Our wedding is still 10 months away but we have already had friends and family members asking us where we are registered so we thought it was about time we checked the registry off of our to-do list. We decided to register at The Bay and Sears.  The Bay was our first choice because they had the most comprehensive list of housewares and their online registry system is the most up to date and user friendly. It shows the description, a picture, and even whether or not the item is on sale. It was also very easy to add to online from home.

We started our Bay registry in store. It was nice to be able to see the products first hand. Unfortunately, we did not have nearly enough time to complete our registry. After an hour and a half of walking around scanning we probably accomplished about half of what we needed to. This was partly due to the associate taking over a half hour to get us to sign a piece of paper and explain the completion card while going off on random tangents completely unrelated to our registry process when we had a finite number of hours that day. It was also partly because of The Bay’s store layout. It was very difficult to find prices on anything (which is probably what they’re going for being big in the registry business in Canada) but when you’re looking at eight different toasters that all look almost the same and range in price from $30 to 250$, price does become a factor. We also wanted to make sure to choose a variety of price points so all our guests could find something they’re comfortable with. If everything is either $20 or $500 it either could make a guest feel like they can’t find anything to give or they feel they have to buy a multitude of inexpensive items just to end up with an appropriate gift.

It was still fun to walk around the store with the scanner and pick out things we would like to have for our future home together as a couple. We did it together so that it reflects both of our personal styles and picked out a few things that each of us wanted. I hope to go back in the future and add a few more home decor items in person and will make sure to give ourselves plenty of time.

For our second registry we decided to use Sears because they too had an online registry system which I always find most convenient as a guest. We decided to compile this one strictly online. The Sears online system is much less user friendly. When we tried to add items directly from the Sears website by logging in it led to an endless loop of asking us for our login and password and system errors. Each item from the Sears website had to be manually added to the online registry using the item numbers. Needless to say it wasn’t as quick and painless as The Bay’s online registry. The Sears registry also doesn’t show pictures or sale prices and the descriptions are more difficult to interpret. Luckily the Sears registry is more for filling in holes from our Bay registry with things that are either unavailable at The Bay such as power tools or items that are available at The Bay but are lower in price at Sears.

- Britta