Thursday, March 3, 2011

Help! Calling All Alternative-Lifestyle'rs

So if you have been keeping up with me you know that Jordan and I are getting married this Summer, (if your a new reader it's 7/3/2011 to be exact), and I've run into my first "living an alternative lifestyle" situation:
The Wedding Registry

Let me break it down for you.  Jordan is usually away for 6-8 months playing hockey where ever  and I  stay back in MA to continue working.  We usually rent a "month to month" apartment for the Spring and Summer during the off season when he is home and we are never 'settled' into one place for more then 7 months.  We do not own our own home yet and I will be traveling with him next season to Europe.  Basically we will be living the nomad lifestyle for a few years because Jordan doesn't plan to retire anytime 'soon'.

Can't you just see us now?

 
So back to the dilemma, what the HECK do we put on our wedding registry? All of my bridesmaids met up last night to discuss wedding shower details and they have been begging me to tell them where I am planning to register.  Here's what I've got so far:
  • Macy's
  • Target
  • Best Buy
I think for the lifestyle we are about to embark on money and gift cards will be best, but I feel like "grandma" won't be comfortable giving her grand baby a Target gift card for her wedding.  With that said, I think it would be a good idea to put SOME physical items on our registry.

After reading a post from fellow Hockey Wife AJ , I started to think we should register for things that will be really helpful to us while we are living in another country.  Here are a few things I have thought of:

  • Sling Box- Allows you to watch and control your T.V. from home and stream through your computer (which you can then connect to your t.v. in Europe).  Jordan and I watch A LOT of tv/movies so this will be HUGE for us!
  • GPS (with European maps)
  • Luggage- 'Nuff said
  • Durable Digital camera (that's waterproof)-I have about five digital camera's sitting around my house right now, all with broken screens.  I have NO LUCK when it comes to camera's because I find myself dropping them on the ground or mysteriously getting them wet.  We are going to Cancun for our Honeymoon and I would LOVE to take pictures underwater and not have to worry about my camera getting wet by the pool.  This type of camera will probably be good too when Jordan and I are slingin beers around the bars in Europe haha.
  • The Kindle- Not really sure if I can get away with registering for this because it will mostly be for me because I like to read more than Jordan does...but like they say "happy wife, happy life"...right lol?
  • iPad2- (I guess if we get this I don't NEED the Kindle) The new iPad2 has a camera built in so I'm assuming it will be just as easy to use Skype on it as it would on a laptop. Plus its lightweight and easy to travel with!

I know each of these items are expensive but I figured that people may want to go in on a gift together...or even better, just give us gift cards toward those purchases (not talking to you Grandma ;o) Beyond those type of items I've also decided to register for things on our honey moon like a couples massage, bottles of wine for our room, romantic dinner for two etc etc...you get the picture.  I'll probably end up registering for some "typical" registry gifts too but I would LOVE to hear peoples opinions/suggestions! Especially those of you married bloggers out there that have been through this registry ordeal ;o)

7 comments:

  1. You will be so glad you won't have to find storage for all of this unnecessary registery stuff while you move. Great idea registering for the gadgets and luggage. Always useful. And it might be tacky, but you could also do a Honeymoon registry where people can help pay for special things during that.
    We had the same problem, especially since our reception was a year later than the wedding. (We, um, eloped, haha). We told people not to bring anything, we didn't need anything. We got cash. Win win in my book, lol. Good luck with all the planning!

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  2. We had the same problem when registering for our wedding! We didn't know where we'd be yet, but we knew we'd be somewhere, so we knew we didn't need a ton of all that kind of "home-y" stuff..... yet. At the same time, we knew that if we didn't register for anything, we'd probably get a bunch of random gifts that we didn't really want. Sooo, we decided to register for things that we did really need (new sets of towels, some plates & glasses that actually MATCH!), some random fun things that we probably don't need but will be fun to use in the summers, and figured if we get it, great! and if not, we wouldn't be sad (cocktail glasses, quesadilla maker, etc), and decided to do China also, because we knew that was something that we'd probably never actually buy ourselves, but will be nice to have when we have a home. Then, we did the honeymoon registry, and a lot of people bought us stuff off of that... it worked out really well.

    But I have to say, I really LOVE your idea of registering for things like the slingbox, gps, luggage, etc. I wish I would have thought of that (if we knew where we were going at the time)!!! Def. do those things! :) :)

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  3. I think these are great gifts. Hmmm, If you're an olive lover, this would be pretty neat too! http://nudo-italia.com/ Adopt an olive tree!

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  4. Congratulations on your engagement and being featured!

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  5. if you don't need household typical registry items, why not look into doing something like honeyfund.com? i know there are several different sites out there but my friend did something similar since her and her fiance had lived together for so long and didn't need much!

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  6. Thanks for the words of wisdom everyone! Sounds like I am on the right track. I will definitley look into the alternative gift items you suggested and probably register for some traditional too!

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  7. Thanks for the mention Hillary! I think your idea of registering for those travel items is genius!! My hubby and I also knew everything would end up in a box until his hockey career was over so we made sure to only register for big ticket items that we wouldn't necessarily splurge on ourselves in the future.. ie: everything kitchen aid, a good pot/pan set, as well as matching dinner ware. always nice to know we'll have decent stuff to come home to once this crazy life is over.. but all the small things you can collect along the way :) I like the idea of doing a honeymoon registry too, Fun! For my bridal shower the ladies all did 'date night' theme gifts. We got some pretty cool things like, horseback riding passes, concert tickets, spa gift certs.. ect. it really made us feel like the whole off season was part of the honeymoon. Happy planning girly!

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