5th Floor - Domestic Disputes and Bridal Registry...

So I’m a girl right? Who can, at times, be somewhat materialistic. I like to have nice things. I also like them to look good, I want them to last and to actually do the job for which they were bought and not merely kind of suit the purpose for same. That usually means that they don’t come from Hot Dollar although I have learnt never to underestimate the effectiveness of a great bargain. Its not rocket science though. For the most part items either fulfil your requirements or they don’t. Anyway, given my penchant for nice things, you could be forgiven for thinking that when it comes to bridal registries, I would be in seventh heaven. That I’d be overjoyed by having the chance to pick lots of lovely gifts that I intended on giving other people the privilege of buying for us. You would however be wrong. Quite wrong. Oh my God. I’m glad I’m only getting married once because I am never doing that again.

It looks like so much fun in the movies. You get to wander round the store with (what was in our case a pda) scanner that allows you enter items into your list with the press of a button. Everyone looks so carefree as they wander around feeling like they’re shopping with an unlimited credit card. The reality however is somewhat different. Maybe we were just unprepared but at some point or other throughout the three and a half hours The Boy and I spent completing the process, we had a couple of mini domestics in the middle of Myer relating to the size, the brand, the cost, the appearance or the value of just about everything. Ok, so maybe that was a little over exaggerated but thats what it felt like at times. Why do we have to get bath sheets and bath towels? Why does it matter which potato masher we select? Why do we want a food processor and a blender all in one? Why does it make a difference what type of plain high-ball glass tumblers we have?

Some of the simplest decisions just took the longest time. Although it didn’t help either that in order to try and avoid more disharmony throughout the exercise, we were both bending over backwards at various points in order to be non-committal and open to the opinions of the other party first. That just meant that no one seemed to have the guts enough to make a decision which I have to say went down like a tonne of bricks really. I always wanted for us not to be one of those stereotypical couples. You know, where the woman paces around brandishing her list and attacking the whole experience with the tenacity of a pit bull while the bemused partner trundles along several paces behind and tries to run the gamut between appearing both engaged and interested and keeping his mouth shut about why it matters so much what type of tea cups they choose if neither of them drink tea. And we weren’t that couple which was good but neither were we much better.

We bickered. There was sarcasm and frustration. Then there was more sarcasm and frustration. There was also real deliberation over what we could reasonably put down on the list. The plasma didn’t make it. On the whole though, I guess we didn’t come off too badly. The boy is still speaking to me after I dumped a bucket load of attitude on him. Note to self: do not get yourself into a situation where you have a light breakfast and then nothing to eat for 6 hours, you turn into a right cow. We do have a couple of amendments that need to be made to the list such as quantities and preferences but we did manage to get a good range of items. It does make it hard though when the things you really want to put down are the things you haven’t bought yourself for the very reason that you can’t actually afford them. Basically because most of our friends can’t actually afford them either. The registry does make it easier for them to pitch in with each other to get us something major that we really want but still, its not very exciting when a lot of the cheap things on your list are things like spatulas and measuring cups.

It is nice though that whatever is still left on the bridal registry after the wedding, we actually get a chance to buy at 30% off shortly thereafter. Maybe we should put the plasma on there...