And to the person who bought our entire dish set (who probably doesn't even remember that and told me he rarely reads my blog)...Yes, I still have it, use it daily, and love it..thank you!!
We also loved coming home from work to packages on our doorstep in the weeks leading up to our wedding. Several people who either could not attend our wedding, or didn't want to mess with bringing their gift, had them sent to our house. Honestly, I almost loved the unexpected doorstep packages more than gift opening the day after our wedding. Note to self: send wedding gifts to couple's house.
While I loved my wedding gifts, baby shower gifts were hands down, so much more fun!!! Who doesn't get excited about tiny little outfits, blankets, and bottles?!?!?!?! Eek!! And, for us, we actually needed the things we registered for and used almost everything we got. I had 2 baby showers and I remember coming home from both of them SO EXCITED to show James what all we got for the baby. He pretended to be excited, but I know he could have cared less ;) I loved putting everything away, in it's place, in the baby room. Gosh, I'm getting butterflies just thinking about those moments again! So fun!! Everyone reading this who is pregnant and everyone who will be pregnant some day...PLEASE invite me to your baby shower so I can re-live these fun times through you :)
Because we didn't find out the gender of our first child, most of our gifts were things we would actually use for both babies, which was great! We didn't get many outfits and I remember looking at the baby closet a few nights before Rylee was born and being really sad that my baby didn't have very many clothes. By the time we left the hospital 3 days after she was born, we had a closet full of pink girl outfits!! I was glad for the way this all worked out. We had gotten nearly everything we needed for baby because people didn't buy outfits for my showers (since we didn't know gender). I've been to some showers where the gender is known, and while the shower décor was MEGA cute, the gifts were mostly outfits. I'm also thankful for the people who had given us outfits to be worn at a later time (6m, 12m, etc), because infant clothes are worn for such a short period of time...at least that was the case with my kids.
Baby blankets were by far our most received gift! I've hated having to get rid of most of them, but I just don't see the point in keeping so many that are no longer used. I have to admit though...I've given my fair share of blankets for gifts too...they are so darn cute!!! Even today I will walk through the baby stuff at Target and consider buying myself the cute pink blankets. I tell myself I could use them in the car or for a lap blanket at home. Don't worry, haven't bought one....yet.
So, if you are getting married or having your first baby....I recommend registering for just the things you truly need/want to make sure you actually get those items and not lots of other things you may never use. But regarding the baby registry, you'll probably love everything whether you wanted it or not :)
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