Most married men will tell you that one of the best parts of the wedding planning process is the wedding registry, at least most married men I know. The number one reason that the wedding registry is supposed to be awesome is because they give you a gun. I’m sure that most of you have seen or used one of things before – it’s a plastic hand-held laser. How can it be anything but awesome?
In addition to the laser tag device, they let you walk around the entire store and pick anything you want. The theory is that since other people are getting you these gifts (hopefully you’ve invited 150,000 of your closest friends) you should just put down everything in your wildest dreams. You’ll get a ton of great stuff, and a lot of store credit when you return the gravy boat Aunt Mildred bought you even though you didn’t register for it (or in our case the set of 12 steak knives.)
I’m a “let’s think about it” kind of guy. I like to mull over any hard decision for a few days before discussing it, taking a poll or two, and then hiring a research company to get a little more info. No need to rush a new haircut. So for me the registry has been a bit of dilemma. I forced Brigid to sit down with me and make a list of all the things we might need (and a few we want), and I’ve held on tight to the gun to keep her from scanning anything while I’m not looking. I know this is supposed to be sky’s-the-limit kind of fun, but I keep coming back to where we’re going to put all this stuff or why we should spend $80 for a pair of crystal glasses. Even though it’s not my money, I just don’t see the sense in it – the cups they give you every year at the Cherokee Triangle Art Show are perfect for beer or whiskey or anything else worth drinking.
So what I want to know is what ridiculous thing should we register for? The beauty of modern technology (besides the scanner gun – I can’t imagine how miserable wedding planning must have been for our grandfathers) is that on Amazon.com* you can literally get just about anything in the whole world. We already put a tandem-bike on there, but I view that as practical. What is something totally frivolous and fun that we should register for? What would you register for? Maybe a laser-tag set?
*even if you’re not getting married you should check out their Wishlist feature – it’s a registry for yourself; perfect for birthdays and other gift giving occasions. Amazon.com is not paying me to say this…if they would like to, let me know.
