A few months ago I made a demo registry on a site called http://www.myregistry.com because it sounded like the coolest idea!
The service basically allows you to create a website registry for items taken from any website out there. No more “pick this store, pick that store” but rather just “pick this Tiffany vase, pick that Patagonia sleeping bag” which you have to admit is really neat! A brief disclaimer: it’s less neat than I thought initially – what myregistry.com does is basically just create a website with a whole lot of links to various other stores. If someone buys you something from myregistry.com, they have to actually purchase the item from whatever store the link is to, pay shipping and handling as normal, and clearly – the return policies are not a generous since you don’t have a registry with any of these stores. But you shouldn’t WANT to return any of it, because you culled it on your myregistry.com registry, right? Whew!
I digress…
One thing I’d been wanting for quite some time made it onto my myregistry.com demo: the “Reef Teaset” from Anthropologie. Clearly, I would never register at Anthropologie, but this was the beauty of myregistry.com! Here’s the teaset:
Well it went on sale yesterday, and I bought it for myself. Hence, I’m taking it OFF the myregistry.com registry.
I sense that this is a common experience for people with registries: I remember when my friend who just got married this past summer found out that all her registry towels had gone on sale and she considered buying them herself months before the wedding.
While the idea of a bridal registry is unfathomably amazing, it’s also weird how it can stop you from buying the things you actually need/want. Thoughts like, “Oh, I really need a new cheese grater, but I think I can just risk tetanus from the old, rusty one and make it through til the wedding!” are uttterly INSANE and point out the oddity that is a gift registry in the first place.
I decided not to let the “Reef Teaset” pass me by, so I bought it with my own money.
The way I’ll be buying all my housewares after August 2008!
I see what you mean about buying things off your registry. Me and my husband opened a wedding registry with myregistry.com and I found myself wanting to buy things ahead of time because being on sale made them extremely cheap. But all in all, it worked out well for my wedding guests.
Now I keep it around and add things to it from time to time whenever I see something I want to buy- but just not ready to buy it yet… 🙂