An Unknown Package Arrives...

I came home from work the other day to find this sitting in the middle of my living room. I forgot to take a picture BEFORE we opened the box, so no it wasn't opened when it got there. But you can see how banged up there were!

Actually, there were two of them, the most beat-up, pathetic, pitiful looking boxes that I’ve ever seen. B was standing there looking at them and scratching his head in confusion. When I asked him what it was, he said that he didn’t know but that UPS had just dropped them off (Thanks Brown!) and it was from Bed, Bath and Beyond. Well, 2 plus 2 didn’t make 4 in his head, but the addition quickly added up for a math whiz like me!

WEDDING PRESENT!!!

Or maybe I should say wedding presents since there were two humungous boxes crowded into the open area of our living room. I immediately set to work on getting the tape off, while B took the smarter route and went to grab a pair of scissors. Since I had made NO progress by the time he got back with scissors...he thinks he's smarter! LOL!

We opened the boxes to find our dishes. One of the boxes held two groups of our dishes. Since we only picked out everyday dishes (no china in our house!) they are sold in place settings of 4...so two boxes meant 8 place settings! Score. Even though the boxes were wrapped in bubble wrap, some of them didn't look so good!

Then B asked the all-important question. “Well, who are they from?” Hmmm...good question, B. Surely there’s a piece of paper in here or something, right? Nope. Luckily for us, in the OTHER box there was a packing list that had a small card attached to it. But what else was in the box? Oh, just another box of our dishes, the completer serving set AND 12 of the matching “ice cream bowls.”

I looked at the bowls in confusion. Partly because there was one box of them opened and falling out...and partly because I didn’t remember registering for them! But they matched our set and they were REALLY cute... I pulled the card out of the little envelope to read the sweetest message from my Mom. Yep, she bought all of my dishes. Every single place setting, plus the serving pieces that make up the completer set. And the note read something like “We hope that you two are as happy as we are.” (Forgive me Mom, but I don’t have it here in front of me, so I paraphrased!)

I was so touched! B was so touched. We immediately called to tell her thank you and how excited we were to get such an AWESOME gift...she was glad that they got there all safe and sound and was surprised to hear that they arrived on the same day. Apparently the boxes were supposed to ship separately, but it’s a good thing that they didn’t since we wouldn’t have known who the one box without papers of any kind in it came from!

And when she asked me about the bowls, the mystery was cleared up – we didn’t register for them. But only because I don’t think that the BB&B where we registered had them. But they had them in the store that she went shopping in and they had them online when she placed her order...so she got them for us. She knows her daughter well – and I do love me some ice cream!

So thanks to my Mom and step-dad we got ALL of our dishes. And yes, I told her that she wasn’t supposed to buy them all. But she wanted to, and hey you gotta keep your mama happy, right? She’s real happy knowing that we got our dishes. She might not be so happy to hear that I spoke too soon on the phone when I told her that even though the boxes were all beat up, that everything arrived safe and sound...

There was one casualty to the shipping. We thought it was a lone coffee mug when we unpacked the box that had that tell-tale crinkling sound and we weren’t really concerned about one mug when we don’t even drink coffee and we DO have 11 others. But on closer inspection the box of salad plates was also making that sound...but 1 out of 3 isn’t bad if you ask me. And I’m sure that we can return it to BB&B with no problems for an unbroken one.

This was our first wedding gift to actually receive. It was SO much fun! And how smart was my Mom to have it shipped and not have to worry about toting those heavy things down here and all? Very smart! Although B now thinks that I’m crazy because I want to take one box of dishes to the wedding and put it on the gift table so that people can see them...

Have you received wedding gifts by mail? How fun is it for you? It was like Christmas at our house last night...

Starting Our Registries

Mr. CC and I did something pretty exciting over the course of our looong July 4th weekend…we started our registries. This was exciting for me, even though I still wasn’t sold on the whole idea of registering.

It’s not that I’m against registering. I mean, how else are you going to get exactly what you want/need? Right?

I just wasn’t sure about US registering.

Here’s the deal. Having been married before, I was worried that going through the process of creating a registry and all would seem…well it might be a little…what’s the word? BOLD. Presumptuous. Take your pick. I mean, as a first-time bride, yes you expect to receive gifts. But in my opinion a gift at a second wedding is optional. It’s not expected, but received with much gratitude. Kinda like expecting your parents’ to pay for another wedding – you get one on them…after that it’s up to you.

