Registry Options

Scene - Enaged couple browsing in The Bay for items to include in their registry. Mid-afternoon.
Me: Hey J, why don't we get some of these cute little plates?
J: What for?
Me: We could use them for dessert plates.
J: When are we ever going to serve cake on special little plates? And they're probably not dishwasher safe.
Me: Thanks for ruining my dream about the kind of people we might be in the future.

Having attended our share of weddings, J and I knew the usual suspects to consider when it was time to start our registry. We were hoping to find a more diverse selection of items since we've lived toether for over 2 years and have no shortage of household goods. We first considered Canadian Tire, a nationwide hardware store that offers many of the housewares found at The Bay, plus gardening, BBQ and camping items that suit our interests. Sadly their registry program was discontinued several years ago. Pottery Barn has a collection of outdoor furniture and pottery (surprising, I know) but there are limited stores in Canada and it just wasn't worth the hassel of international shipping for our guests.

We began with The Bay and put aside the specialty items for now. This store knows how to do registries with an excellent website, suggestion guides and staff ready to assist you during an in-store appointment. J and I preferred to shop at our own pace so we visited armed with a notepad and added our selections online once we got home. I highly recommend doing this. It was easy to search for products by category or brand, and the website includes pictures and detailed information on each item. Unfortunately, quite a few items aren't available to add online so J and I will have to make an appointment to finish our list. And I'm not pleased that some items on our registry are suddenly labeled "discountinued" with no warning or additional information provided.

Bed, Bath and Beyond carries an extensive line of housewares along with furniture, window treatments, electronics, storage and seasonal items. Their collection of online items to add is much larger and more user-friendly than The Bay. And if an item is currently out of stock, they will email you when it becomes available to add to your reigistry.

Sears also has an extensive website and allows couples to add items to the registry online. They have a wide range of more unusual items, such as BBQs, lawn and garden tools and even large appliances. While it's easy to add items to the registry, I still can't figure out how to edit or remove items from this registry so choose carefully! And you'll need to enter the long registry number each time you log in, unlike The Bay where you search by name or date to log into your registry. We don't plan to use Sears given the difficulties managing the registry online and Bed, Bath and Beyond has a comparable selection of specialty items.