Small ticket registry items

[zoebartlett]

My FI and I registered at Macy's and C&B, and it was fun! My FI, surprisingly, had a great time because he got to scan the items. He felt like he had so much power! We realized as we were scanning things that much of what we were registering for were kind of pricey. How did you/will you balance out your registry to include lower priced items? We know that we could register for cooking utensils, measuring cups, etc., but we feel silly doing that. We could easily buy those things ourselves if we needed them.

 

[Independent Gal]

Hiya Zo,

Well, we DO need baking and cooking utensils, so that helped for us! Most of my stuff is 10-12 years old and was the cheapest I could get to begin with since my money was pretty tight when I was at college. Is there anything you can upgrade? Silicone bakeware? That kind of thing? Fun cookie cutters?

Other than that... do you need towels? Matching towels? Fluffier towels? A nice towel is about $30, which is a helpful pricepoint. We desperately need nice matching towels, so that worked for us too.

Another option would be silverware. If you are registering for silverware, there are lots of patterns around the $50 a setting pricepoint.

Other than that, I dunno! Toughie.

 

[Elmorton]

I would register for these gadgets anyway....we certainly did. I have no idea when we''ll have lobster or crab next, but we definitely have the cracker set! Did you register for every day dishes? We have Fiesta, so we added a bunch of extra mugs, bowls and serving items that were pretty inexpensive and could be bought seperately. When we registered for multiple items, we''d have one expensive and one inexpensive - so, for sheets, we registered for one set of the matching Nautica ones and then one set of plain that were half the price. Same for things like table linens. What about bakeware? Cooling racks, silpat mats, mixing bowls, a pyrex set, a friend of mine registered for cookie cutters - those are usually in the $10-20 range. One of my favorite $20 gifts was a casserole that comes in a little carrier for potlucks.

 

[zoebartlett]

Howdy Indy!

We registered for towels and sheets and other typical registry things. Ooohh, we didn't put any type of kitchen gadgets (grater, microplane, garlic press, etc.) on there yet...those may be good.

 

[zoebartlett]

Hi Elmorton!

We already have everyday dishes that we got not too long ago, and we''re not going to register for china. We have a complete set of mugs, bowls, salad, and dinner plates, so we''re all set there. Cooling racks would be great though, and I love the cookie cutter idea. Okay, I now have some more ideas...thanks gals!

 

[Independent Gal]

Hey, how about a thread on our favourite kitchen gadgets so we all get ideas from each other about small things to register for? I''ll start one over in F, H, and H.

 

[cara]

I felt silly too but I think people will appreciate it. We got almost all of our little items. Often people have an idea in their head about what they want to spend, say $100, and if they buy one bigger item (an $80 pot) then they often would add a related smaller item (cooking spoon and spoon rest) to get to their magic number. And there were less well off guests that clearly felt obligated to get something for us and the $20 coasters were it.

If you are going to have a shower I would totally register for a large number of smaller items.

I''m not saying to register for items that you don''t want or wouldn''t use - but if there are items that you would use and could upgrade now is the time. We''ve made regular runs to goodwill with our old stuff and really enjoyed the upgraded kitchenware this Thanksgiving.

Bakeware (such as cookie sheets, jelly roll pans, bread and muffin tins) is a good category if either you or your FI bakes. And higher-end containers for flour, sugar, etc. But I would say that our favorite category on the lower end would be glassware. We didn''t register for true "crystal" in the $50 per glass range, but nice wine and drink glasses of various types in the $5-15 per glass range depending. New matching towels per the previous poster were very nice too. We didn''t register for them initially and are so glad we did!

 

[zoebartlett]

Thanks Cara! You''ve given me some great ideas.

 

[neatfreak]

We registered for spatulas, dishtowels (can NEVER have too many of those!), place mats, cloth napkins, vases, a sangria pitcher, cookie sheets, muffin tins, paring knives, a nice microplane grater, etc. That stuff was all snatched up pretty quickly too, so I am glad we did some smaller things, people like to do the smaller stuff I think...

 

[Sabine]

I don''t know if you and your FI like to camp, but we registered for all the camping equipment that we had been borrowing from peolple when we go. We have a tent, so we registered for sleeping bags (matching, how cute!) a stove, a lantern, and these were all cheap.

We also registered for some cheap power tools. These were some of FI''s favorite parts of registering because I totally let him pick for once!

 

[Blenheim]

We just registered for things that we liked or that we knew we''d use. Even ones that we could easily buy ourselves we haven''t on our own -- e.g., a nice bottle opener to replace the cheapo one that we regularly use.

