The Registries

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (they're all far, far away), I mentioned our registry. Thanks to suggestions from you readers and others, we were able to build up a decent registry for the wedding. I was feeling pretty good about it. Then, the girls put together a bridal shower and I was reminded that there need to be things on the registry for that, too! Now I feel as though I don't have enough items on the registry! Of course, now that the registry is mostly composed, it makes it a lot easier to thing about other items to add (suggestions still welcome).

So what did we do?

We set up two registries - a gift registry and a charity registry.

The charity registry is through the I Do Foundation. This site makes it incredible easy to find and select your favorite charities, whether they're national or local! We chose seven charities that were important to us and, poof, our registry was done! Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. Our charities of choice are:

	RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network)
	Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation (CDRF)
	DonorsChoose.org
	National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
	Humane Society of Charlotte
	Childrens Trust Foundation Roanoke Valley Inc
	Petco Foundation (Sadly, the It Gets Better project is not listed and is added to our registry page on its own)

The gift registry is through Alternative Gift Registry. One of the groomsmen used this for his wedding and we really liked what they did with it. The site lets you enter anything you want - text, hyperlinks, etc. - so it's really easy to incorporate items for many different stores, or some that you don't have specifics for. Since a lot of the places we typically shop don't have registry options, this allowed us to incorporate items from those sites in one easy to access place.

Of course, while it's been great for us, it does require a little extra work on the guests' part. They simply can't go to Store A and look us up. I have created online registries at three stores to help keep track of items I found interesting while browsing, so a few folks might get lucky (but there are only a few items on each registry). It's a shame that this site doesn't have an app.

Unfortunately, our biggest problem with our registry is knowing where the stuff will go. We'll be on pins and needles for the next few months wondering whether Douglas' internship will turn into a full time gig. If it does, then we'll be relocating about one to two months before the wedding. Since it's hard to determine what you might need in your own place when you're still living with a roommate, it's been mostly a crap-shoot for us. That's why we've included gift cards on the registry.

So, after adding a few more items for the bridal shower, hopefully the registries will be complete and another thing will be crossed off the list.