Registry - The Quandry

This has been one of the most difficult parts of wedding planning and it has not really even started yet.  We have a huge guest list that is very diverse, and when I say diverse, I mean they are all different ages and from all over the country and there's a good number of them that, as far as J thinks, would never use the internet to look or purchase from a registry.

I feel like we should register for what we want and where we want, and not worry too much about whether or not it's at a store that our whole guest list can drive to and shop in.  When we went to J's cousin's wedding this summer at Target, almost all of the stuff left on their registry was not available in the store.  I just went to buy gifts for a co-worker's bridal shower and ran in to the same thing at Macy's.  I feel like this is an unavoidable situation no matter where we register, so I don't think we should limit ourselves to only stores that have physical locations in our hometowns.

This is all a moot point (or a moo point, if you're a fan of Friends) because we do not even know where we want to start with our registry.  We found some great stuff at Macy's and I think that will probably be where we start, but there's not going to be nearly enough that we can register for there to cover our entire guest list.

Our other concern is that the stuff we register for is going to get discontinued... especially things like dishes.  We are nearing 6 months away from the wedding and only about 3 months away from my first bridal shower, so I feel like we need to get started on our registry.  I hate not knowing what to do about dishes.  J and I have old dishes, but we decided that we'd upgrade and give our stuff to people who are just starting off on their own so the dishes will probably be the thing that we really focus on, especially it's something that can be broken up and someone could contribute to our dishes, no matter their budget.

So, the moral of the story is that I'm itching to get our registry at least started.  We have made a list of the stuff that we'll register for in the genearl sense, but I'm so ready to make some decisions on what our new life together is going to look like!  Hopefully I can talk J into starting in January when we're back to work, but before school starts again.  He's about to get really busy too, as we approach overlapping sports seasons, so I want to get this done before then.

I have a feeling there will be MUCH more to come on this topic...