Things under $50 that we actually received off of our registry, in case it helps give you ideas:

At C&B:
Everyday wine glasses, $3.95 a piece
Set of coasters, $9.95
Wood chips and dip thing, $24.95
Wood salad bowel, $28.95
Wood salad servers, $6.95
Calphalon TriPly 2.5 qt shallow sauce, $49.95
Calphalon TriPly 4 qt casserole, $47.95
Cast iron round skillet, $23.95
Aluminum magnetic knife holder, $49.95
Spice rack with spices, $39.95
4-part server dish, $12.95

BB&B
Crystal wine glasses, goblets, champagne flutes, $36.99 each
Hand blender, $49.95
Calphalon Contemporary Nonstick 8" and 10" omelette pans, $39.99
Bamboo twill sheet set, $42.99
Bamboo twill pillowcases, $16.99

No one gave us towels. We had a couple of knives under $50 that I really wanted, and we received a total of one knife. (I think there''s some superstition about giving people knives, so maybe that factored in.) People tended not to give utensil-like things unless they were part of a package present, like the salad bowel and salad servers.

I bake a ton and already have everything I need and then some, but a lot of baking things are in that price point.

 

[AceP]

another way to alter things so you have more lower-priced items is to break up sets. e.g., instead of registering for a 10-piece cookware set for $399, register for the individual pots and pans. that way a guest can get you two pans for $100, or whatever the case may be. you can do the same thing for knives.

ETA: a very helpful piece of advice that i got from a friend... she said you should only register for something like a waffle maker if you really really want it. because people will buy you those types of gadgets before they buy placesettings and other nondescript items. so choose carefully, particularly if you're not having a huge wedding.

 

[zoebartlett]

Thanks Sabine, AceP, Neatfreak, and Blenheim! I now have lots more ideas! So far, the items at C & B that we''ve registered for that are inder $50 are: glasses (everyday drinking glasses), flatware, serving set, large white serving bowls, a glass pitcher, knife sharpener, cooling racks, tongs, and magnetic measuring spoons.

At Macy''s, the under $50 stuff includes: towels, pyrex, and corningware.

 

[sumbride]

Date: 11/25/2007 1:25:32 PM
Author: AceP
ETA: a very helpful piece of advice that i got from a friend... she said you should only register for something like a waffle maker if you really really want it. because people will buy you those types of gadgets before they buy placesettings and other nondescript items. so choose carefully, particularly if you''re not having a huge wedding.

SO TRUE!!! I got all the appliances I asked for but only 3 place settings of flatware! I''m currently stalking them on ebay.

The first thing people bought us were glasses. I don''t know why, but we had 2 sets of daily glasses, wine glasses, beer glasses, martini glasses, cordials, and all our crystal before we got a single plate. I think people just want to make sure you don''t go thirsty! So if you need any new glasses, now is the time. We actually put one of the daily sets in the closet because eventually we will break all the ones we have now and then we have some in reserve... you don''t need to do this, but it worked for us.

Definitely pay attention to the price points. I didn''t get very many of my little items. I mentioned this to my coworker and she went out and bought a ton of the gadgets for my shower, but she must have given me $100 worth of veggie peeler type things... it''s not that common. In the end, people will buy what they want to, but when I was pointing out that I had 12 crystal bowls and only 3 forks, my mom said "When they are shopping, they think the bowl looks like a bigger gift, even if it costs the same." It doesn''t necessarily occur to them that we will use the flatware daily and the bowl maybe once a year. Put plenty of items in the $20, $30, $30, $50 range. If they want to buy more than one, they will, but that one should feel like enough of a "gift" to them.

 

[Independent Gal]

OK, Zoe do you have any of these? Because you know you need these. They are from Bed Bath and Beyond. We registered for, like, one of each.

Another idea I remembered that''s on our smaller item registry is a wine saver thingy, that vaccuum seals bottles so they don''t go off before you drink the rest.

 

[zoebartlett]

Whew! I''ve been gone for a while, but we were working on our C & B registry and I think we''re finally done (with that one). We may end up switching over from Macy''s to Linens ''n Things if needed. I think we''ll find that Linens ''n Things will have the same stuff that Macy''s has but I don''t think it will be the same in reverse.

Thanks so much for the suggestions everyone!! We did end up adding a ton of smaller items that we hadn''t considered before.

Oh and Indy, I love those oven mitts!

 

[sunnyd]

i always like to get 2-3 of the small kitchen things, like tenderizing mallets and a meat thermometer, all the things you use everyday. i''d almost rather get a few smaller things than 1 larger thing that you wouldn''t use as often (the giant salad bowl that comes out 2x a year!!

)

it''s good for the younger, less wealthy guests!

good luck!

 

[Elmorton]

YES to the kitchen pals! We have the froggie (the one that you just slip your fingers in, not the whole arm) - and we seriously use it all the time. I think it was $5? $7?

 

[monarch64]

I remember registering with DH in Crate and Barrel...as we were wrapping up, a lady who was just randomly shopping the kitchen section noticed we were registering and said "oh! register for FUN things, people love to buy FUN things!" So we went back for a second round and zapped lots of seasonal items like margarita pitchers and glasses, and things like that. I suggest always including basics, but broken up like someone else mentioned, and then supplementing with fun things that you don''t realllllly need but would like to have that match your style of decor. Even if you don''t receive all of a set, you can either return or buy the rest of it with wedding moolah, ya know?