Presents

Even though you get to pick a fair amount of your own presents when you get married it's still so exciting when they start arriving. My uncle in Germany sent us this Martha Bowl and someone's gone and bought the nicest cake stand (but it hasn't arrived yet so I don't know who). I get all surprised and giggly about the presents. It's nice to get the things that are going to make our home, we dont have a fruit bowl, we don't have a cake stand, we don't have forks and knives and glasses so the wedding gifts are, as Meg has said, a barn raising.

Getting Stuff DONE

This weekend was a wedding weekend to be reckoned with. We registered together once, I registered again by myself, we got not one but two suits and we sorted out our wedding cake. We also cried a couple of times because the caterer will not get back to me, and the printer messed up the save the dates twice.

First off, Macy's. Is. Awesome. We had a fantastic Registry Lady called Brenda who faffed around with us and was there if we wanted her and not if we didn't and when I couldn't find enough Botanical Garden Serveware (Dave doesn't like it so we can't get a whole set, boooo) she went online after we left and found a bunch and emailed me links. Because she's lovely. And there were not boxes piled to the ceiling and the scanners worked really well and there wasn't too much stuff but there is just enough stuff. If you are in the DC area you should go to Macy's in the Tysons Corner Center. Ask for Brenda. She's a treat. The next day I registered alone at Target because we wanted a carafe and shocking as it sounds, we couldn't find one we liked at Macy's. Plus I was there anyway trying on this. It was okay. No complaints. It just wasn't as AWESOME as Macy's.

Apres Macy's while wandering around in Tysons we wandered into the Crewzels. Of course we did. Like moths to a flame. We couldn't help ourselves. We bought not one but two suits (although with the twenty percent off for starting a card which we have already paid off and canceled it wasn't as bad as it could have been). So now Davey's gonna look super stellar. Seersucker for the rehearsal (if you find me a super cool rehearsal dinner dress I'll buy you beer) and a real suit for the wedding (and also for job interviews and maybe work, I am justifying).

We also sorted out the cake this weekend. The Cupcake Lady of farmers market fame (she's out of her mind and has 16 cats and makes crazy delicious, beautiful cupcakes that she sells out of her garage) is making our cake. For very little money. It's going to be chocolate with creamy non-fondant frosting (because seriously, fondant isn't yummery and yummery is important). I am very excited about this cake. Cupcake Lady rocks.

Register, Part One

Registering is something we don't really like to talk about. Unless it's to talk about our very mixed feelings, how we don't want to ASK for presents and how we don't really NEED anything except for the love of our guests. And that's true. I don't really want to ask for things and I really just want people to show up and bring with them their sweet faces and lots of hugs. But we do need things. David and I are both youngish and neither of us have the trappings of adult apartmenthood. I have a soup pot my uncle and aunt gave me and a pink non-stick wok which was a very bad impulse purchase at Marshalls. We do need stuff. We are starting out lives together and by buying us things from our registry our family and friends are literally helping us to build our home.

With this in mind we are registering for things that we can potentiall still have in fifteen years. So a handheld mixer? Not so much. A cool butterdish? Yes. Sure, we could drop the butterdish but it has the potential to live forever. We want to register for things that hopefully our children will grow up with (and believe you effing me, children are a long way off). Meg said it very well. Because, serious, she always does. "The registry is like a barn raising."

Yep.

So we registered once, at Bed Bath and Beyond. Which was a bad bad bad idea. David knew this. I would have too if I had a thought in my head that week (I started a new job and was tired and angry that the wedding wasn't getting planned for f sake). The ladies pretended to be my friends and followed us arround the store and nothing was what we wanted and we couldn't find anything and I started crying when we got into the car. It was awful. Trying to pick out which plates I wanted our children to drop and which roasting pan I wanted to put turkeys in for thanksgivings in fifteen years and which glasses I was going to use to get wasted during grad school, it was all a bit much. And Sandi, who was trying to tell me about how much better non-stick was (just to show that she really didn't agree with me on a single point), following me around trying to show me how to use the stun gunny thing really didn't help. So we're deleting the registry. Because I went insane and put a deep fat fryer on the list (breaks the rule in a big way). And we're starting afresh. Tomorrow at Macy's in the city. Where they have a lot of Portmeirion (because it looked banging in 1984 when my parents bought it, and it looked banging in 1996 when my youngest sister was born and it still looks banging and will look banging when my children start to break my collection piece by piece) and I'll have all day to register. And a latte. Next time I will bring a latte.