Apr 14, 2011

The Right Gift RegistryBy Marilyn Kennedy Meliawww2.TimesDispatch.com

Who wouldn’t feel like a kid in a candy store? Scanner gun in-hand, free to roam a store’s aisles, capturing data on any and all items that you’d like to receive from your wedding guests.

Establishing gift registries definitely is one of the perks of planning your wedding—and one of the few times you don’t have to whip out your credit card —but you do have to put your childlike excitement on hold long enough to ponder some grown-up considerations, or you could risk ending up with a bread maker you’ve no intention of using, or even alienating some of your guests.

Registries, whereby couples list items they’d like to receive as shower or wedding gifts, are an old custom. But while your mother and grandmother [registries used to be the concern only of the bride] sat down with a consultant who helped them indicate specific choice from prescribed categories like “good china” and “table linens,” you’ll probably select together, from a virtual world of possibilities.

“Because of technology, almost anything can be put on your registry,” noted Nancy Lee, president of MyRegistry.com, a universal registry service.

Choice is grand, unless too much of it confuses. Establishing a registry is a catalyst for some serious planning about where and how long you’ll live in a particular place, said Alene Workman, a Hollywood, Fla.-based interior designer.

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