With this feeling in my gut, I was really ambivalent on the whole idea. Kinda like having wedding/bridal showers for a second wedding…but that’s another topic of discussion.

Anyway, we caved to the pressure and I decided that it was actually smart to make a registry, even if I wasn’t 100% on the idea. Plus, who doesn’t like to walk around a store with a scan gun dreaming big and making what is essentially a Christmas “wish list”? The twelve-year-old inside of us all just LOVES that!

So having the extra day over the weekend (and no kids in sight!) made this the perfect time to get started. We carried out our birthday celebrations first, and in between church and a birthday party for Mr. CC’s grandmother, we managed to squeeze in our registry set-up. And actually, we got more than I had envisioned us getting done. We set up not one, but TWO registries last weekend! Go us.

First, between church service, which was followed by a luncheon for the holiday, and the actual cake and ice cream party (I’m NOT missing cake and ice cream, right?) we snuck off to JC Penney’s and did our registry there in record time. I knew that Penney’s would be mainly sheets and towels and possibly some curtains, so it would be easy to “knock out.” Since we were in a rush, we just scanned one of each item, my reasoning being that it would take me longer to figure out how to add an item than it would for me to log in to our registry online later and change the quantities. Wink, wink.

After the cake and ice cream (told you that I wouldn’t miss it!), we headed off to take care of what I felt would be our largest registry – Bed, Bath and Beyond. The mecca of bridal registries. Sure enough, they were a little more formal than Penney’s was, actually having someone sit down with us and show us all that they could offer and go over their program in detail. It was a little more info than I really wanted, but nice customer service at the same time.

There were two items that sold me on the concept of us doing a registry. You see, having both been married before, we’ve got lots of stuff. Not to mention the fact that we’ve lived on our own for a while now, so when we combined households, there weren’t that many things that were missing. But there were items that could be updated.

Like our silverware. Between the two houses, we ended up with two drawers full of silverware, but no complete set between them. Instead, we have a mismatched hodge-podge of silverware that we’ve both collected over the years. The same could be said for our pots/pans collection. All nice stuff (for the most part) but just not matching, complete or put together in any way. This was the main goal of registering for me. To get a full set of silverware that we LIKE, and possible some nicer pots and pans than what we currently have.

Lucky for me, I found what I was looking for and SO much more…

Here’s a few items that we selected for our house:

source

And just like at JC Penney’s, it was simpler to me to just have Mr. CC scan one item at BB&B and I adjusted the quantities from the comfort of my home later. The lady helping us at BB&B wasn’t particularly happy about this, but she finally gave up and let me do it how I wanted. They were also a little pushy about how many items to register for…we did our best to smile, nod and “take” their suggestions…then went about our business and registered for what we wanted to in the end. Maybe they’re right, I don’t know.

Either way, they were very helpful. And Maid Britney is getting a nice coupon or something sent to her for referring me there for my registry. She had nothing but good things to say about the helpfulness and ease of returns/exchanges from her bridal registry. I still plan on doing two more registries, one at Lowe’s for some “manly” items or household items, and one at Target just because I LOVE Target. I can’t imagining NOT registering at Target, no matter how difficult their return policy might be. But those two stores just had to wait another day…registering is HARD work, and I was pooped at the end of the afternoon.

It was hard, and Mr. CC and I didn’t even disagree one time about what we were registering for. We are lucky in that we have the same tastes most of the time. Yes, there were things that I didn’t really care one way or the other on that Mr. CC wanted on the registry (and vice versa) but neither one of us made a big deal over it. Not even when he scanned the ceramic tabletop fire-pit at Penney’s…I didn’t say anything. And I didn’t delete it either. I’m so good.

So that’s one BIG item off of my to do list (which grows longer day by day it seems). Yes, we still have to finish the other two stores, but those should be smaller and easy to do on a weeknight. Since we’re getting close to the 100-day mark, time is really taking on whole new meanings for me…and I’m SO glad that I started so early on my DIY-projects!

On a funny side note, apparently there’s another bride with my exact name (not middle name, Mama CC) out there getting married somewhere in CA…small world, huh? The good thing is that she got married in 2007...but she still shows up online.

Was your registry process easier than you thought it would, or harder? Did you feel as exhausted once it was over as I did? Or am I just a wimp?